portraits arg. read this piece on painter v.c. igarta by eileen tabios. it's frustrating! it's a magazine editor's nightmare to edit. is it a piece on the painter, or ms. tabios' lament on extending her appreciation of mr. igarta too late, or a piece on ms. tabios' regard for mr. igarta's paintings?!

*shrugs.* it's all of those.

having set up her own publishing house, ms. tabios has long earned the right to contribute to fil-am letters however which way she wishes. she isn't the first to write this way; tributes to fil-am artists are long overdue and oft-neglected. in fact, this essay is a stunning portrait of the lives of two artists acutely aware of their place in a foreign country:

... Hanging on the wall in front of my computer is a portrait he painted of me. I look sideways rather than directly at the viewer — thus, did Igarta portray my tendency to arrive at what revelations I muster by taking the longest paths possible to those discoveries. In my portrait, an abstract though humanoid figure floats behind my shoulder. Igarta said he painted the form "because it just surfaced as I painted; so I let it remain in the painting." But when I pressed him to identify the shape, Igarta relented and said, "It's your guardian angel." I didn't tell Igarta at the time but will reveal it now: I believe Igarta's "guardian angel" is my poetry "muse." In painting my portrait, Igarta abstracted from my image into what I hope to be my essence — a spirit that I hope can be distilled by how I live my life into one word: Poet. [ Meditations on Ilokano Abstractions ]

  ¶ 11/28/2004 02:33:00 PM