Is the world ready for Jerry Morada?

IT WASN’T ALWAYS EASY FOR PAETE-BORN ARTIST JERRY MORADA. HE LEARNED TO WORK with his hands and create art even as a young boy in Grade V, when his father Julian, who was a sculptor working for one of the major exporters of wooden furniture and woodcrafts in Laguna, taught him the techniques of the trade. He received anywhere from P5 to P20 per figurine, and this served as his school allowance.

He started with horse sculptures and small items but he soon became a sample maker for wood products. He found himself sculpting swans, dragons, angels, birds and, most importantly, the human figure. This helped hone his knowledge of anatomy and proportion which proved to be of great use in his oil paintings today.

After studying at the Paete Elementary School and the Balian National High School in Pangil, Laguna, Jerry joined his barkada in trying to get in to the University of the Philippines. "It was a long and difficult process before we made it," Jerry recalls. "Even for the written exam, naalala ko marami akong hinulaan (I remember I had to do a lot of guess work)," he laughs.

The young artist from Paete was accepted into the U.P. system, enrolling at the College of Fine Arts. He remembers taking up art history under Ruben Defeo, art techniques and materials under Professor Abaya, sculpture under Froilan Madriñon. He even worked as an apprentice for the highly respected Froilan. He had to do extra work including making sculptures for his classmates and even doing part time figure modeling work ("I was slimmer and better built then," he grins) to send himself through school.

In his second year at the University, he found a job with Probe Productions, the producers of the award winning TV investigative series TheProbe Team, doing art design, art direction and art conceptua-lization for the show.

Jerry savored his experience at U.P. and tried to learn as much as he could during the time that he was there.

Regretfully financial constraints forced Jerry to move on. Still, he only accepted work that was related to art. He found a job as an ice carver making centerpieces at buffets and major functions at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel. "That was physically tough," he recalls. "You would be perspiring due to the effort but you have to work inside a highly air conditioned room."

His next job was as Art Director for Star City and then as contractor for the stage and set designs for the theater there. The art didn’t stop. Even while holding down a regular day job he would in his spare time be doing ethnic and aborigine art, salamanders, Easter Island masks, abstract sculptures and what has now become his present obsession–oil paintings. He also did interior and exterior designs for rest houses of expatriate executives at Caliraya Lake.

"My main love was painting," he says. "To survive, I would do wall paintings and murals during the day but I would visit art galleries at night." Morada moved to Pakil and it was on one such nocturnal gallery visit that he bumped into his childhood friends and fellow Paete artists Dominic Rubio and Bayani Acala, who were in the process of forming The Guevarra Group of Artists. That was some five years ago and since then Morada has not stopped painting.

A doggedness of vision has kept him going. Ever since he was young Jerry recalls being fascinated by things of the past. He remembers being captivated by pictures of his lolos and lolas as well as great-grandparents that were in sepia or black and white, depicting the romantic world of a time gone by. He knew somehow that he would capture those images and whatever feelings they evoked on canvas someday.

That day has now come. Jerry has been working hard for the past year and a half to put together 30 paintings he is presently exhibiting at Galerie Joaquin in San Juan.

This set of paintings, unveiled in the show "Ang Pag-ibig ni Maria" (on-going until February 2) are centered on the Filipina. Although bedecked in turn-of-the-century attire, the works focus on the Filipina’s strength of character, her dilemmas and concerns, her amorous sojourns, her conflicts and aspirations.

The paintings feature his Marias–almost a female counterpart to Juan de la Cruz–in dramatic gestures and dynamic, almost three-dimensional poses. The women are often painted in pairs, many of them being studies in contrast. The two figures in a particular painting are usually of divergent moods and appearances–one fully dressed in baro’t saya with the ubiquitous scapular dangling from her neck (perhaps representing the traditional Filipina) and the other totally nude. It is this dichotomy of the traditional and the liberated or modern female that can be found in every Filipino that Morada has chosen to explore. The Test, Two in One and Maria Unveiled can almost be presented as a triptych as all three works explore the tension as well as relationships between the traditional woman and the modern one. Acceptance and Mary’s Dream also deal with the same subject matter.

Another possible triptych is The Chair, Alampay ni Maria and Maria Unbound as these three have historical references. The Chair is set during the Spanish Colonial period, Alampay ni Maria during the American era and Maria Unbound after Philippine independence had been attained.

Morada also enjoys doing paintings on the other arts. Wind Instrument, The Call of Music, Woman Strumming on Capiz Window and Serenade were inspired by music, while The Dance was inspired by ballet. Other Morada themes are dreams (Dreamscape, My Dream for Maria, Maria’s Dream) and Mother and Child (Sa Piling ng Ina).

His major theme though remains love. The three Pag-ibig ni Maria series have allowed him to return to his strong attraction to old pictures and traditional attire, yet the works have been given a highly modern, surreal twist. Threesome, The Game and Lovers are likewise about love.

Needless to say, Jerry thinks highly of the Filipina. My Dream for Maria suggests that with learning and education perhaps Juan de la Cruz becomes superfluous and Maria is capable of attaining her utmost freedom, while in Lady on a Pedestal he has put Maria exactly where he feels she belongs.

With many of his subjects floating in mid-air, their hair raised, the traditional combining with the modern woman as well as the highly innovative and very daring way he occupies his canvases, one wonders if the art world is ready for Jerry Morada.

Interestingly, if we are to gauge by his growing list of collectors–many of whom reserved works even before the show opened–the answer is a resounding yes, indeed.