Paderna's Eye Lift

CEBU, Philippines - It was a muggy day in Bacolod, and all we wanted to do was grab a couple of pizzas and cold cold cola.  We piled into Italia, a popular restaurant in the city known for its brick-fired, oven-baked pizzas as well as its juicy steaks, and on the way in, were abruptly confronted by artistic genius.

It was the latest collection of Rafael Paderna, a legend in the arts circle of Bacolod.  Rafael, otherwise called by his moniker ‘Paeng,’  is known for having launched, early in his career, the Arts Association of Bacolod together with a couple of other artists, including Edgardo “Budot” Lizares.  I was then in the company of the glamorous Trude Mora and Kristine Puentevella, daughters of Budot, and the first work that crossed our path, “Early Morning News,” seemed a portent of things to come.  For news, this collection was, indeed. 

We had actually encountered Paderna’s sculptural creations a couple of months back, when the ancestral house of the Lizares family in Talisay, the Balay ni Tana Dicang, had celebrated its century plus mark.  Paderna had tossed out gaunt statements in bronze as well as other gleamingly unfriendly materials then.  With that framework at the back of my impressionable head, I came unprepared for the works that greeted us in this pizza joint, a collection that belonged more to a light-filled gallery than here in these dark, red-bricked surroundings.

The website of the Bacolod Arts Association identifies Paeng as having won the Art Association of the Philippines trophy for his brass sculpture, “The Birdman”, while another site, skyscrapercity.com, lists The Holy Week Painting Competition of the Philippines in 1975, The Republic Planters’ Bank Art Exhibit in1978, The Anaheim Art Association, U.S.A. Painting Category in 1996 and in 2001, as venues wherein Paderna won grand prizes.  These come as no surprise, as his works are indeed merit-worthy.

Paderna’s is listed as being a graduate of Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Sto. Tomas, and he was recognized as the most outstanding alumnus by his Alma Mater UST, Negros Chapter in 1980.  Apparently, according the AAB website, he taught Fine Arts at La Consolacion College, Bacolod City, before migrating to the United States.  He returned to the Philippines in 2007 and, to our benefit, Paeng has resumed his art career here.

First to greet us was the “Early Morning News,” where a newspaper is being read by a vision in red.  One would think it would be well-nigh impossible to generate any interest in this concept, but Paderna successfully infuses movement and motion throughout the canvas.  The woman’s jet-black locks tumble across her face as her fleshy limbs grasp the day’s current events.  One foot is en pointe, with the heel arched, and her fingers delicately flutter.  The mismatched diffusion of light across the canvas also supports the suggestion of movement, perhaps hinting that the world roars on despite its events being supposedly captured and frozen in print.

What is also unique about the damsel is that Paderna seems to have departed from the usual pretty, almost Japanese anime-cartoon like eyes he usually bestows his pretty subjects with.  In this and in three or four other pieces, Paderna deliberately deprives his subjects from possessing expressive eyes,  giving them only a blank face on which everything, all potential expressions, are still possible.

In this, Paderna strikes out from the mundane or mediocre, as instead of being arrested by and being forced to linger at limpid eyes, the viewer is instead drawn to the other (stronger and infinitely more interesting) elements of his paintings. 

A perfect example of this variant is “trisikad,” where a pedicab driver and his passengers are bereft of eyes to see their way with.  But there is no loss, as the various focal points and brushstrokes found in the canvas, such as the pristinely white pedicab, are more than able to occupy one’s attention.

But Paderna does not entirely leave his roots behind, as other figures in this collection are still bestowed with dark-eyed glances that captivate.  Take, for example, “The Migrants,” where a mother cradles his sleeping son while gazing at the distance.  Burnt red luggage wait patiently by her side, while white doves impatiently flutter around.  Or, Mother and Child (Balut Vendors) where, again, a sleeping child is held fast in the arms of his wide-awake mother.   Similarly, ‘The Flute Player’s’ glance is melancholy, as are ‘The Fish Vendors.’

 Paderna does not depart from his traditional rural, familial, and pastoral subjects, as in fact, more than half his collection deals with families or vendors of some sort.  But what departures there are, turn out to be visual delights, as exemplified by the Early Morning News, trisikad, and even the “Sabonguerang Buntis” (Pregnant Cockfighter), which is an almost-stark depiction of a lady cockfigher surrounded by her cohorts.  The only splotch of color in this neutral canvas is the red cock held by the pregnant gameswoman, the fowl deliberately overshadowing (on the canvas and in this, her imagined life) her looming pregnancy.   Again, there are no eyes on the trio of cock-fighters faces, perhaps a suggestion that they are blind to their vices?

Whatever the reasons for these eyeless variations, Paderna’s new direction is truly delightful, and well worth the sight-seeing. (THE FREEMAN)