Growth, nat’l pride inspire millennial artists in Calamba arts tilt

FILE: Three millennial artists receive their cash prizes during Calamba City’s on-the-spot art painting competition held at the Rizal Shrine Gallery Corridor on Sept. 20, 2018. In photo: (left to right) Anthony Lawas, UP Diliman fine arts student and PWU-Calamba fine arts instructor; Marc Cosico, muralist, fine arts and SPED teacher at the Philippine High School for the Arts at the National Arts Center in Los Baños, Laguna; UP Los Baños Professor for Arts and Humanities and arts columnist Paul Zafaralla; Arts Association of the Philippines (AAP) vice president Roger Santos; Alvin Manalo, 2nd Prize winner Alvin Manalo; Grand Prize winner Marben Correje; Gilbert Olaez, 3rd Prize and City Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Sports Development Department (CATSDD) head Larissa Malinao and Senior Curator Zarah Escueta of the Rizal Museum Shrine. (Photo by Saul Pa-a via PNA)

CALAMBA CITY, Laguna — Nine young artists slugged it out for the eight-hour on-the-spot Art Painting Competition held here Thursday to promote this city’s art, culture and heritage tourism.

Sponsored by the city government, in partnership with the National Historical Commission and the Museo ni Jose Rizal sa Calamba, the home-grown muralists showcased their artworks rendered in acrylic and spray paint on 4×8 ft. plywood boards that served as canvas.

In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) following the awards ceremony that same evening, Marben Correje, who received PHP50,000 for bagging the grand prize, said the competition was a close fight among the budding artists, whose ages ranged from 18 years to 40 years, as they executed their concepts and ideas reflecting the theme, “Calamba, a Premiere City of Growth, Leisure and National Pride”.

“Medyo close fight. Ang theme ko kasi classic, ang pag-unlad ng Calamba. Around 30 years na ako dito at sentro po ng tourism ang Bahay ni Rizal, yung pag-usbong ng mga buildings through the years, patuloy na ang paglago ng tourism, productivity. Sana maging maunlad pa (It was a close fight and my theme is classic, the growth of Calamba.

I have lived here for 30 years and the center of tourism is the Rizal Ancestral House Shrine, the buildings that mushroomed through the years, the continuous growth of tourism, productivity. I hope the city would continue to develop),” Correje said.

Second prize winner Alvin Manalo, who received PHP30,000, said he was inspired by his four-month-old baby and wife, who were around as he did his winning artwork. Gilbert Olaez took home the third prize that came with PHP10,000.

Six other consolation prize winners received financial assistance from the city government.

City Cultural Affairs, Tourism and Sports Development Department head Larissa Malinao, in an interview, said the Art Painting Competition 2018 is one of the highlights of the 2018 World Tourism Month this September.

“This (art painting tilt) is part of our tourism month celebration where we produced our new tourism brochure to be distributed in the city’s tourist information center, in different towns and cities, convenient stores, NLEX and SLEX through our close coordination with the Department of Tourism,” Malinao said.

“These masterpieces will be exhibited first at the City Hall corridors so officials and employees, city hall clients and the public would get to see them. And then, we could exhibit them at SM mall, Waltermart and other exhibit areas.

These actually would form part of the city’s intangible heritage collections,” she added.

Malinao thanked Zarah Escueta, Senior Curator of the Rizal Shrine for hosting the day-long competition, which was originally planned as a graffiti and mural painting tilt in pre-identified city sites but was prevented by incessant rains.

The panel of judges consisted of University of the Philippines (UP) Los Baños Professor for Arts and Humanities and arts columnist Paul Zafaralla; Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) vice president Roger Santos; Marc Cosico, muralist, fine arts and SPED (Special Education) teacher at the Philippine High School for the Arts at the National Arts Center in Los Baños, Laguna; and Anthony Lawas, UP Diliman fine arts student and Philippine Women’s University-Calamba fine arts instructor.

The entries were judged according to concept and beauty of the artwork (40 percent); technique and skill (30 percent); and originality and uniqueness (30 percent).

Art juror Santos congratulated the home-grown artists and city organizers, noting that the competition wowed the judges because the artists were able to produce huge paintings in less than a day’s work.

“Nagulat po kami na siyam artworks ginawa sa isang araw lang. Lumalakas ang loob ninyo kasi ang pamahalaang lungsod ay tumulong sa inyo. Hindi tayo pinabayaan, laki pa ng premyo ninyo at yun ang ginawa niyong interaction (We were surprised that you executed nine artworks in just one day. You were inspired because the city government is helping. We are not left behind, the prize is big and that’s the interaction you did),” he said.

Zafaralla acknowledged that the judges resorted to a “bikini debate” during their deliberation to short-list the entries, which were lined up at the Museum Gallery corridor during judging hours at dusk.

“We were judging the paintings but at the same time, we too were being judged. Kaya nag-debate pa kami. Parang nag-bikini, kasi mas maliit ang bikini kaysa brief. (We had a debate to come up with the short list, like a bikini, which is skimpier than a brief.) So we had the ‘bikini’ debate and finally came up with the decision,” Zafaralla mused.

He lauded the millennial artists as “really endowed with creativity and artistic sense,” marveling at how they depicted the themes on growth, leisure and national pride from an artist’s perspective.

“It’s because Jose Rizal was there to serve as inspiration — an intellectual giant and role model of the young ones,” Zafaralla said. “You (artists) must be (some) kind of genius, working less than 24 hours on a big canvas, like the huge plywood, to be able to put into that space the things that you have thought about, and how your dexterous sense was able to put substance to your particular work in only a couple of hours.”

He said all the participating artists were “already winners,” and that the cash prize was only icing on the cake.
Zafaralla advised them to “keep the fire burning” as the city of Calamba gives artists a lot of opportunities.