CXXX. Give Art on Christmas Day 2012

A uniquely Filipino visual art form from the 19^th century is Letras y Figuras, where persons’ names are spelled out with individual letters that are each in turn formed by smaller figures – humans, animals, plants, and vignettes of Spanish colonial life.  Its leading proponent was Jose Honorato Lozano (1815-1885), who produced a few extant examples for private patrons, including FRANCISCO DE YRIARTE

and EULALIA N. de ROCA.

In the late 20^th to early 21^st centuries, the art form underwent a renaissance and gained new adherents, the foremost of whom is probably Alvaro Jimenez (born 1948) of San Fernando, Pampanga (see http://www.paintingsphilippines.com/).  He has produced to several commissions, including MABUHAY

and MARAMING SALAMAT.

We thought that it would be a good thing to also contribute to this mini-renaissance, so for our 2012 Christmas card, we therefore decided to commission a Letras y Figuras as well.  And as with most of our previous Christmas card artworks, we wanted to engage a young artist to create it. 

Despite our initial apprehensions, finding a young person who already understood the Letras y Figuras idiom came rather easily and fortuitously, as I found out that the daughter of a colleague had done several examples of this art form.  Her biographical note might explain why:

Ysabela Maria Parungao is a third year Visual Communications major at the College of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines in Diliman.  Iya was also recently granted a scholarship under a South Korea – UP Diliman exchange program and commenced a one-year residency at Kyungpook National University in Daegu in August 2012.

 

Iya finished high school at Assumption Antipolo and was the Sangguniang Kabataan Chairperson in Barangay Concepcion Dos, Marikina City, from 2007 to 2011.  She is also a member of AdCore, a not-for-profit student-run advertising agency, and the Delta Lambda Sorority, both in UP Diliman.

Iya has exhibited her artworks since she was in high school.  She has a natural love for history and the arts and would like to use her talents to pursue a career in advertising in the future.

This was therefore a pretty straightforward task for her – do a “MALIGAYANG PASKO” in Letras y Figuras style.  She didn’t even need to do sketches or studies, I guessed.

Well, I thought it was straightforward, but then Iya tells me that all those letters just cannot fit in a six-inch-wide frame and still be intelligible as “figuras”.  Even on two rows, which is consistent with the 19^th-century examples, the word “MALIGAYANG” would be awfully cramped.  She therefore sought permission to deviate slightly from the idiom, with just the “PASKO” in strict “figuras” and the “MALIGAYANG” rendered as parols (traditional Filipino Christmas lanterns).  Here’s how Iya’s first pen sketches looked like:

Here is the fully-figured artwork before coloring.

And here’s how the 5-inch-tall by 8-inch-wide artwork came out, fresh from Iya’s watercolor brush and ink pen:

I thought that the “parol” solution was extremely appropriate and therefore ingenious.  And the use of a pale blue background rather than the usual yellows or off-whites made the artwork firmly modern and original, while still contributing appreciably to more than 150 years of the Filipino Letras y Figuras canon.  

And here is how the final Christmas card came out a few weeks ago:

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Maligayang Paskó at Manigong Bagong Taón!

From the Veron-Dulay-Cloma Family of the Philippines

Originally published on 2 January 2013. All text and photos (except where attributed otherwise) copyright ©2012 by Leo D Cloma. The moral right of Leo D Cloma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.