Himig: They're playing our song

Metal is not usually associated with women. Women are soft lace and satin, silk and fondant icing. The hard glint and toughness of metal remind us more of Superman, not Charlie’s Angels.

But here comes an artist who pays tribute to femininity through the grandeur of hard metal –– brass, copper and lead –– fashioning it to convey the strength of steel and the softness of Swiss lace. A contradiction, but to artist Daniel de la Cruz, women are a contradiction!

Daniel’s works are both the medium and the message. In his latest (his third one-man exhibit) exhibit, titled “Himig,” which opens today at the Ayala Museum, Daniel transformed the feminine form into musical instruments (to see is to believe, so you better catch the exhibit), melding instrument and female anatomy into one fluid creation. For instance, one of his pieces is that of a grand piano ingeniously fused with the form of a woman. Or a harp and a woman, and you cannot tell where the harp ends and the woman begins.

For artist Daniel de la Cruz, a woman is music to the ears.

 “Women for me are the most fascinating subjects because they have so many contradictions. Finding the harmony in all her contradictions and interpreting them in metal gave me great joy as an artist,” says Daniel, who is married to the former Monica Guevara.

One of his most arresting pieces is dubbed “The Dancer,” a three-foot tall sculpture of a woman seemingly dancing the flamenco in a floor-length lace dress that looks like it is whirling as the dancer is. And yet it is stationary, in metal at that. “The Dancer” was inspired by Daniel’s mother-in-law Monette Guevara, of Tree’s Company fame.

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Daniel de la Cruz’s parents, as well as at least one sibling, are doctors. So the curious Daniel, the youngest of five children of Eduardo, a cardiologist and Leticia Aquino de la Cruz, grew up familiar with the human body. He would tag along with his father during the latter’s rounds and since his mother was a pediatrician, Daniel would also see the living, breathing forms of the Madonna and Child.

Later, when his sister would be taking up anatomy in medical school, Daniel would actually see body parts in their house!

His parents were healers; his mother a nurturer not just at home, but in the work place. Daniel tried to follow in his parents’ footsteps and took up pre-med in college, then shifted to pre-law. While in his sophomore year in college, he got sick and during recuperation he started sculpting in clay. His works were featured in a national magazine and the publicity caught the attention of exporters.

That sickbed experience chiseled a new and different path for Daniel.

Right after college, Daniel was hired as a sculptor by a design firm. The La Salle and UP graduate found out that sculptors were regarded as blue-collar workers. He had to mop floors as well and held “office” in a sweatshop with an electric fan that was barely working.

At one point, Daniel says he was sick of carving Santa Clauses. Anyway, the talented sculptor quickly rose up the ladder. Today he owns his own design and export company.

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But the artist in him was restless, and yearning to go beyond Santa Clauses, Christmas ornaments and seasonal plates and dinnerware. A couple of years ago, just before he turned 40, Daniel decided that, “it’s about time to fulfill a dream.”

He wanted his pieces of sculpture to be works of art on pedestals, and not just on department store shelves and show windows.

“At that point, I was already exposed to a lot of materials such as wood, ceramics, tin, paper and resin, which were typically geared for mass production. I chose to work with metal, where the difficulties of the process guarantee that each work is unique.”

But first, he needed some affirmation from a master. Daniel sought out Arturo Luz, and was prepared for a cold and detached reception. He brought with him his very first metal piece, which he christened “Kandungan.” The woman was formed in the shape of a chair to underscore the comfort and security that only a mother’s lap could give her child.

Then he asked Luz, “Sir, should I go ahead?”

According to Daniel, the formidable Luz responded by saying, “There are a lot of people who come to me for this kind of advice and normally my answer is come back to me in 15 years. But, you know, I think you’ve done your 15 years. Go ahead.”

And Luz even went as far as giving Daniel a grade, 7 out of 10.

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Daniel is probably the only artist in the world who works with different kinds of metals for his one-of-a kind pieces. The technique is “proprietary,” but he gives us an idea how each masterpiece is born.

“Normally, I start with the drawing or a study. There’s no mold,” Daniel, a father of three, begins. “Every single piece is completely hand-made. That was a challenge I set for myself. Being an expert in molds and having gone through so much in the export industry, it’s anathema to me right now.”

“ I work with clay to give me a first idea of how the piece would look like. Once I have that basis, I start working on the model directly. The bodies are formed around the frame, then I build up around that.”

He works with different metals, the main bodies are normally in brass, and for the extremities like the fingers, he uses a softer metal. The fingers of Daniel’s women seem like they were carved in butter, not metal. They are actually dainty and very well-defined.

Though the fingers and feet, even the embroidery on the dresses, are finely chiseled, the rest of the figure is actually full and voluptuous.

“I find the full shape to be more womanly,” says Daniel.

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Surrounded by women who bring harmony to his life, Daniel de la Cruz’s “Himig” is really a song of praise for women. View all 25 of his pieces at the Ayala Museum until Sept. 29 because... they’re playing our song.

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