Artists as prophets of creativity

A group of renowned and rising visual artists descended into our small town and spread the spirit of creativity, for three wonderful days last week. They presided over workshops, lectures, art-making demonstrations, and even completing two large murals in our public market that are bound to become a community legacy.

The events dubbed as “Raniag Arts Camp” was a collaboration between our town of Alcala, Cagayan and the Linangan Art Residency, an alternative art school led by famed contemporary artist Manny Garibay.

Participants in the art camp included high school and college students, art teachers, and local government employees. Garibay made presentations on art history and intuitive drawing, while equally renowned artist Leslie de Chavez discussed the vibrant art practices in his native Lucban, Quezon.

Bacolod-based Joe Geraldo did a workshop on how to transform clay, organically sourced from termite mounds, into striking works of art. Tagaytay-based artist Otto Neri fascinated the participants with his talk on the limitless possibilities of using nonconventional art materials that include commercial tiles, goat hair, and junkshop objects. Bulacan-based artist Edmond Rivera talked about food as manifestation of both culture and art. Alcala Vice Mayor Joy Duruin presented a history of the town, the many challenges faced by the community, and how the spirit of bayanihan helped the town recover each time. The art camp is on its second year run. Its purpose is not only to encourage budding local artists to enhance their talents, but to cultivate various forms and expressions of creativity in our community.

We often parochially view our visual artists as merely producing works intended as decorative pieces on our walls. We overlook their very crucial role in transforming our communities into vibrant enclaves where creativity gets manifested in every aspect of life.

Visual artists are usually the pioneering prophets of creativity in every community. Any locality with a thriving group of visual artists is bound to spread the imaginative spirit in other sectors of society. Where visual artists thrive, sooner or later, artists in other fields emerge: local cooks get challenged to concoct new dishes, modistas get inspired to contrive unique fashion, gardeners dare to be adventurous in their landscaping ventures, writers come up with fresh literary works, musicians create original compositions, and so on. Visual artists spread an infectious thought virus of imagination, creativity, and ingenuity.

We also overlook the fact that there’s an abundance of untapped creative talent in our people that needs to be awakened. Our people’s creativity gets expressed only during special occasions like the annual town fiesta, Christmas season, Valentine’s Day, and Halloween parties. But why do we wait for these few occasions, when artistic creativity can be manifested with flair in our everyday routines?

Every one of us summons our respective creative spirits, and become artist of sorts, when we choose the style and color combination of our daily clothing, when we decide on the mishmash of ornamental plants in our front yard, when we arrange flowers for our vases, and when we make all the small choices that we undertake every day. Imagine if we become conscious of the wide array of creativity that we’re free to tap in our everyday life, then the boring becomes exciting, and the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Art tempers the dreariness and lightens the hardships of life.

We must learn to realize the ability of artistic intervention to multiply the value of anything that gets infused with creativity. A viand of adobo at Nanang Pacing’s eatery stall sells for P50. In contrast, a similar adobo dish with rose petals strewn on top, is sold at a city restaurant for P500. A pure cotton plain white shirt in a small clothing store is sold for P100. A similar cotton white shirt, but with added artistic design, is sold for P1,000 at a specialty clothing shop in the city. A garden pot that requires 10 kilos of clay to make, sells for P1,500 at a garden nursery. With the same 10 kilos of clay, artist Joe Geraldo can create a sculptural art piece that sells for P75,000. Art makes all the difference.

Our towns and cities should make every effort to cultivate and support their local artists because they are seeds of creativity. They can make our communities thrive with life-uplifting pursuits.

Our town wishes to thank the other artists who made the art camp a huge success including Alee Garibay, Lorebert Comision Maralita, Nina Garibay, Salvi Juan, Kevin Rodgers, Aann Reynales, and retired ambassador Norman Garibay. The members of the Cagayano Artists Group Inc. led by Lucio Taguiam Jr. and John Claudee Sicam also contributed immensely to the success of the events.

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