Jana Jumalon-Alano by Yvette Malahay-Kim

Yvette and Jana at the 2014 VIVA ExCon in Bacolod City

The family is a very important factor that directs an artist’s journey. For some, family encourages them to produce art. But for others, family unfortunately discourages them to continue their art. However, there are also a few unique families that all the members of the family are practicing artists – from the parents, down to all the children. Such is the Jumalon family of Zamboanga City.

Our feature for this week is a member of that family, Jana Jumalon-Alano.

YMK: You were raised by creative parents, you think this has shaped you in becoming one too? How?

JJA: I grew up watching my father paint day in and day out and I can positively say that I was  influenced just by living with artists under the same roof.   Unknown to many, my mother only took up painting upon realizing that all of her children are already into visual arts.  My father encouraged me to experiment with mediums from acrylic to mixed media to found objects turned to art pieces. This has shaped my idea and belief that in art, it is not just putting colors and imageries on a canvas it the constant experimentation that will bring me closer to deeply understand the relation of my current state to my everyday life as a whole.  Everyday is a process and an opportunity to connect with ordinary objects.  I enjoy giving life to something devoid of life or place an object on a pedestal and declare them special.  It’s like a religion, I do art as a means of channeling my gratefulness of my existence and giving it back for the world to see.

YMK: Your siblings are also creative in their own way, was there any artistic rivalry? if there was, how did you manage it?

JJA: In our family, there’s always an open avenue for criticism with each others works and we were trained to take it lightly because only with talking about the works can one grow and improve…although admittedly there are times that art talks get out of hand… just like any other family interventions, walkouts and shouting matches are not unusual. 

YMK: Your spouse is a graphic designer, so he is also artistic and creative. Does this cause any friction in the marriage? Or is it more beneficial? Why?

JJA: We find each other’s career path a gift to one another.  Although Mike can work alone confidently in his field, he welcomes and at times go out of his way to get me involved with hand drawn designs for some logos for his clients.   Equally, whenever I need something that’s computer based needless to say, he just fulfils it.   Our formula is pleasant since he also appreciates visual art in a special level.

Self-portrait, 2013

YMK: What is your primary choice of media in making art? Why?

JJA: Acrylic and Mixed Media with found objects.  I enjoy playing with the palette knife with acrylic paint and the expressionistic effect it brings.  On the other hand, collecting found objects literally from junk shops, on the road, friend’s houses also have a different kind of fulfillment.  Turning unusable things into something and combining objects to harmonize them is a challenge that I’d always love to solve. How an object’s shape, color and texture affect another if placed together then bind them with newspaper pulp and glue is fulfilling. It has a special place in my heart because the process is not ordinary for me, it’s like solving a puzzle and making each part fit to complete a whole new art piece.

YMK: I’ve noticed in your artworks through the years that you like to experiment with different materials. What drives you to do this?

JJA: I like to see effects.  The effect of rusty objects touching a smooth object; the effect of a broken glass inside a cylinder; the effect of a twisted wire bound with ballpens; rugs dipped in glue and mounted on board, etc.  I like to see variety, I’m obsessed with unused things and old objects, the more odd the shape, texture and color are…the better. I like to see the visual tensions they create if placed near each other.  It’s like making my own personal visual diary.

YMK: Can you explain the satisfaction you get in creating a work of art and finishing it?

JJA: If the work speaks to me, then I think I have succeeded. I believe every artist finds satisfaction and fulfillment after finishing a work, not only because they have finished it but because they have purged what cannot be spoken in words.

The artist with her painting

YMK: How do you sustain your art in the midst of the responsibilities of being a wife and a mom?

JJA: For me art is a lifestyle, it is part of my everyday life.   The process continues while I am doing my chores and maternal responsibilities. I don’t see art as a different thing to tackle while living my life; it is like breathing. It’s integrated in being a mother and a wife.  Luckily for me, my husband is very supportive of my artistic endeavors.

YMK: What can we expect from Jana in the near future when it comes to her artworks?

JJA: More experimentations on materials, more courage to tackle massive works.  

                      

Babbu Wenceslao by Yvette Malahay-Kim

Antonio “Babbu” Alunan Wenceslao and I went to the same art school in college. Since then we’ve done group exhibitions, concerts, conferences, workshops, outdoor events and teach art.

YMK: After graduating from art school in UP, how did your art practice evolve?

BW: Art and art practice to me have definitions of their own, including their own progressions. Its always a challenge to check on their footprints. But early on, I was always drawn to teaching, even before finishing art school, we conducted the Summer Art workshop which was hosted by Lab-as Restaurant and the generous patronage of the late Vicente Fuentes. We ran the workshop for about twenty summers since there was no formal training in the arts in Dumaguete back then. We 

taught creativity for kids and basic drawing and painting for adults. Immediately after art school, I joined Silliman University (because you took your MA in UP Diliman) teaching FA 51 - Art Appreciation which I did for a couple of years. So my engagement with art you could say still leans heavily in the practice of teaching its craft.      

1989. College days at the basement where the
University of the Philippines Cebu Fine Arts was located

YMK: What is the usual subject matter that you give attention too? Why?

BW: My works I believe are a bit simple, but they revolve around several contemporary issues and multiple subjects from the environment to aesthetics. But then again primarily, my initiatives are always drawn with the intent, and in the circumstance and objective of amplifying collective visual consciousness. This I believe is a fundamental principle and purpose of art. 

Why? As a people, our icons are drawn in the faint and blurred outlines of collective doubt, shrouded in the shadows of our colonial position and the effective mechanisms of a western dominated media. It is in the realm of art where as a culture we can possibly re-trace and reinforce, create and elevate the very shape and form of own images. Art allows us the ability to visually refine and define our aspirations, and differentiate ourselves as a culture in the context of contemporary life.       

             

YMK: What compelled you to create a fine arts program in college and eventually open up in Foundation University?

1995, Guy Hall, Silliman U

BW: I grew up surrounded by a lot of creative people, mostly writers and a couple of painters, colleagues and students of my mother whose conversations always drift into how Dumaguete as a place, is always seen and felt as familiar and personal geography, a haven nurturing to the creative mind and warm to the artistic spirit. Somehow I kept this thought of the city as an ideal place to study the arts.

When I joined Silliman University in 1996 (?), there was an ongoing initiative to open a painting program under the School of Music, so I wrote and finished the BFA curriculum proposal, it was approved by the Silliman Academic Council under Dean Susan but was eventually deferred from implementation by a departmental change in administration. 

           

On an early morning mountain bike trail ride to Valencia, I disclosed the prospect to Architect Dean Sinco who was opening an Architecture program. I wrote a new curriculum proposal, and the first Fine Arts school in the province was opened that very year, 2006. Now we have two art schools in a small city. Architect Gerard Uymatiao would say, "be careful with what you ask for because you might get it." 

             

YMK: How do you mix music and poetry in your visual arts practice? Or rather, how is it intertwined?

BW: They are all quite confusingly intertwined. Music is very important to me. I listen to a lot of genres. I've read mostly my mother's poems and those that she feeds me, and they are all inspiring but I personally do not do poetry. I've never formally trained in music but I think I can write a song and play a few chords in the guitar, but the lyrics however are more prose than poetry. Music and the visual arts are all equal creative pursuits, part and parcel of the entire package, or should I say baggage? 

YMK: How do you achieve balance in the many things you are involved in? from teaching, managing tours, managing a restaurant, producing art, and last but not the least, caring for your family...

BW: Balance as a principle even in art is an ideal. Real life is always a circus act, a tightrope walk, every step is a leap of faith and a constant correction, a recovery from the imbalance that was created by the very act of movement.

I do happen to have a slack-line, that my wife ironically gave me as a birthday gift. What I learned from trying it out is that there is no specific technique, everyone has to intuitively find his own style to walk and stay on the swinging flat webbing, except, for the common shared experience, that every now and then you will fall and then when you get back and get to successfully cross the line, it was because you were looking ahead, every step of the way.        

YMK: Among the different media (i.e. pencil, paint, wood, clay etc) that you have worked with, what is your favorite and why?

BW: Every creative material is an artistic tool, I personally do not have a ranking till this question. So that would be clay and wood. Clay and wood as creative materials were the foremost mediums that were used by our pre-colonial ancestors. Negros island has a lot of anthropological earthen and wooden artifacts. The earliest objects and images that our ancestors created were shaped and formed using clay, wood or bamboo. Paint and pigment as a dominant medium of representation is largely colonial influence.  

YMK: How do you think is the study of studio arts relevant in an age that is driven by computers, smart phones and tablets?

BW: It has never been as important. Art to a large extent is derivative, globally we have never experienced this as we are now. Originality is a patent. But the demand for image, its utility and access has grown exponentially. We partially think and speak english as a colonized culture, but in the virtual world, imagery has become the terminology, the new language of global psycholinguistics.

Human cognition and understanding is a visual process, this has not changed since our earliest ancestors. In this information age, our visual faculty has become even more important. A culture's ability to visualize and envision will determine its capacity to cope, anticipate, and eventually overcome. Which is why we need leaders with a keen sense of vision, and a critical eye for finding visual solutions. 

1995, Planning stage of the Fine Arts Curriculum in Dumaguete. With Silliman University
School of Music and Fine Arts Director Susan V. Zamar, Leonel de Jesus, Jutsze Pamate,
curator Bobi Valenzuela, JB Bernadas, Babbu Wenceslao, Bianca Espinos and Yvette Malahay.

The studio arts as a discipline in aesthetics and imagery trains the eye and the mind in the creation and purpose of imagery. It is significant in the sense that it provides our culture the ability to illustrate and visually configure its own aspirations and provide the capacity to participate in the continuous development and understanding of human culture. (end of interview)     

Babbu continues to joggle his roles as a teacher at Foundation University, manager at El Amigo and Cafe Memento, tour guide for Island Life Adventure tours, father to three kids, and husband to the love of his life, June Cleo.