The life and times of 12 women artists - From The Stands

Readers will recall that last Tuesday, I printed a letter from Meralco corporate communication director Elpi Cuna saying that the post along Governor Drive between Carmona and GMA in Cavite which caused motor vehicle accidents was not a Meralco post but a PLDT pole. At about 2:15 p.m., Manny Pangilinan, PLDT president and CEO, called to say he had read my column and that that pole would be removed "in a day or two." Well, an hour after his call, my three nephews and I drove along Governor Drive on our way to Manila, and we were pleasantly shocked not to find that offensive pole anymore. Mr. Pangilinan had not known about that pole, which was standing where it should not have been for nearly two years. Thank you for your very quick action on the matter, Mr. Pangilinan.

An art collector must have in his/her collection a copy of the book, Self-Portraits, Twelve Filipina Artists Speak, which was launched last week. Authors Thelma B. Kintanar and Sylvia Mendez Ventura, both professor emerituses of English and Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines, present in lucid, warm essays and interviews, complete and intimate pictures of the lives and views of 12 of the most powerful women artists of the country.

The artists are Paz Abad Santos, who is known for her fiber tapestries, Agnes Arellano, her shocking, esoteric "inscapes," and Norma Belleza, her delighful, naïve interpretations of Philippine life as lived by the common people.

Imelda Cajipe Endaya's works include women and indigenous art forms. One associates Araceli Limcaco Dans with her exquisite interpretations of calados and embroideries, Brenda Fajardo is known for her tarrot cards, Anna Fer for her exploration of the female psyche, and Julie Lluch for her endlessly intriguing sculptures.

Imelda Pilapil has worked with serigprahy and paper, steel, glass and stone sculptures. Sandra Torrijos, feminist artist, has worked with oil pastels and wood, and dots as "myriad points of light from which a sense of energy and power emanates.

Arlene Villaver integrates her Christian faith into her lovely paintings, and Phyllis Zaballero's gigantic landscapes juxtapose natural and abstract forms to jolt the viewer's senses.

All the artists are multi-awarded, have starred in solo and group exhibitions here and abroad. They are artists for all time.

The interviews present them as colorful, articulate, intelligent, sensitive women with a great passion for perfection in their art. Julie Lluch, questioned about whether she had difficulty as a woman artist getting along in her career, says:

"One day in the future, I pray we would no longer have to specify gender. At the moment we have to suffer the embarrassment of being women artists. Can you hear the men artists chuckling? But yes, in the beginning, when the demands of home and family were quite pressing and did not allow me the time and leisure, I was taking care of three growing children and teaching at the same time. To a certain extent, my husband's art career helped push mine. Surprisingly, I didn't suffer too much for early recognition of my work. What was hard was finding the time and space and money which still had to do with being a woman. I had less time because I was in charge of the home and the family and I had to work, too. I didn't have a studio like my husband did and, worst of all, I have little money. On the other hand, being a woman artist was an advantage, too. There weren't too many women artists, much less women sculptors. Or was I plain lucky? The curators or managers and owners of galleries where I exhibited were women friends of mine -- at the art galleries Sining Kamalig, Galerie Bleue. Other things helped: my medium was new and exciting; then I mounted a controversial show of phallic cacti and yonic hearts in terra-cotta. I think it was the cacti which made my reputation."

Great thanks to the authors, Kintanar and Ventura, for giving us this collection of self-portraits of artists and made them real and exciting to us readers.

The book (published by Ateneo de Manila University Press) had been conceived as part of a woman's collective called KASIBULAN (Kababaihan sa Sining at Bagong Sibol na Kamalayan or Women in Art and the New Age of Consciousness) which aims "to give visibility to women's art and to break the silence where women artists (are) concerned."