Chrisanto Aquino

 

Power in Pain 

Chrisanto Aquino Shows Great Resolve Through Art 

By HannahJo Uy

 Monday, June 17, 2019 / C-3

Chrisanto Aquino has faced more than his fair share of hardships in his pursuit of a life in the arts. “I’ve ex¬perienced going from house to house to ask if they would like to have a portrait done,” he says. “I’ve experi¬enced walking two kilometers carry¬ing a 3x4 feet painting just so I can submit it and because I was trying to save on transportation fares.” Aquino even suffered through using tin cans of industrial paint from the hardware store, the cheapest he could find, and having to save up to buy them one by one. “I went through a lot of difficul¬ties and challenges, both financial and related to family, just so I could pursue my career and continue paint¬ing,” he recounts. Even amid the dir¬est of circumstances, however, Aqui¬no’s resolve was unquestionable, and it is the experience of overcoming these tribulations that added greater depth to his paintings. 

The artist’s admirable commit¬ment can be traced back to his early years. “At the age of six, I was already drawn to color,” he says. “I saw a tree being cut down, and saw its greenish and orange rings, its sap, and it has been ingrained in my mind ever since.” In 2007, Aquino took up Fine Arts at Tarlac State University. The early af¬finity for trees paved the way for his strong fascination toward indigenous people, as he grew to admire the deep connection tribes in the Cordilleras have with nature. “I’m also a big fan of tattoos,” he says. “For me, it’s a symbol of strength that I can draw parallels with my own life. Despite ev¬erything life threw at me, I was able to get through it, even though it was a painful process.” 

These interests were further heightened when Aquino came across Whang-od Oggay, the famed tattoo artist from Buscalan, Kalinga and largely considered the “last” and old¬est mambabatok. His earlier works fleshed out the narrative of the famed Filipina tattoo artist, celebrating her aesthetics through paintings portray¬ing physical subjects sporting tattoos in homage to traditional aesthetics. “Tattoos, especially those done by Whang Od, have a message,” he says. It was Aquino’s way of giving empha¬sis to culture, in an effort to etch its im¬portance in the consciousness of the following generation, calling Whang- od a “national trea¬sure.” This is es¬pecially evident in one work entitled “Karnabal,” where Aquino explored the discrimination that children of the tribes endure when faced with other members of society that gawk at them for their traditional tattoos. Elaborat¬ing on his process, Aquino says that there is no fixed sketch to prelude his paintings. “Ev¬ery day, I get differ¬ent ideas I want to add to the work and I develop the piece based on what I was feeling on that day,” he explains. 

During this pe¬riod, Aquino was no stranger to diffi¬culty, recalling that there were times he and his family would go hungry. “There were times I wanted to give up,” he ad¬mits. “I also expe¬rienced receiving harsh words. Some closest to me say that my paintings are trash. I was told there was no future in the arts. I un¬derstood them, be¬cause, back then, I would just paint and paint and I wasn’t earning, but I stuck through it, I knew they were wrong so I took in all their harsh words.” The hunger to achieve his dream was more powerful than the weight of the world attempting to bring him down and his resilience paid off when he started to bag the top prizes in a number of major national art compe¬titions. “When I was just starting out in the art scene, I was searching for a way to advance my career, and to support myself as an artist,” he says. “I saw the national art competitions and I kept joining. It became a training ground so I could refine my skills more.” 

Aquino’s winning streaks provided him with a slight measure of financial freedom and also helped make even the harshest critics in his life recog¬nize the value of his undying commit¬ment to the arts. “Thankfully, with art contests, I was able to survive finan¬cially,” he said. “But now I am able to provide for my family through art. I always felt it was worth it. There was a reason for everything and now, I am able to use these experiences and draw from it to create a unique mes¬sage through my pieces.” 

Aquino soon sets his sights on playing a more active role in exhibits. Initially, many of his paintings were overlooked as the themes tended to be dark, which, he felt was needed to underline the grave importance of promoting awareness on the environ¬ment, heritage, natural resources, and women empowerment. This was embodied in the characters within his narrative, which feature flora and fauna morphing with women, whose bodies are heavily inscribed with tra¬ditional patterns, alluding to a mod¬ern, moody, and more aggressive rei¬magining of Mother Nature. 

This was the narrative that un¬folded in “Wild Free,” his latest solo show at the Village Art Gallery, a cele¬bration of women’s inherent strength as a nurturer and nature’s role as a mother. In one piece, Aquino presents an almost mythical representation of the female form, with the hands of an eagle to symbolize strength and a light emanating from the heart, rep¬resentative of a mothers role as “ilaw ng tahanan.” The blood red print on the skin is a reference to the pain as¬sociated in the tattoo process and in appreciation of the cycle of life in na¬ture, from where it all begins and on which we will always depend. 

For Aquino, the main objective is to not only showcase his skills, but to relay what’s in his heart and mind. To this end, Aquino is driven by the jour¬ney of his own contemporaries who have found success despite the difficul¬ties, as well as by his own. “My experi¬ences made me the artist I am today,” he beams. “It was a struggle, but after you get past it, it gets easier. My art is the fruit of all my hardships.” 

“Wild Free” is Village Art Gal¬lery at the Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa City.