|
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Davao's finest
By Ritchie Landis Doner Quijano
Probably the most respected visual artist in Davao today, Lito Pepito, is staging his 14th solo show here at the SM art center as a sort of homecoming exhibit as his origins take root in Lilo-an, Cebu. Even today, in the maturity of both his age and art, he can’t forget the day when he was all 4 years old, starting to learn drawing using paper from a bread wrapper and the humble pencil.
And since that memorable day the schoolboy kept on drawing and honing his artistic talent which eventually paid off by earning him a school prize in a drawing contest in Calero Elementary School, Lilo-an. On his trip to the city, the artist in him was encouraged even more while observing movie billboard painters at work in downtown movie houses. Lito is one of those self-trained painters whose inborn talent and inner calling never seem to stop driving him to take the path of the art profession even while taking up accountancy in college. In 1974 when he ventured to the national capital to hunt for a job, the inevitable urge to paint overwhelmed him so much, the hunger to paint made him spend his last peso to buy tubes of oil paints.
And from the pigments of those precious oil, the rest is history. His painting won 2nd prize in the Araw Ng Davao contest in 1980.
He became a member and officer of several groups like the Art Association of Davao, Davao Artists Foundation, Davao Art League and Camera Club of Davao. In 1985 he fulfilled what every artists are dreaming of, to visit Paris to French-kiss a French goddess, maybe, and spend time to marvel in the great museums of the Louvre and Musee de Orsay. Lito is also reknown for his murals at the Brokenshire and Tagum Doctor’s Hospital.
The artistic life of Lito is the kind of stuff an epic saga is made of. (not to mention his stints as a medical salesman who, as he said, while promoting his product to clients, ends his presentations talking about art) The exhibit entitled “Kinaiyahang Bahandi, Transitions III”, intends to promote the natural beauty of Davao, not just a show of flowers and fruits that Davao is known for but also as a tribute to the indigenous people as well, such as the Bagobos and Mandayas. In a stage of transition he aims to look for his own way of expressing himself freely.
(June 21, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
