Working in the region as a Filipino make-up artist is a challenging yet rewarding experience for Arulfo “Bobby” Caparas. A veteran in the industry known for his unapparelled professionalism at work, Bobby worked with many celebrity clients, publications, models and designers in the region over the years.
In 2019, he was involved in the wedding of renowned luxury real estate developers in the Gulf. He has also been the hair and make-up artist for Nat Geo TV Kids in Abu Dhabi, and has worked on projects for FRAMESI (Italy), Citizen K Arabia 100 Magazine, Gucci, Dior, Louis Vuitton and more.
While doing the things he loves, Bobby aspires to bring home his learnings, eventually establishing his own hair and make-up seminars through Kawit Tourism in Cavite. He shares, “Through volunteering and getting involved I’ve expanded the quality of my life in ways I never once thought possible.”
Bobby is also gearing to launch his own make-up line this year. (more…)
Jessie Tabla strongly believes that when passion meets dedication and hard work, one can never go wrong in chasing their dreams.
Blessed with projects from campaigns for local and international brands, product launches, fashion shows, weddings, even international assignments for VIPs, as well as working with Hollywood and Bollywood superstars and the region’s elite, Jessie is a veritable celebrity hair and make-up artist.
Able to showcase his love for art and creativity through makeup, Jesse has indeed found his place in life. As one who takes pride in representing the Philippines as a country of world-class artists in the world of glamour, Jesse advises his peers never to stop trying new things, to continue building their social network, and surround themselves with people inspiring people who uplift one another.
Makeup artist Valentino Montuerto Jasmin is committed to showing off what a true Filipino artist can be while paying homage to his roots. In 2019, he added a number of prestigious global fashion brands to his roster of fabulous achievements in the industry, working on projects with Sandro Paris, Diesel, Faces and being a part of the Dolce & Gabbana runway show among others. His work has also been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, L’Officiel and Emirates Woman.
Valentino aims to touch emotions, move people, empower, and inspire them not only through his craft but also with his new passion project. Recently, he formed Kalo, a new venture that means a lot to him. “I have been dreaming of being able to incorporate my love for fashion, with sustainability and being able to help my local community in Samar.” With Kalo, the artist is set to design and produce 100% organic, oversized hats made of tikog and romblon, fibers that are indigenous to Samar. Woven by local artisans, each hat is meant to contribute to the livelihood of local women. While his project is still developing, Valentino believes that this is his way of giving back and providing an opportunity to showcase extraordinary Filipino craftsmanship to the world.
Ann Llagas is a woman on a mission to add diversity to the local modeling scene as well as provide opportunities to fresh talents aspiring to walk the runway and be in front of the camera.
Since she started her company “Anna Model Management” in 2016, Anna has played a crucial role in contributing to the development of the region’s modeling industry and is now known for providing a platform for upcoming, ethnically diverse models for both runway and editorial purposes. Anna’s models have graced various affairs, including the region’s definitive annual fashion event Fashion Forward, as well as publications and commercial projects. 2019 also marks the agency’s first exclusive international Filipino model, Carlo Lee’s initial foray into Fashion Forward.
To date, the model-entrepreneur continues to pour out her own style, as well as her own hopes and dreams into her initiatives. “My modeling agency is not just about business, but a legacy to,” she says. “It gives the opportunity to new and rising talents, so that together, we all journey towards success.”
Michael Amazona Del Mar, a passionate casting/show director, and events producer, always takes on a project with fierce perfectionism – making him a respected figure within the regional industry. Armed with extensive experience and know-how, he has handled projects for the likes of Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana.
For Fashion Forward Dubai (FFWD), he is the exacting casting director behind the region’s most reputed fashion event. For the last 11 seasons, he has helped the platform grow and come back even bigger and better in 2019. Aside from this, Michael has also styled Michael Cinco’s Spring/Summer 2019 campaign, produced an event for Meraas’ ‘The Outlet Village Comes Alive’ campaign, and handled casting and backstage management for Splash’s Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter 2019 fashion shows.
Michael takes pride in having curated a strong and diverse group of models, especially for FFWD: “As the casting director, my challenge is always curating a cast that is “fashion-forward,” i.e., diverse, young, on-trend. It involves a lot of research, brand understanding, while also satisfying the FFWD board, reaching out to local and international agencies and fostering alliances. Globally, there is a clamor for cast diversity and I think Dubai should follow suit as well! I am proud of my cast this season!”
Michael believes that Filipinos are significant assets wherever they work and have the ability to make an impact especially as creative forces: “We are resilient, law-abiding, and productive constituents of society. We possess creativity and passion and these traits always make us stand out!”
Arté Pilipinas invites UAE-based Filipino performing artists (dancers, singers, street performers, musicians, beatbox artists, etc) to apply and be part of the festival’s performance programming. Last day of submission is November 30th.
Arté Pilipinas, a project of the Philippine Business Council Dubai & Northern, is a first-of-its-kind community festival showcasing the richness and beauty of the arts and culture from the Philippines and its UAE-based diaspora.
The festival happening on February 6-8, 2020 will feature ethnic parades, traditional and contemporary performances, art, live music and cuisine and more.
Open calls for visual artists and fashion designers for the Flores de Febrero to be curated by Ezra Santos are closed.
I am a former Head of Art and Creative Director of a multinational advertising agency. Now, I am a Creative and Design Consultant for various multinational brands. But more importantly, I am a full-time painter – something that I’ve always considered as my calling.
I spent part of my childhood by the sea. I grew up in Boracay island and Panay island in Aklan, where the culture is a vibrant mix of religious and ancestral beliefs. Stories from our grand parents tell of mystical beings like wakwak, aswang, kapre,and sigbin. We also have the world famous Ati-atihan Festival. As a kid, I was influenced by all of these colorful festivity and mystery. This is evident by the aesthetic I have today.
I love colors. My figurative paintings are always very graphic and highly stylized. This stems from my Advertising years, when I used to handle beauty products..
My ink paintings are really my own. I use traditional Chinese inks but I render them in a Westernized style using paper, canvas and wood surfaces.
I think my work is different, in that it doesn’t look “Filipino.” I don’t follow any genre. I have different styles. I change styles depending on my mood on a particular day. This way my expression is always spontaneous and fresh.
My Process
I seek inspiration from my childhood experiences. I’ve always loved the process of creation – from ideation to seeing the final result. I don’t usually sketch before painting.. especially when i do my ink paintings. I thrive love in unpredictability. I use mainly watercolor, acrylic and mixed media.
I keep myself inspired by driving; no destination in mind. Just driving around and seeing where the roads take me. Weekly, I drive in the mountains of Rizal, or around the lake of Laguna. Up to this day, I also do this ritual when I go home to Boracay.
My Journey, so far…
I started to paint seriously 2 years ago. I’ve exhibited twice in my hometown, at the Museo it Akean. However, my real joy is posting work online, and selling it there without the “Politics of Art” and without the help of galleries. So far I’m really grateful for positive response I’ve been getting.
I think online is the new venue for Arts. One of the highlights of my career was when my first painting was bought by a National Artist for music. During my Advertising years, I won recognition from have festivals in London, Hollywood and New York. I also have a Guinness book of World Records for my design for Levis.
I have designed and illustrated 5 children’s books that were published and marketed in the US, and are also available in Amazon.com
Moving forward, I would simply love to be able to still do what I do, but have my reach magnified ten-fold. There is plenty of art in me, and I would be honored to share it to as much of the world as possible.
VerdadisSpanishfor “Ofthetruth”. We live up to this name bystayingtruetoourselvesandlettingour individual influencesmergeandmutate into whatwecallourown collective identity. Weloveitbecausethishasbeenouroutletandwhatwebelievetobethehighestform of expression.
OurMusic
Creating original music has been one of the bands main motivators when we started as Verdad; to mold different aspects of music we are entwined with and create something different. Mutually believing that music is borrowed, we want to break down and mold all the different types of music like a puzzle and create something different.
We are motivated to pursue this craft mainly because, originally we always wanted to pursue the reason why we got our band name. Verdad is Spanish for “Of the truth”. We live up to this name by staying true to ourselves and letting our individual influences merge and mutate into what we call our own collective identity. We love it because this has been our outlet and what we believe to be the highest form of expression. And in some cases it gives us the kind of fulfillment which every musician is looking for.
It all started with just wanting to play gigs in local bars. That urge to be on stage and play music, but as soon as we got the time to finally play together we recognized the chemistry and took a leap of faith to make it happen and write our own material.
Our Process
Our process for creating music solely relies on everyone sitting down together, starting out with a couple of drinks and just letting those creative juices flow naturally. But with that being said, we are very lenient with creating songs. We adapted a rule wherein, once a member doesn’t comply with what we’ve created for at least a couple of tries, that song goes down the bin. We start with the backbone of the song and play with the melody later on.
How we manage the creating process is directly correlated on how we mutually try to create something that is musically pleasant for each member. It might sometimes start slow and on other occasions it can turn out to nothing. Tension can grow on such situations, but we try as much as we can to take a fresh breath of air and help each other with producing something we all can relate to. Up until we do a final check in the studio if what we’ve created is something we can do a full throttle in its entirety.
We keep ourselves inspired through sharing what we call each other’s treasure of playlist. Something we have not heard of before can create a ripple effect to try and create something we have not done before. And at most times we keep attending as much musical events as we can to broaden our grip on original music.
Our Journey, so far
What makes our work own is that just by listening to our music you can distinguish different aspects of each member – a hint of progressive, post-rock, metal, reggae etc. How it differs from other works is not something we can really put into words as it differs in a lot of different aspects. But in our own perspective we try to be true to ourselves in our own songs, and let it mold itself into something different – but a good kind of different, one that gives you shivers down your spine.
Our journey as a band of musicians has been quite a ride. Starting off we just wanted to play at local bars and in some occasions talk about what it would feel like to be able to get your own original song being played on the radio, and to be able to have your own CD. It all seem farfetched back then, but after much anticipation we had a track played in the radio. And then finally, we got to share the stage with bands we looked up to and we got to release our own album named as “Lifepath 22” under Blacksheep Records.
Our advice for our fellow artists
Write your own material – plain and simple. Writing your own material gives your band its identity. Secondly, it broadens your horizon of your own capabilities, individually and as a band. You grow in ways you cannot fathom.
Another thing is to keep on exploring. Music is borrowed, but we all can tap into that stream of endless possibilities and create something that we can call ours – and that is something that is timeless.
I wake up daily to an education in art. Honest, that’s what happens from the first moment I open my eyes. While still in bed, I have a view of wall parts around me, where hang some works from artist-friends.
On the corner to my right, framing a pendent lamp are two beloved collectibles, if a rather immodest acquiescence to vanity. One’s a sketch by Rock Drilon of the room’s resident. But done outdoors — as I recall vividly, when he sat me down on a curb on Malvar Street in Malate over three decades ago, right across what used to be poet Virginia R. Moreno’s Café Orfeo where there was a dinner party going on.
Rock was then doing a series of charcoal portraits of artist and writer friends of his in our common culturati-cum-bohemian circle. He eventually exhibited those at the PhilAm Building lobby. Then gave me his portrait of me slumped on that curb, smoking a cigarette. The gift still meets with much appreciation (albeit I hope you readers don’t assume that the first thing I do upon waking is to gaze lovingly at it).
Having said that, if parenthetically, now I must blush to admit that it’s a ME corner, since the other invaluable artwork in that area is another portrait, also of a very much younger me as subject. It isn’t so much the subject that makes it important, but that the glass-encased and framed portrait was taken by the distinguished photographer Jaime Zobel de Ayala.
Hah! Between Drilon and Zobel, I can only say with unmitigated pride that my ego is well served in that corner. Or is it because both priceless pieces are rendered in black-and-white? Guess.
Michelline Syjuco’s stunning horse sculpture.
On the opposite corner, what I glimpse upon turning left while supine is more evidence of art and my continuing education. There arrayed are nude portraits of women, again awarded me by artist-friends — the portraits, that is, in charcoal, in pen-and-ink, in black-and white, by Gus Albor, Ramoncito de la Cruz, and Camille de la Rosa — plus an acrylic and gouache portrait in vivid color by the late terrific artist Carlos “Dennis” Filart. He passed away over a year ago, soon after I acquired this distinctive nude. That is why it now has pride of place closest to my bedside lamp, the only artwork in color.
And so it’s a gallery of pubes on one side, and an ego wall on the other. Not that I intend to someday attempt to replicate what’s called the “Museum of Me” being established by the excessively wealthy Robbie Antonio in his knockout of a Rem Koolhaas-designed modern residential palace in Forbes Park.
Now, the controversy over this over-the-top enterprise, however private, is sure to serve further education, if not awareness of the power of art, to generations of Filipinos.
Getting back to my own quotidian custom, when I stride down from my bedroom I am greeted by more works of art on the landing: by friends such as Bert Monterona who’s still based in Vancouver, Salvador “Dodong” Arellano of Los Angeles, and the literary goddess Gilda Cordero Fernando. It sure pays to have artists for buddies.
But I will desist from cataloguing all the other friends’ artworks displayed on walls in our otherwise modest home. Or I might run out of space, both ways.
Instead I must now cite my fortuitous membership in an e-group called Banggaan, since a few years ago. It’s a circle of visual artists, including photographers, mostly based abroad, with a few homegrown and/or stay-homes like photographers Ben Razon and Joe Galvez, the iconic music maker Heber Bartolome, painter and editorial cartoonist Benjo Laygo, poet Marne Kilates, and artists Ross Capili, Eric David, and Ilonggo semi-retiree Eduard Labadia.
Across seas and an ocean are our friends, such sterling exponents of Pinoy creativity, with quite a roster of champions: Ding Roces and Edd Aragon in Sydney, Claro Cortes and Dengcoy Miel in Singapore, John Altomonte in Darwin, and in the USA, Mario Mercado, Glenn Bautista, Tante Tagamolila, Jun-Jun Sta. Ana, Rodolofo Samonte, Vics Magsaysay, Mimi Nolledo, Zen Lopez, Mel Vera Cruz, among others — world-class painters, photographers, editorial cartoonists, musicians, poets, tattoo artists, conceptual artists, what-have-you.
Trix Syjuco’s video room and sculpture installation .
If anything, this group alone, among so many others that encompass the Philippine art scene, shares in the bragging rights over the cornucopia of awesome creative power among Filipinos.
Again, daily is it a continuing education, like, say, seeing Rod Samonte’s latest art product: a 3-D installation or bas relief composed of found objects “carpenter”-ed onto a wooden gate he picked up somewhere in Los Angeles. He has titled it “California Suite” and posted it on FB to both the Banggaan and Art Philippines FB group walls, eliciting quick comments and praise.
And if I were to visit my Significant Other in Ayala Alabang, I am very aware that I also come close to another shrine of devotion and comfort zone: the Syjuco family’s ArtLab atelier cum gallery cum workshop venue. Here, my kumpare Cesare A.X. Syjuco and kumare Jean Marie Syjuco have established a wondrous exhibit space for their own impressive art pieces, from paintings to sculpture, installations, hyper-text arrangements, why, even a bathroom reeking of superb minimalist design and art!
Here, too, their daughters Michelline, Trix and Maxine have their own respective studios for their creative output: sculpture, jewelry, striking fashion pieces such as one-of-a-kind wood-and-metal bags, video walls, conceptual effusions.
Art education? Maxine runs her The Little Picasso weekend classes for kids from ages 2 to 16. She offers individualized programs for children’s arts and crafts, designs each module based on each child’s unique interests and skills. She doesn’t employ assistants or relies on other teachers. She teaches all of the classes herself.
Entirely admirable, for someone who is often the toast of the town for her own visual produce and books of poetry, let alone her effervescent beauty. And her little wards in art come up with engrossing takes on Picasso, Dali, Edvard Munch’s “The Kiss” and Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” (see photo with a three-year-old’s version on the wall).
All is well and bright and dazzling in Philippine art. When it comes to creativity, Pinoys enjoy awesome blessings of continuing education and inspiration.
Poet, visual artist and children’s art mentor Maxine Syjuco with a three-year-old student in her The Little Picasso weekend workshops at ArtLab in Ayala Alabang Village.
A lot of us Pinoys are guilty of looking at artists in a very biased way, especially at the budding ones who are within our midst. To us, they exist in a strange world all their own; they talk in what seems like alien language, sometimes gibberish; they are very absorbed, or even tortured, with their ideas and concepts. Most of the time, we don’t understand or don’t see the value in what they are doing; we find their ideas weird, unthinkable, highfalutin, unbelievable – in a nutshell, we think of them as crazy.
Well, that is until they become famous for creating something spectacular that will earn them some recognition. And then, we eventually nod our heads to feign understanding.
The fact is, these people are the most gifted in the world. To be able to think freely, unfettered by the constraints of conventions, established limits, or popular thinking, is an amazing ability that is the precursor to making great things happen.
Imagination and creativity are responsible for man’s best inventions, most significant works of art, and greatest feats on earth and beyond. It is how we went to the moon, how we do air and space travel, how we can have the world’s tallest building, why we have awe inspiring paintings on the fresco of the Sistine Chapel, it is why we sing and dance in thousands of different languages and music forms around the world today, and why each country has a unique culture made rich by arts and crafts punctuated by ethnic colors, textures, sounds and images.
Imagination is the stuff that keeps us evolving, growing intellectually and pushing the boundaries of our existence. Without which, man would probably still be living in caves, surviving a life of hunting and gathering, just because that’s how it was always done.
Contrary to what most of us think, imagination comes first before know-how, skill, passion and ambition. Because what would be the use of the latter if we can’t even begin to consider potential and possibilities? Albert Einstein once said – “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
So the next time you feel the urge of dismissing an artist as strange just because he doesn’t fit into a square peg, think of what makes him special. Better yet, ‘get with the program’ and tap into your own brand of crazy. Unleash your own imagination and innate creativity. It’s just in there and it comes so naturally for Filipinos like us.
Who knows? You just might discover your best contribution to the world yet.
This issue is dedicated to all the Filipino artists out there.
