ArtQuake Art Fair and black canvas

CEBU, Philippines - Two different art-centered events ran their course over the last weekend of 2013, each having a say about an often misunderstood aspect about the visual arts space: art is not just about decorative embellishments, but also about substance.

Respectively entitled the ArtQuake Art Fair and Blank Canvas, the two events showcased a range of artworks made by survivors of the Visayas Region's recent string of natural calamities, each crafted during different stress debriefings and art therapy workshops held in different locations.

Set on raising funds for more art therapy sessions and workshops in the days to come, the two events managed to herald visual art's value as a means of being of service to those in need.

The ArtQuake Art Fair

As a follow up to the first ArtQuake Art Fair held last November 17, 2013 in the Redemptorist Church grounds, the second art fair managed to live up to the goals and aims its initiators had plotted out.

Held last December 29, 2013 in the Sacred Heart Alternative Contemporary Art Studio, the event featured a number of drawings made by children who took part in an art therapy workshop held in Catigbian, presented next to a number of artworks made by different Cebuano visual artists.

As with the first art fair, the second ArtQuake Art Fair also featured live sketching sessions, and also bore a book sale component—with all of its proceeds set to fund an upcoming art therapy workshop to be conducted in Daanbantayan this January 11, 2014.

Blank Canvas

As an exhibit, Blank Canvas featured the artworks of survivors from Leyte and Samar, complemented by the photographic works of Theo Gacasan, Bob Lim and Gerald Pareja.

Held in the 2nd level of the Northwing in SM City Cebu from December 27, 2013 to January 2, 2014, the show presented artworks which came from art therapy workshops and an art contest conducted in the Barangay Tinago Evacuation  Center, gathering more than 50 art pieces made by children-survivors from Leyte and Samar.

At its core, Blank Canvas' showcased pieces holds some weight in saying something about how creatively rampant a child's imagination can be - and just how much an impact the trauma of surviving a natural calamity has in affecting the way a child builds a visual pastiche about life.