Rico Lascano

The Art of Calmness 

Zen of Rico Lascano

Monday, June 11, 2018 / D-2

Text by Terence Repelente

 Often, when artist Rico Lascano wakes up early in the morning, he suffers from anxiety. To calm himself down, he rushes to his studio even before drinking coffee, marvels at his existing works, somehow gathers inspiration, and then lets himself drown in the canvas. His hands become automatic, like a stream, a gentle current. “When I feel the urge to paint, I immediately pick up my brush. I start to put pigments on the canvas, then I let the pigments dictate the flow of the composition,” he says. “The painting is never finished until I feel like it is. As Jackson Pollock said when asked how he could tell if a work was done: The act of painting is like the act of making love, finishing a work is orgasmic. You’ll know when you’re done, and it feels amazing.”

He meant no vulgarity using the Pollock simile. Lascano views his art and his process the way animals breed, plants grow, storms are formed—a force of nature. This is what he considers the artist’s gift, creating something out of nothing. He derives happiness from his creation, and from happiness comes the calmness he seeks, the calmness he wishes to give to those who lay their eyes upon his art, his very signature.

In an exclusive interview with the Manila Bulletin, Lascano tells the story on how he found this signature. A graduate of the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor Degree in Visual Communication, he received one of the top awards in his graduation thesis. In no time at all, he was offered two jobs in advertising. “I became a visualizer then an art director, straight out of college. Even though I minored in painting, I did not practice it and, at that time, I had no interest in pursuing it because I was already in advertising,” he says. “But it was because of my boss, the now famous Edwin Wilwayco, who was my art director, that I fell for painting again.” In their drinking sessions, after work, says Lascano, Wilwayco would convince him to paint again. “Come on! Just try picking up a brush. You won’t regret it,” Wilwayco would say. “Eventually I gave in and I tried to paint. I learned a lot from Edwin. But at first, I really had a hard time doing abstract,” he says. “When I started to paint seriously, I found my own style, something far from Edwin’s, which was more colorful, more detailed. Mine was leaning toward the ‘Zen’ type, which was espoused by Gus Albor and Lao Lianben.”

When Lascano saw Albor’s works, he felt inspired to the point of emulating the artist’s style. Albor became his guide in building his own unique signature. “I remember trying out so many things. I experienced struggling to find my signature as an artist. I cannot redo Edwin’s style, that’s not me. Although he was the one who pushed me into painting, I did not imitate his style. You’ll eventually feel it when it’s there. Then I just noticed how all of my works are minimalist paintings, devoid of colors,” he says. “And maybe that’s what I am, that’s my signature. I’m a minimalist by heart, I don’t like so many details, even when I was still an art director I was very minimal. I use a lot of negative space. I get agitated if there are unnecessary lines, I erase it.”

Lascano has been painting for 15 years and he has never changed his style since he found it. He has always been known for his colorless, sparse, and calm paintings. He says he gets his inspiration mainly from nature. Famed art writer Cid Reyes even pointed out to him how he was fixated with water. In fact, he has had four solo shows that are dedicated only to water.

In his upcoming solo show themed and titled “Spatium Divinae (Divine Space),” Lascano reinforces his identity as one of the masters of Zen painting. He creates a series of large serene, heaven-like abstractions, which mimic the calming effect of nature. “I want my paintings to calm you down. I invite the viewer to meditate on them. Everybody has their own divinity and, for me, in order to reach that divinity, one has to think total calmness. This series is made to achieve just that.”

This has always been the goal of Lascano’s artistic career. “I want anyone who looks at my art to be calm. I have a collector, someone who loves my work. He told me that he put my painting in his bedroom because he wants to see it first thing in the morning, because it calms him down,” he says. “More than selling, that’s my biggest reward, to be able to evoke calmness, to give the viewer a spiritual experience. That, I think, is my ultimate mission or purpose as an artist.”

Rico Lascano’s “Spatium Divinae” will run from June 14 to 28 at the Altro Mondo Arte Contemporenea.