Ian’s primordial soup
“Cut! You’re faking an emotion. Something’s amiss,” a director calls the attention of his actor, requiring him to do retakes until he gets it right. Retakes happen in painting, too. At least in abstract painting using acrylic colors, an artist can put layers and layers of emotion, color, and image until finally it feels right and genuine. Ian Veneracion is both an actor and painter. But in painting, he gets to be his own director—or maybe not.
“Painting is not always successful. Sometimes you think, ‘Hmm, this is baduy (corny). It’s wrong.’ The advantage in acrylic is you can put layers if you want. While a viewer can only see the surface, I can see right through my painting, all the layers and stories behind it. But most of the time, the painting speaks to you. It’s like [the painting] saying, ‘Stop. Don’t touch me. I am already finished.’ And you heed the message and it’s done,” Ian says.
TRACE THE EMOTION Actor and painter Ian Veneracion behind his painting, Being Jonah, which is included in his exbhit “Primordial.” The painting talks about the feeling of being engulfed by whales like “showbiz, parenthood, corruption” among others. (Image by Pinggot Zulueta)
In Ian’s third solo exhibit called ”Primordial,” on view at GT-Toyota Asia Cultural Center of the Philippines Diliman Quezon City until Dec. 11, his 55 paintings speak of a myriad emotions, as if every painting is an extension of his acting career.
“The process I go through is parallel with the exercises I do as an actor. You get into a certain emotion, hold it, and go back to it whenever you want. In showbiz term, it’s called ‘emotional continuity.’ And whatever emotion that is, it’s translated in the canvas. I think an actor worth his salt does not need to fool himself. The same goes with painting,” he says.
In ”Primordial,” Ian highlights his emotions and nothing else. He says while techniques like etching, smudging, and hatching are good, he sometimes sees them as just “borloloy (accessories) or something that you know works all the time.” It’s like having a bag of tricks. That’s why he says he never studied to be a painter but only relied on his own emotions and influences, who includes his father, Roy Veneracion, a renowned painter. Ian also recalls artists like Jose Joya, Rock Drilon, Gus and Teresa Albor, and Lito Carating frequenting their house when he was little. These artists and their abstract paintings influenced him the most.
Ian Veneracion, Hypnotized, acrylic on canvas, 2014
“I find it more interesting to do it the wrong way. I think it only becomes an artwork when people can see your version, the imperfection, the humanity, the nuances, when the edges are not equal, when there are smudges all over. I want things to be as subtle as possible,” Ian says.
This is why he says his exhibit is called ”Primordial,” “because I think there are innate images in our heads that are there and don’t need words or explanations.” He exemplifies the arts of Ifugao and Incas. While they are worlds apart, there are similarities in them that don’t need words. “People are so used to visual cues and creating meanings, but not with abstract. Sometimes, you just let it speak to you through feelings,” he says.
When doing abstract artworks, Ian likes to think out of the box. Sometimes, he uses his brush, but he says that he also paints straight from the tube or that sometimes he only uses his left hand to smudge the canvas. Anything goes.
In his “Brainwashed” painting, for example, which is also one of his favorites, he started painting at the top left—not knowing where to go, left or right, back or forward—and finished at the bottom right, without ever lifting his hands. It was continuous and limitless. “It literally looked like a map of my brain. It’s like a brain monitor,” he says. Unlike in Primordial Soup theory, which tells that life began in the ocean, Ian’s soup is wilderness. “When I finished this painting, it opened the door that led me to a huge desert in my head with all gemstones I have yet to discover,” Ian says.
While Ian is open to changes, like an actor portraying different roles, he says he is most comfortable with abstract. “We have more than enough paintings of something like a sunset or a flower and, come on, we already know what they look like. No offense meant to anyone. But I try to stay away from that. I think it’s too safe a choice,” he says.
In abstract and in ”Primordial,” he says, there’s something unique and ancient in one of us, which is found only in the deeper ocean (or desert) of our minds, making us different from everyone else.
“I cannot put a finger on it. What is that ‘Ian’ in it? Whenever you try to hide it, there will only be one you. Although I am not saying that I’ve never been influenced—there’s no original idea anyway, but only a variation of ideas—you paint like no one else. And once you’ve found that voice, hear it, embrace it. That’s what I am trying to do,” he says.
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