Migs Villanueva

Siesta Fugitives’: Run Away with Migs Villanueva

Monday, October 31, 2011

Text by Didi Evangelista

 Step into writer/artist Migs Villanueva’s home, and one feels one has wandered into a dream. Canvases upon canvases of ethereal images are set out, each one depicting a treasured memory from childhood, a forgotten dream, or a long-held fantasy. Though this might be what one expects in an artist’s home, this is not an ordinary scene.

Villanueva is in the middle of preparing for her second one-man show. In the past five months, she has been painting everyday to produce more than 20 pieces of paintings that tell stories of what children do when they don’t want to take naps during siesta time. The exhibit is fittingly entitled 'Siesta Fugitives,' a nod to children everywhere who have attempted escape from their mother- or yaya-imposed siestas.

Villanueva is no stranger to being a fugitive from siesta, sneaking out during those sleepy hours to have adventures of her own. “One time I snuck out of siesta, I went down to the basement to where the study room was. I wanted to color my coloring book...and I got into an accident. I fell off the stairs. I had a big gash, I had to be taken to the hospital. I know it’s a child thing, they sneak out of siesta,” she says.

Apart from drawing on her childhood memories, Villanueva also uses as inspiration dreams she’s had while having siesta. She observes her dreams during siesta are more vivid than the ones at night, resulting in her being able to capture those on canvas. Villanueva adds, “In my experience, the dreams are fugitive also. They’re there, and then they’re not.”

The Stuff of Dreams and Memories

What came out were the stuff of dreams and memories. Airy, delicate and done in muted pastels that somehow invoke the slow, lazy afternoons of childhood, her paintings feature children in different situations; a snapshot of the time when the greatest crime a child could commit is to be awake during nap time. They play in flower gardens, read books and go on expeditions and prance around as princes and princesses. Each canvas is a story of what children do when they escape from the clutches of sleep.

Interest in the Arts

Predisposed to the arts as a child, Villanueva recalls being the unofficial artist of her high school batch, doing her classmates’ requirements for lettering and designing. In grade school, she was “made to join art contests.“ Villanueva remembers, “I didn’t win, but I was the representative because I had the interest.” Although she would later study Psychology at the Ateneo de Manila University for college and then enter the corporate world, first in human resources and then later on as part of management, Villanueva never lost her interest in the arts. “I was corporate for 15 years. But you know, [I was] always looking out as an artist. I would always write and doodle and sketch all this time,” Villanueva says.

“But my circumstances changed in 1997. I stopped working, so I said I’ll move on to what I’d really love to do. So I enrolled,” shares Villanueva, taking her Masters in Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines. At the same time, she was taking art lessons. She took workshops and private instruction, even training under the esteemed Mauro Malang Santos, whom she regards as one of the biggest influences in her work.

 A Successful Writing Career

She first focused on writing, “because I was in school, so more or less forced to write there,” she says. Her foray into writing was successful; aside from writing feature articles for magazines and broadsheets, she won recognition and Palanca awards for her short stories. But she eventually stopped writing – “I got a little scared of writing. Kasi short stories, sometimes you write drama, there’s pain here and there. Sometimes I’d get scared that what I’m writing happens. If I would write, I would write comedy na lang. That’s why my paintings are so wholesome. I don’t like to focus on negatives, if they happen,” Villanueva explains.

 Breaking the Rules

Villanueva was painting for a long time before she had her first one-woman show in 2010. She experimented on techniques, first learning the basics and then breaking the rules. “I wanted to have a look of my own. If I follow the rules, it will look like everyone else.” A member of the prominent Saturday Group, Villanueva honed her style and craft, painting alongside more experienced members. She would ask for their thoughts and comments, and they would give her advice. “Especially when I was starting, I was so dependent on them for advice. And with my style, they don’t believe in it much because it’s childish, it’s naïve...but they’re very supportive,” Villanueva says.

Following Inspiration

Villanueva is not one to plan out meaning in what she creates, working organically and following wherever her inspiration takes her. “A lot of my triggers are memories. I face a canvas and then I make marks and it develops into a painting. And then when I see it, it triggers something in me. I remember a memory, or feeling,” she explains.

She sometimes makes up stories about the children on her canvases as she works. “Sometimes I talk to them pa nga. When I’m painting them, I talk to this, like, ‘No, no, no, you shouldn’t be doing this,’” she says. Like her writing, her background in psychology works for her, allowing Villanueva to create feelings and moods with the positions of the children in her pieces.  

Painting as Escape

Painting is Villanueva’s escape. She explains how she gets in a zone where she forgets herself, focused so much on her work that she sometimes doesn’t hear her name being called. “I like that I’m escaping. I guess that’s why the fugitive word is meaningful on a lot of levels. The dreamscapes, the literal meaning of escaping from siesta, but also the feeling of being in the zone, it’s fugitive. Sometimes that is also fugitive, the inspiration. It’s elusive,” muses Villanueva.

Playfulness and Innocence 

Her first show, 'First Ages,' which also featured the same round-headed children with three dots for faces, was sold out on the opening night. Her work for that show still captures the innocence of childhood, but seems darker, with most of the children standing with, as how Villanueva describes it, a “deer caught in the headlights” look. 'Siesta Fugitives' is more about playfulness and innocence, with more curving lines and color. The imagery is light and dreamlike, with flowers on all the canvases, whether growing in profusion, or a few discreet ones. The children in “Siesta Fugitives” also now look at the viewer, which Villanueva says, “I think they have more confidence with the image taker na.” 

As her subjects gain more confidence in their creator, so does the artist working on the canvas. While 'Siesta Fugitives' is all about escape and being elusive, Villanueva does the opposite and puts herself out there, exposing herself to the rest of the world. She captures what seemingly cannot be captured – innocence, hope, and a refreshing naivety – and displays it for everyone else to see.

 

'Siesta Fugitives' opens on November 3, 2011, 6:30 p.m. at the Galerie Francesca, Filinvest Festival Mall, Alabang, Muntinlupa City.