Form bender

Monday, November 15, 2010

JUST when everyone thinks that contemporary art forms are found, made and exhibited only in big metropolitan cities, think again.

Small town art isn’t lacking in the modern flair because there sure are artists creating modern art and who find contentment in the quiet and laid-back lifestyle in the countryside.

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One of them is the Samboan-based painter and sculptor Methusael “Mimitz” Carredo. He’s a town native who leads a very simple and ordinary life doing mundane routines in his day to day existence. His juggles his being an artist with domestic chores and work at the farm.

The farmer-artist cultivates his own cornfield in the hills, raises a small herd of anglo-nubian goats and tends a backyard piggery.His ordinariness ceases the moment he drops his farming tools and replaces them with a brush when he begins to paint, or with a chisel when he wants to do some sculpting.

Carredo has taken part of many exhibitions in the past years because he is an active member of the Cebu Artists Inc. But the Carredo that we used to know was a painter of impressionistic landscapes and sea scapes. These were the genres that he showed during exhibits with his group.

Now, after a few years of absence in the exhibition scene, we see that his art has evolved from two-dimensional painting into 3-D art form. Art never stops from transforming, so it never fails to surprise, especially with Carredo now.

At the recent inaugural exhibit of the Samboan Museum, Carredo showed his new collection of wood and metal sculptures. Lo and behold, the sculptures came in full force. Carredo has distinguished himself as an accomplished sculptor with his new works made from the finest hardwood the artist sourced in the mountains. He worked on the wood’s grain so finely that they appeared to have been sanded for over a month.

His metal pieces, however, were the outcome of his experiments after he studied welding at the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

It’s been a long time since Carredo last exhibited with CAI. Will he leave town to circulate again in the city? That may be a remote possibility because the way things look, it appears that he is already happy where he is.