This past year’s Christmas Day art endeavor was a bit different from previous years’ in that the usual smooth and scheduled process was significantly delayed, and therefore this blog entry too is, by about two weeks. In fact, the only part that wasn’t was the artwork itself, therefore we should probably talk about that first.
The search for a suitable Christmas artist began early enough, perhaps even slightly earlier than in the past. By around Holy Week, I had received a strong recommendation to contact a young artist based in Malolos, and by July, I had managed to contact him. Very quickly, he responded with three studies.
The first of the three was a rather standard Mother-and-Child, therefore we could easily eliminate it. The second was an interesting scene of an older gentleman hanging up a Christmas lantern by a window with the help of what might be his young grandson, but without a more complete background story, it might come across as unnecessarily melancholy or too dramatic for the season. And the third one was a Nativity tableau with a Filipiniana theme.
This last one, while rather spartan and still almost standard, became the springboard for what we eventually chose to do – a Nativity scene in a church mirrored by a small Filipino family opposite it.
By mid-September, the artwork was fully laid out and ready for rendition.
The warm and rich Christmas-sy red background came first
followed in short order by the Holy Family in their recognizable traditional colors
and soon after that, the human family as well.
In just a few days later, the artwork was complete, and one could already clearly make out Saint Francis of Assisi, the putative inventor of the first Nativity tableau, positioned on the main altar.
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As in previous Christmases, most Christmas card recipients would receive a small book pack, which this year consisted of three (very) slim volumes. First was a quite revelatory treatise, “Trolls for Sale” by Jonathan Corpus Ong.
Next was the follow-up to last year’s very popular book pack entry, Tarantadong Kalbo 3.
The third was a brief but sufficiently comprehensive biography of the greatest Filipino hero of our lifetime, “Benigno Aquino” by Sylvia Mendez Ventura.
This year, most Christmas cards could be accompanied by the reliable and much-sought-after Ortigas Foundation desk calendar for 2023.
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Actually, the Ortigas desk calendar probably wasn’t as reliable as they were in the past, as they only came off the press at the end of November, whereas previously they could be on sale as early as October. But ultimately this tardiness did not matter, as there were too many other delays on the critical path.
First, we had to switch to a different printing press for the physical Christmas card, as one of the founder-proprietors of the press that we had been using for about fifteen years by now had passed away and the family had decided to close the business for good.
Unfortunately, I had only known about this business decision rather late in the day, so I had to hurriedly find another press, which, with professional assistance, I managed to do. But with a change of vendor predictably comes teething pains, including mistakes in font size for the artist note on the back of the card and a wider overall aspect ratio for the finished card due to a different print sheet size versus what the previous press had used. As a result, the printed card too was delayed in delivery and arrived nearly two weeks later than planned.
The more serious delay was that of the book packaging, and this too was due to a death – of our long-running and truly reliable craftsperson, Rheeza Hernandez of Malolos. She had been undergoing treatment for cancer, and had received surgery not long before supplying the package design for our 2021 Christmas pack, which was hoped would finally arrest the disease. Sadly, it was not to be, and that turned out to be the last package that she would ever make for us. Rheeza passed away in mid-2022, just as I was about to remind her to start thinking of designs for this year’s gift pack.
I had to find other ideas and sources of suitable package designs, and I did find one, though perhaps more pedestrian and less innovative than anything that Rheeza could come up with. These were mat-woven red-colored and Christmas-ornamented book purses, which were practical enough.
The problems came once the books and calendar were being placed into them, as their zippers would break upon opening and closing. A frantic repair job on most of the packages resulted in wholesale replacement of the flimsy zippers, which in turn destroyed the mat material of many of the purses, rendering them to be scrapped. Limited supply of the purses necessitated the use of other package designs, such that there were several different kinds of Christmas packaging this year rather than just one standard one as originally planned, including:
unornamented
unpainted
freshly-harvested they’re still green
or fancy enough to take to a picnic in the 19th century English countryside.
Some of these replacement packages were delivered to us after Christmas, with the result that we had to dispatch several of the book packs “naked”, i.e., without these bespoke packaging designs and instead in just clear cellophane fastened with packing tape. The delivery delay also caused some of the packs to be distributed closer to New Year’s Day.
Sorry, Rheeza, I blame you for this disaster. You are sorely missed. May you rest in peace.
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In the end, we hope that everyone who was supposed to receive something did, even on a delayed basis. At minimum, they should have received the Christmas card, with cover artwork by Renz, whom we should turn back to now to formally introduce.
Born in 1996, Renz Cortez Dela Cruz is a licensed mechanical engineer and artist from Paombong, Bulacan, who currently resides in Malolos. He had been drawing as early as his kindergarten and primary school years, competing in several school-wide poster-making contests, and went on to represent his high school in provincial and regional interschool art competitions. While an engineering major at the Bulacan State University, he was influenced by peers who were fine arts majors to explore oil as a medium. Today, he also produces drawings in ink and paintings in watercolor.
And his artwork:
Renz Cortez Dela Cruz
HALINA SA BELEN!
Oil on Canvas
18” x 24” / 46 cm x 61 cm
2022
“Halina sa Belen!” depicts a scene shortly after early Christmas morning mass, where a small Filipino family, despite their likely eagerness to return home to open gifts, welcome visitors, and share a specially prepared festive meal, takes time out to visit the life-sized Nativity tableau by the church’s main altar and venerate the Christ Child in the manger, watched over by the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph.
And so from Renz and all the other providers of this year’s (mostly delayed) Christmas art and literature showcase, and my family and me,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon!
Originally published on 14 January 2023. All text and photos (except where attributed otherwise) copyright ©2023 Leo D Cloma. The moral right of Leo D Cloma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.
