Artist Spotlight: Edipolo Aggarao – Visual Artist

December 7, 2016

Artist Spotlight: Edipolo Aggarao – Visual Artist

My Art

My heart & soul is a fine artist, while my body & brain is a creative director, art director, designer and visualizer. My hands, eyes and other senses respond to both masters with the same fire and passion. As a fine artist, I am able to do and express whatever I desire. I love painting. I love the smell of oil and paint and turpentine. They give me such orgasmic high better than any drug or woman can. Touching the texture of the canvas makes me feel like I’m touching heaven. Every brush stroke, every layer of paint gives me that feeling of an amazing new discovery. Like a child with a new magical toy. It’s like breathing life to the canvas. Knowing that once it’s brought to life, this one will live forever.

My (non)Process

I have no particular process in my creations. Although the human figure seems to always titillate my imagination. Nude is something I do most of the time. I like doing the human figure in its most natural form. The skeleton, the muscles, the form… the nooks and crannies of the human figure… those are the things that inspire me. The human figure is an art by itself.

My oil portraits are done to look like oil paintings. Although I can easily do portraits that will look as real as photograph, I make sure I do my paintings the way an oil painting should be done. Lots of visible brush strokes. Nothing I do comes close as what a camera does.

Artist Spotlight: Edipolo Aggarao – Visual Artist

My Journey

I remember that the first thing I learned to do with a pencil and paper was to draw. That was before I even stepped into school. In school, my teachers used to ask me to do their classroom visual aids or draw on the blackboard for them. Word spread around and it wasn’t long before the top artists in our small town took notice and that’s how my art journey began. I further honed my skills by taking up Fine Arts major in Advertising at the University of Santo Tomas enjoying full scholarship PLUS a regular recipient of half scholarships by making it to the Dean’s List.

My art has taken me this far. It has given me so much. I have passed through glass ceilings. And in the process, I have changed the lives of so many budding artists. From Bahrain to Jeddah to Dubai. My journey has always been colorful. My paintings and drawings have found their spot in loving homes across the globe.

Back in the early days in Dubai, I founded an art group called LIPAD (League of Pilipino Artists in Dubai) with some friends for which I was voted the president. The group had been very successful. We gave free art lessons, free art materials and free snacks to kids every Friday.

A few months ago, I met with a mix of seasoned and budding Filipino artists based in Dubai to form a new art group we called 2PM (the name was taken from the call time we set for the meeting) and it is open to all artists in visual and performing arts. Plans are aplenty. Enthusiasm is high and we have great expectations on the future of this new group to showcase every aspect of the Filipino talent.

Aside from this, I spend most of my Fridays as a volunteer trainer for Kabayan Non-Profit Organization, teaching Graphic Design, Figure Drawing, Portrait Oil Painting and assistant trainer in Photography and Adobe Illustrator.