"DUALITY"
Collage, photo transfer, fluid acrylic on plexiglass; text on acetate mounted on gesso board
12 x 16 in. each panel (diptych)
2005
I have two sides—one that knows and loves life and another that fears it and wants to run away from it. A tolerance for this ambiguity and a true acceptance of it is my life’s challenge.- Toots Magsino
My Episodes with Toots Magsino
by
Then late last year, Toots and I met again. In one of the coffee shops @ upscale Shangri-la mall. What I thought to be just another breezy tete-a-tete with a colleague turned unexpectedly serious, dangerously personal and completely redefined everything I thought I knew about her.
“I left New York…I’m no longer renewing my visa…I’m back in Manila for good.”
While staring at Toots, thoughts of legendary Superstar Nora Aunor, inarguably the Philippines’ most accomplished multi-media pop artist bar none, zapped in my mind. That the great Ms. Aunor is NOT even residing in the country today, that she has been striving by her lonesome in the United States of America for several years now… isn’t that artist’s condition an indictment enough of how the Philippine government , the Philippine entertainment industry and the Filipino public in general value/forsake its most gifted artists? Then there’s Charice, Arnel Pineda, even Lea Salonga. For these artists, the Philippines could never afford to give them their due stage.
All of course I kept to myself.
What will you be doing here?
“Paint. Open a school. Teach my art.”
Sayang ang Artist Visa!
Toots flashed her most disarming smile again. Then she shared these words…
“I didn’t exactly come back all on my own. I had to. Come home. You see, I have this thing called…’bipolar disorder’. I had another episode and it was pretty bad. It made me realize that in our society, so little is known about the condition. But I know how it is. It’s unpredictable. It’s almost permanent. It could even be fatal…”
My mind went blank. Toots went on.
“But it can be conquered. It can be managed. People with this condition can still live happy, productive lives. I want my art to show the world that. I know you’re in pop media. Won’t you help me spread the word around?”
Toots smile never left her face.
The Ayala Museum ArtistSpace presents “Between Episodes” by Toots Magsino, June 15-28, 2011.
Ramon E. Bayron
The first time I met Toots was in 2003 while attending a crash course in Arts Management at the Asian Institute of Management. I’m spelling it all out because I knew I was there by sheer ‘leap of faith.’ It was an expensive two-week course as far as this middle class film/tv writer was concerned. Then there she was. So simple and unassuming, always low-key but had the widest, sweetest smile for everyone.
“I’m here on a vacation…I’m based in New York…I’ll be going back there after I finish this course…” were some of the information she nonchalantly told us in between our group discussions.
“Sosyal.” This pedestrian pop media professional writes in his thought balloon. “So what do you do in New York?” I remember one of us asking. “I paint. But it’s not the usual kind of painting. I do collages…”
She lost me in the ‘not the usual kind of painting’ part while she, I remember, went on to describe how many of her works are a mixture of elements, from paint to actual photos and objects. All of it apparently comes together in an artistic whole on each ‘Toots Magsino canvas’.
“Para siyang art film” was the best description I could come up with while listening to her speak about her works. On those moments, Toots would suddenly come out of her laid back self as her energy level would rise rather exponentially. You actually feel her excited vibe overflow.
“Years from now, I want to open my own art school here in Manila so I can teach my art to kids. But for now, I need to be in New York.”
Hmmm. Really nice lady. Quite privileged yet thankfully remains grounded as implied by her rather noble future plans for the children in the Philippines. New York hasn’t jaded her, it seems. Deceptively modest too and obviously talented or as the United States Immigration Office would put it- “an individual with an extraordinary ability in the arts” (Toots is a holder of an O-1B Artist Visa).
A number of years later, I’d learn from Toots during a chat interview online that one of her artistic creations was featured as cover of Carnegie Hall’s Playbill. She was still in New York and yet again was planning to visit Manila.
I guess some folks were meant to live a ‘dream life’, I told myself with admittedly a little more than a tinge of envy.
That she also had to work as a teacher’s assistant, take clerical jobs in her school’s administration office and even ‘do waitressing’ while finishing two 4-year programs at The Art Students League of New York: Fine Arts Painting and Fine Arts Printmaking on a scholarship didn’t really register as a ‘challenging scenario’ for someone also attempting to professionally survive ‘showbiz’ in Manila like me.
After all, Manila is Manila and New York is well…the world for most of us 90M+ third world residents of the Philippines.
The first time I met Toots was in 2003 while attending a crash course in Arts Management at the Asian Institute of Management. I’m spelling it all out because I knew I was there by sheer ‘leap of faith.’ It was an expensive two-week course as far as this middle class film/tv writer was concerned. Then there she was. So simple and unassuming, always low-key but had the widest, sweetest smile for everyone.
“I’m here on a vacation…I’m based in New York…I’ll be going back there after I finish this course…” were some of the information she nonchalantly told us in between our group discussions.
“Sosyal.” This pedestrian pop media professional writes in his thought balloon. “So what do you do in New York?” I remember one of us asking. “I paint. But it’s not the usual kind of painting. I do collages…”
She lost me in the ‘not the usual kind of painting’ part while she, I remember, went on to describe how many of her works are a mixture of elements, from paint to actual photos and objects. All of it apparently comes together in an artistic whole on each ‘Toots Magsino canvas’.
“Para siyang art film” was the best description I could come up with while listening to her speak about her works. On those moments, Toots would suddenly come out of her laid back self as her energy level would rise rather exponentially. You actually feel her excited vibe overflow.
“Years from now, I want to open my own art school here in Manila so I can teach my art to kids. But for now, I need to be in New York.”
Hmmm. Really nice lady. Quite privileged yet thankfully remains grounded as implied by her rather noble future plans for the children in the Philippines. New York hasn’t jaded her, it seems. Deceptively modest too and obviously talented or as the United States Immigration Office would put it- “an individual with an extraordinary ability in the arts” (Toots is a holder of an O-1B Artist Visa).
A number of years later, I’d learn from Toots during a chat interview online that one of her artistic creations was featured as cover of Carnegie Hall’s Playbill. She was still in New York and yet again was planning to visit Manila.
I guess some folks were meant to live a ‘dream life’, I told myself with admittedly a little more than a tinge of envy.
That she also had to work as a teacher’s assistant, take clerical jobs in her school’s administration office and even ‘do waitressing’ while finishing two 4-year programs at The Art Students League of New York: Fine Arts Painting and Fine Arts Printmaking on a scholarship didn’t really register as a ‘challenging scenario’ for someone also attempting to professionally survive ‘showbiz’ in Manila like me.
After all, Manila is Manila and New York is well…the world for most of us 90M+ third world residents of the Philippines.
“I left New York…I’m no longer renewing my visa…I’m back in Manila for good.”
While staring at Toots, thoughts of legendary Superstar Nora Aunor, inarguably the Philippines’ most accomplished multi-media pop artist bar none, zapped in my mind. That the great Ms. Aunor is NOT even residing in the country today, that she has been striving by her lonesome in the United States of America for several years now… isn’t that artist’s condition an indictment enough of how the Philippine government , the Philippine entertainment industry and the Filipino public in general value/forsake its most gifted artists? Then there’s Charice, Arnel Pineda, even Lea Salonga. For these artists, the Philippines could never afford to give them their due stage.
All of course I kept to myself.
What will you be doing here?
“Paint. Open a school. Teach my art.”
Sayang ang Artist Visa!
Toots flashed her most disarming smile again. Then she shared these words…
“I didn’t exactly come back all on my own. I had to. Come home. You see, I have this thing called…’bipolar disorder’. I had another episode and it was pretty bad. It made me realize that in our society, so little is known about the condition. But I know how it is. It’s unpredictable. It’s almost permanent. It could even be fatal…”
My mind went blank. Toots went on.
“But it can be conquered. It can be managed. People with this condition can still live happy, productive lives. I want my art to show the world that. I know you’re in pop media. Won’t you help me spread the word around?”
Toots smile never left her face.
The Ayala Museum ArtistSpace presents “Between Episodes” by Toots Magsino, June 15-28, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment