Spending an Afternoon with an Artist

An artist gives of herself in every canvas she paints. She shares a bit of herself–her vision, her feelings, her thoughts–with every stroke of brush or pencil. Even in a simple pencil sketch of a house across the street or a picture of slippers on a wooden floor, we get a glimpse of the artist’s self. We get to see through the artist’s eye, which is a privilege, really, because artists see the world differently; they see more than we do, and with a clarity that is truly a gift. Ordinary scenes and ordinary people become special in the artist’s world.

It is an even greater privilege therefore when an artist allows you into her world and personally shares her art with you, especially over merienda of chicharon, cheese rolls and chocolate cookies.

Anita Magsaysay Ho welcomes us into her studio, a bright room in her eighth floor apartment from where you can not only see but actually hear the sea. There is an almost finished painting on an easel in the center of the room, an acrylic of two women. It is a commissioned work, but the owner of Crucible Gallery wants to know if it can be displayed during the opening of her show the following week.

Even before the show opens, all 16 pieces in Anita Magsaysay Ho’s current show have been sold. She asks if that means the show can have a shorter run, but she is eventually convinced that more than the selling of the artworks is the opportunity for the general public to view the works (the exhibit is ongoing until May 16 at the Crucible Gallery at SM Megamall).

On another easel is a smaller painting on wood of two women fishing. The detail of the fishing nets is meticulous, the women dynamic and alive. It is also a commissioned work.

"I like my women working," Magsaysay Ho says, "rather than idle and not doing anything." Which could very easily be a statement about her own life, as she is hardly ever idle.

Anita Magsaysay Ho is said to have redefined the image of Filipino women in her works. They bear her unique imprint of "slanted eyes, bandana-ed heads, huddled over baskets, fishing nets or surrounded by lush plant life, seemingly busy with making a living..."

In a 1988 retrospective of her works at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, she wrote: "I dedicate this exhibition to the women of the Philippines–the source of my inspiration–their movements and gestures; their expressions of happiness and frustration; their diligence and shortcomings; their joy of living. I know well, for after all, I am one of them."

She relates that long ago her father told her to "search for the beauty of our country". She found that beauty in the Filipino woman.

"I know what they feel when they get angry, when they’re tired," she says. "I know the story in their faces." She cites, for example, the fear in the woman’s face when a bee comes close (Dancing Ladies, 2004, currently on exhibit at the Crucible Gallery), because it has happened to her and she felt the panic of the moment. Likewise, the state of frenzy and excitement as women bargain and haggle over baskets of chicken or fish in the market is vividly conveyed in eyes sharp, alert and well-defined, rather than downcast and languid as they sometimes are when the women are engaged in more leisurely activity, or no activity at all.

Magsaysay Ho rarely has men in her paintings, and when they do make an appearance they are often in the background (young boys though are more privileged; they on occasion get pride of place in a painting, as in Six Senses [1995], which is up for auction at Christie’s next week for an estimated minimum of $115,400). She admits that this absence is because "I don’t know anatomy (of the male body)...so they look effeminate" when she paints them. At Saturday afternoon sketching sessions with daughter Doris though, the male face and form are studied when they get male models, especially swarthy or bearded men.

That is the same reason she says she did not paint the women of Brazil and Japan, although she lived many years in both countries. "I didn’t paint them because I don’t know them," she says, "I don’t know how they feel and I may do it wrong."

Doing it wrong is not something Magsaysay Ho will likely do, especially when it comes to art. One of the country’s most respected artists, she has also gained a following outside the Philippines, and her works consistently command top prices in the major auction houses.

She divides her time between Manila, Vancouver and Hong Kong. She paints everyday, no longer in oil because of an allergy, and no longer in acrylic because she does not like the way the medium behaves, but she looks forward to returning to egg tempera, a medium she picked up at Cranbrook Academy. That is something to look forward to because, like the women that she so eloquently paints, Anita Magsaysay Ho’s art shimmers with life, and her life overflows with art.