The RIVER is the metaphor for Mindanao Art for it is the symbol of the dynamic creative force that drives the Mindanawon artists to create their works of art.
An artist’s — or everyman’s-life starts like a river at its source usually the mountain-top. The river inevitably descends down, forming tributaries, meandering and wandering until it reaches its final destination — the sea, the river becomes one with the sea, then the saltwater condenses into freshwater in the clouds which then transports the water back to the river’s source. And the cycle of life starts anew.
It is this unending cycle of life — of “LIVING” and the “LEAVING” that the TABULA RASA artists have chosen to paint and sculpt for the OCT 4-6, 2019 MINDANAO ART EXHIBITION.
The artist – any man – starts LIVING on earth as a “TABULA RASA”, a blank slate, a white-primed empty canvas. Then this life-canvas gets filled up with layers-upon-layers of childhood, adulthood and old age experiences, like colors and lines of paint, until this painting, a SELF-PORTRAIT of the artist is finished. This is the painting of his life that the artist LEAVES as his final legacy.
In the next Tabula Rasa articles, we will feature the seven participating artists of the Tabula Rasa gallery at the Mindanao Art Fair and Exhibit (M.A.F.E.). Get to know them and see their works at the M.A.F.E.
By Dinky Munda, Jr.
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The River of Creativity- a concept by Mindanao Times Editor-in-Chief Amalia M. Bandiola.
