Ronald Jeresano

Using Social Realist-Inspired Images, Jeresano Preaches Against Juan Tamad Syndrome 

By Filipina Lippi

 The expressionistic figurative images of Ronald Jeresano, 29, are reminiscent of the works of social realist artists from the 70s to the 90s. But instead of repeating a cauldron of socio-historical images such as the dialectical presentation of the great divide between the rich and the poor, the oppressor and the oppressed, the religious colonials and the spiritual natives, the  colonials and pure ethnic tribes as preferred by the social realist artists – Jeresano’s intention is more personal than political, his images more biographical than externally acquired symbols of anger.

 His art works quietly preach about aspirations and action, he says, adding they are antidote to anomie, despair, paralysis and the Juan Tamad syndrome, a folkloric symbol of laziness in the Philippines. The folk tale’s origin, traced to a book by an unknown author in 1919, was initially popularized by actor Manuel Conde in a 1947 movie; re-published in a book on Philippine tales by authors Manuel and Lyd Arguilla, with illustrations by Manuel Tabuena in 1957; and published as children’s book by Alberto Florentino with woodcut illustrations by National artist J. Elizalde Navarro in 1965.

 Growning out of the radar of pain as depicted by social realist artists who are 20 to 40 years his senior, Jeresano says, “They are my idols. But I have not reached out to them.” He admits being awed by the group’s renowned artists such as Pablo Adi Baens Santos, Edgar “Egai” Fernandez, Antipas “Biboy” Delotavo, Renato “Ato” Habulan, Nunelucio “Nune” Alvarado, Bogie Tence Ruiz, and Neil Doloricon.

 He also blames his poverty for not having the luxury of time to seek a milieu among like-minded artists whose focus on poverty has enlightened their visual essays.

 Describing his life, Jeresano says, “I am the youngest of eight children in a family from Camarines Norte, Sorsogon. My mother is a housewife. My father, a military man, died a drunkard when I was four. I have an older brother who joined the (leftist) underground (movement) in the Bicol region. I never saw him again. My sister Rowena who married an  electrical maintenance man working in Saudi Arabia helped me enroll in college. I was an architecture student at Manila’s Polytechnic University of the Philippines. I used to walk to school from our house in Baesa, Caloocan.”

 To prove his mettle in painting and to veer away from architecture as a career, before he graduated from PUP, he joined and won several annual art competitions starting 2003. From that year until 2011, he amassed a total of 28 art awards. His top five citations included grand prize in Metrobank’s art competition in 2008; grand prize, Petron’s competition, 2008; grand prize, Petron’s, 2007; juror’s choice, Archdiocese of Manila’s competition, 2007; and grand prize, SM’s on the spot painting competition in 2007.

 “I was a self-taught artist,” he says. He paints every day, chooses the best ones to emulate, and quietly competes with them in the solitude of his studio, in a lot adjacent to his modest house at Evergreen Executive Village in Bagumbong, Caloocan City. He shares the studio with Arnica Acantilado, his wife of more than six years, also a PUP architect graduate turned artist.

 Jeresano’s reddish male figures, barefooted, in blue jeans, and half naked from the waist up, are easily recognized as inspired by social realist artists who intentionally stir anger, malcontent, and revolutionary fervor, but Jeresano’s intention is to teach, or to give moral instructions about perfecting man and his chaotic world (especially among the poor) even as he ironically paints man’s imperfection, frailty, and  lethargy (not just his poverty).

 Jeresano’s visual teaching aids are found in his signature bubble-like images that he layers on or paints adjacent to the main images of his art works; and among the black and white figures that he depicts at the background of his paintings. They are his inner voices, and they function like post-modern statements that contrast with his main images in his art works.

 His wife, son Aimiel, 5, a nephew, and an artist friend are also his models whose faces he does not disguise in his art works. Thus, Jeresano’s paintings of children and women truly plead for understanding. He chooses them as a subject matter with the assumption that there is a wide gap in nurturing and loving them.

 Jeresano serves as his model for the themes that he develops in his art works. He is not afraid of being associated with his depiction of man’s imperfection, failed world, maladies, and laziness. Observers say that when he paints himself in a self-portrait mode, his works become true celebration of his joy as an artist.

 At the same time, Jeresano also blurs this distinction. He says, “I’m a good model. I can contort my face for the images that I want to project in my art works. I could be acting, but (in a hindsight) when I paint myself, I feel the emotions that I want to portray. I feel that the themes I am developing in art are also about my life.”

 These are the complex messages of Jeresano’s third one-man show, entitled, “And the Answers Will be Found,” which opened at SM Megamall’s Art Center in suburban Mandaluyong on April 2, with the assistance of Passion Art Gallery.

 Jeresano’s three by four feet oil painting entitled Waiting depicts a man staring at the horizon In contrast with his frozen gaze, his left arm is surreally depicted with a foot, not with a hand. “It is intentional. The combined arm and foot is about multi-tasking, to stress that man should work, not just wait for nothing (ala Juan Tamad),” says Jeresano.

 Please Give Me a Pillow and a Blanket is a three-panel work measuring 2.5 feet by 10 feet. The middle panel shows a man sleeping on the pavement, flanked overhead by large golden balls. At the background, in black and white, is a castle and a man crouching like a hunter. “Being poor, I always dream of being rich. But for that to happen, I know I should wake up and move like a hunter,” says Jeresano.

 No Place Like Home, a seven by six feet oil painting, depicts five penitents whipping their backs, a common site during the Lenten Season.  Two have checkered back pockets, like clowns; one wears decorative shorts; another penitent, a decorative belt; and one penitent wears an apple-shaped helmet. At the background are shadows of monkeys. “Some penitents are not really sorry for their sins while doing penance, although they hurt themselves to go to heaven, their desired final home,” Jeresano says.

 In Real Fake, a six by four feet oil painting, are seven men with covered faces like construction workers and farmers, naked from the waist up, wearing birds’ nest on top of their heads. At the background, in black and white, are flying birds and a man jumping up in the air. Explaining his image, Jeresano says, “If you aspire, just move, don’t wait for food like helpless baby birds on their nest.”

 Rise, a seven by eight feet oil painting shows five men, naked from the waist up, on clouds, in various poses: frontal, side, and back view. “It is all about reactions to success. Either one is happy or gets dizzy with it,” he says.

 His two self portraits depict him a happy man in a state of real bliss.

 A five by four feet oil painting entitled Undefined, show a man jumping up in the air, his heart burning. “It‘s about me, still undefined, but happy and contented that I could paint,” says the artist. This work particularly recalls Russian artist Marc Chagall’s portrayal of lovers flying above a room with sensual joy; and Filipino artist Fernando Modesto’s paintings of passionate angels floating up in the air.

 Zodiac, a four by three feet oil painting, depicts a man with a rainbow streaming across his hands. At the foreground, in black and white, is a tree and a house. “The rainbow is in our hands. Colors come from us (not from the rainbow). The house is about family with roots. I think it is about me and my values,” he explains.

Jeresano is more didactic, his messages less hidden in his paintings on children.

 The Party Just Started, a four by three feet oil painting, depicts a boy whose hands are clasped tightly at his back. He refuses to touch his balloons, toys, food, and lollipop; he is not minding the two giant clowns at the background.  “A child wants more than these things. He needs caring,” explains Jeresano.

 Silence, a four by three feet oil painting, shows a boy’s face in close up, with bubbles flying out of his mouth. They are shaped like alphabets, hearts, musical notes, and other happy images. “Children’s voice should be deciphered and heard,” the artist declares.

 Fulfillment, a five by four oil painting, shows on the foreground a boy conflicted by two dreams, to be a hero or a scientist. Philippine national artist Jose Rizal, French sculptor Auguste Rene Rodin’s “Thinker,” and Roman general Julius Cesar, are depicted in black and white  at the background’s left side; astronauts and modern equipment, also in black and white, are images at the background’s right side. “I was inspired when my son told me that he wants to be an astronaut someday,” he recalls.

 I Just Woke Up, a six by five feet oil painting, depicts a sleeping boy on a cold pavement, dreaming of Philippine heroes, which are like ghosts at the background. “One has to wake up to realize one’s dream,” the artist explains.

 Gabriela Immortalized is a large portrait of a modern Filipina wearing a T-shirt and a jumper. At the background, from left to right, is a mixed metaphor of a burning city, ammunition, teddy bear, a butterfly, and Andres Bonifacio (in black and white).  “I borrowed this theme from my wife,” he confesses.

 He favors expressionism, surrealism and realism for his message-friendly art works, attests Jeresano when asked if he will do abstract paintings and use found objects in his works in the future.