80 to life

THE invitation came from Jing Cosio, a friend of friends, and therefore by Davao definition is officially a very good friend. It's for his 80-year-old mom who was going to open her first one-woman painting exhibit at Via Cafe Gallery, this small coffee shop along Mt. Apo Street that has become a hangout of artists.

I was expecting to find a tottering old lady when I arrived to find a crush of people trying to fit into the tiny cafe. There were several women, not one of them tottering.

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Actually, there was a whole crowd of women, militant ones led by 2010 Datu Bago Lyda J. Canson herself. There was Mae Fe Templa, Malou Tiangco, Bing Briones, artist Lydia Ingle with daughter, the bat expert, Nina, Aida Rivera Ford, and a whole bunch of others. Lurking in the sidelines was my teacher Archt. Omar Payumo and Bayan Muna's Joel Virador. Interesting bunch...

More interesting was that Gabriela Southern Mindanao spokesperson Nisa Opalla gave an opening message followed by a song about the Lubao massacre by three performers whose names escaped me.

Aktibista si mommy?

Mommy is Mommy Catalina Uy Cosio, who admits to having the passion for the brush and ink, a passion she had to keep at bay because her motherly duties demanded her time.

"I was very busy. With studies, with taking case of the family," she said in her short speech.

"It was when my husband died that I took up the brush where I expressed things I couldn't tell my children," she added. Her husband was Dr. Jesus S. Cosio.

The 'things' dominating her paintings were everyday things with poignant strokes of one who has observed these for almost a century -- the bahay kubo as it is in real life, the iskwater houses, a baby bathing in a basin amid a shanty's clutter, pictures of everyday life, and yes, flowers.

Mommy Catalina does know what life at 80 is, and she's showing other that it's not the end of the road yet.

"Magpinta kayo kahit na sa maalat na itlog," she said.

Hmm. That sounds just like a mom...