Seashells and Masks

Seashells and masks. It takes a quirky artist to use one to express the other, and Tito Estrada is one quirky artist with an adventurous mind. For his sixth solo exhibit dubbed, Masskara, he is using seashells to interpret the masks of his life  on canvass.

Seashells and masks aren’t much different  we can hide behind both. Shells and masks shield what is vulnerable, whether a quivering oyster or a shy soul.

In coming out with masks made of shells, Estrada is juxtaposing two elements that are both superficial yet expressive.

Tito Estrada is ready to cut the ribbon for his sixth solo exhibit, to be held from Sept. 20 to Oct. 1, 2010 at the Philippine Center on 556 Fifth Avenue, New York. Special guests are expected to arrive to witness a different assortment of Estrada’s works using shells as materials. This time, the theme of the exhibit takes off from the Masskara Festival: a yearly festival in Bacolod City, where people parade different, colorful masks, showing Filipino tradition and reminding people of their history.

For his show, Estrada aims to promote one of the most celebrated festivals in the Philippines, not only for the beauty of the festival, but also for what it represents. Estrada wants to remind people that like the Negrenses, anyone can get through adversity. How timely in the light of the recent Quirino Grandstand bus siege. Other than that, Estrada believes that many people can relate to symbolisms of a mask  sadness, happiness, oppression, seclusion.

The Masskara Festival started in the ‘80s, an era when Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental, was in great turmoil: the economy had hit rock bottom and a luxury liner from a Negros-based fleet had sunk, killing all 700 on board. Ironically, due to the negative atmosphere, the Negrenses decided to hold a festival that paraded masks with smiling faces. According to the Negrenses, this was to show the world that amidst adversity, they can still have a happy outlook in life.

“This is my way of promoting one of the Philippines’ most renowned festivals. I think that it’s not only Filipinos who can relate to what the festival represents,” Estrada said.

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He started out as a foreign currency analyst at the Philippine National Bank. Today, the fluctuations that matter most to artist Tito Estrada are the waves of the deep sea, whose essence he captures on canvass.

Tito burst into the art scene the way colors make a splash on his canvass. Bright oranges, lime greens, watermelon pink and aquamarine form vivid images on his canvass. This Pangasinan-born artist, who was once also an antiques dealer, is drawn to an unfathomable subject  the sea  whose depths he tries to plumb with brush and paint.

“When I want to get excited, I go to the sea,” says Tito, two of whose murals adorn the lobby of the Sofitel Philippine Plaza.

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Though the sea is his muse, Tito confesses that he cannot swim! And it was in the mountains that Tito made a life-altering decision  to take up the brush.

After 16 years in a bank and 20 years in the antiques and interior design business, Tito decided one day that it was time to move on. He had some exposure to art because of his business interests, and he was a voracious reader of art books. But he had no formal training in art having taken up Business Management in college.

After his mountain hiatus, he went straight for National Bookstore and bought all his art needs  paintbrushes, acrylic, thinner. For the next three months he was hardly ever without a paintbrush.

It was the boldest stroke of his life.

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Now that his works are becoming collectors’ items, Tito is exploring more themes for his art, the latest being masks.

If painting is his life’s work, what is Tito’s hobby?

“Painting is my hobby,” laughs Tito. “I don’t work!”

Said straight from his unmasked heart.

(Galleria Estrada may be reached at tel. no. 924-2558)

Cory still on our minds

Eighteen years after her presidency and a year after her death, the country has not forgotten former President Cory Aquino. So popular is she still that Directories Philippines Corp. (DPC) released the 2010-2011 Metro Manila Telephone Directory with Cory Aquino on the cover.

The featured artwork, entitled Ika-25 ng Pebrero 1986, was the winning masterpiece in the recently concluded PLDT-DPC Telephone Directory Cover 24th Visual Arts National Competition. Inspired by the theme “Cory Aquino: Her Legacy to the Filipinos,” 27-year-old Julian Paguiligan of Bulacan State University portrayed the late President helping a bird break free from its cage. Paguiligan took home the grand cash prize and a trophy designed by National Artist Dean Napoleon Abueva.

“The art competition was joined in by students who barely knew Mrs. Aquino. Some were not even alive during her administration, and yet it seemed like they have a clear and unified idea of how to portray the former president. It’s really inspiring to see young people today get into Coryism,” said Ricardo Bautista, president of DPC.

 From changing the way people see the color yellow, to the way the youth define a moral leader, Cory Aquino really made her mark in Philippine history. The Cory magic is still alive; not only amongst the adults who actively witnessed her presidency, but in the young generation as well.

Her legacy still rings loud and clear

“I don’t have any formula for ousting a dictator or building democracy,” Cory once said. “All I can suggest is to forget about yourself and just think of your people. It’s always the people who make things happen.”

(To get your free copy of the 2010-2011 Metro Manila DPC Yellow Pages, visit the PLDT branch nearest you.)