AS SOON as I arrived at her office, Dr. Eva S.E. Aranas-Angel excitedly ushered me in the room and showed me a wooden sculpture cradled in one of her chairs. It resembled a brain which can be opened through the middle where a bunch of wooden roses is housed.
She named it Brain in Bloom, the second commissioned sculpture of her Iloilo sculptor friend Jeanroll Ejar.
“Look at the bottom of the roses. It sort of shrunk,” she said pointing at the sculpture. The 52-year-old doctor of geriatric medicine for 22 years explained that it is exactly what happens to a human brain when a person develops Alzheimer’s disease.
“Geriatrics is basically elderly medicine because they would present the diseases atypically, different,” she said.
“(For diseases in) young adults, the presentation would be (based on textbook - fever, cough, pneumonia - but in the elderly, they just won't eat, they would fall, they would have behavioral changes and this is infection for them. That's the main difference.”
The sculpture is just one of the more than 400 artworks - mostly paintings - she has collected since last year and the close to 50 practice art pieces she herself made. And if all other arts are accounted for, her short stories and poems, which were published in several anthologies and books and recognized by the likes of multi-awarded National Artists for Literature NVM Gonzales and Cirilo Bautista, complete the art repertoire.
She started collecting artworks last year, the list ranging from the established artists to emerging, younger ones hailing from her hometown Davao and in areas of Ilocos, Cebu, Iloilo, Zamboanga, and Sarangani.
“There was a time that I hoarded in an exhibit where young artists, start-up, emerging artists were. If I buy from them, I can help them buy their materials, more materials, and at the same time, pay their tuition,” she said.
From a mere collector, her father’s death in 2018 encouraged her to be her own visual artist.
“Before I used to travel five to 11 times a year for the conventions and then my father died. My mom has Alzheimer’s. I had to look after her so I have to cut down my travels altogether,” she shared. “I did the painting to try to fill the void when I'm supposed to be away on holidays. It is also therapy for me.”
She initially did mosaics but later enrolled in portraiture and oil painting workshops. Her latest was a painting of a grandmother clasping his grandson’s hand in oil. It was supposed to be an entry for an exhibit organized by Baihinang, an all-female visual arts group but it was postponed.
“This is my first oil painting. I made Lola as the subject kasi diba una they're marginalized. People hardly recognize their contributions to society. And then when you have OFW families, where do you (entrust) all your kids. Di ba sa lola? Lolas are empowering, too,” she said.
“I think, if I paint more about older persons, it will also be congruent and in alignment with my advocacy in making them more conspicuous, because at the moment, even with RA (Republic Act) 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, their contributions to society remain in the shadows. It is always maternal and child care in terms of budget, but maybe painting can be a platform to make people aware that they do have contributions in society,” she said.
But aside from her advocacy, her masterpiece sprung from her personal connection with one of her grandmothers.
“We did a lot of things together. She was a traditional hilot, she inspired me to become a doctor or to get into the health field,” she said in recollection.
Her practice has been focused on Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, which she clarified to be not a normal part of aging nor limited only to forgetfulness.
“When left untreated, it would warm its way into the dynamics of the family because there will be behavioral problems. It may cause the family to crumble in the sense that one will be accused of stealing things, which is part of the Paranoid Delusional Disorders,” she said.
Persons with this disease struggle remembering daily activities as routinary as bathing, dressing, feeding, or walking. They would also sometimes have the inability to control pee or poop.
The person will soon develop behavioral changes - accusations of theft if they cannot find the things they misplaced, accusations of infidelity which turns couples who used to be very sweet to become like cats and dogs and visual hallucinations.
Her two decades of dealing with Alzheimer’s exposed her to a rollercoaster of emotions - from family quarrels and patient’s absurd tendencies. Her escape was to recall a funny scene and post it on social media. Eventually, through nudges from her friends, she compiled it into a book “Kwentong Alzheimer’s” coming in three volumes.
“This is my first book but this is clinical humor kind of thing. It's neither creative nor literary. I want to present the symptoms and story of Alzheimer's and other dementias in a manner where it's anecdotal. I'm hoping that people will be more aware that ‘Oh kaya pala ganito si Lola, or when they would understand why their mother has been hoarding things,” she said.
“In my introduction, I said that I'm not laughing at or trivializing (the disease) but I'm just presenting the narrative as they unfolded before me. Having Alzheimer's isn't easy. It's important that we detect cases early because it is really expensive,” she said as the disease cost the family their fortune and their relationship.
“My patients actually inspired me to write this. I learned a lot from them and from their families, like how they cope, the values, and how to manage conflict,” she said.
Medicine and painting are practices that, to an outsider, are considered to require a totally opposite approach - scientific and artistic. For Doc Eva, they may be complementary and may share a common drive - emotion.