The scientist and the rocker
Here are two artists, juxtaposed, to bring out how each one sees an object and recreates it through a different eye. The first artist, more serious, infuses his medical background into his artworks. The other creative, meanwhile, is a stark contrast. He’s a happy guy, who creates happier artworks. Meet Van Truico and Jethro Jocson.
THE SCIENTIFIC ARTIST
He has a split personality, but it’s not a disease, it’s a gift. Inside Van Truico are two opposing animals: science and arts. For him, there’s science in arts and vice versa. An artwork, according to him, is both a feeling and a thought. A scientist, he likes to experiment. Van plays with industrial materials like leather, wires, screws, stainless steel, and copper. And like a passionate artist, he uses feelings, moods, and guts.
Van Tuico
(Images by Pinggot Zulueta)
“I graduated from dental medicine but I am a full-time artist. I apply my medical background, the terms I’ve studied in physiology and anatomy, into my artwork. I believe there’s science in arts. Sometimes you think they are just objects of beauty or meaning but they do have functions,” Van says.
His projects always have touches of science. “My works are raw. And I am glad I am applying dentistry in my art. For example, dentists have molding teeth set. I didn’t realize at first that I could incorporate that in my work. There’s a science, for example, in adhesion, like you have to device a way to cook or paste cement in a canvas,” he says. In his recently concluded exhibit “Skin Deep,” he infused cement and leather—and a dash of psychology and medicine, too.
“I like observing people. It’s my pastime. ‘Skin Deep’ is a metaphor of the things I want to do and the things I want to see. Like skin, the largest organ, there are many layers in a person. Most of the time, you need to peel through the layers to see someone. You see someone as happy or sad but beneath it, you don’t know what he’s going through. So in my work, I put layers, such as cement and leather,” Van says.
He adds that he infuses his work with leather because it’s flexible and durable. “The longer leather lasts, the impact is more beautiful. It’s like meeting people or seeing people. The longer you know them, the more impact they have. It’s not just skin deep,” says Van.
He adds that his art process is longer than usual, partly because he has science as background. He does many studies, and drawings, and proposals before he touches a canvas. “My process is step by step, I do much research. Sometimes, my preparation is longer than the painting itself. I’d rather have more research because I am not a trained artist, and because I like to think things through,” he says.
For Van, science and art are ever evolving and he has so much more to learn and discover. “I appreciate it that I am learning every day. I don’t want to stop discovering things.”
Jethro Jocson
MR. COOL GUY
He can pass off as a rock star with his long hair and fashion sense: plaid shirt, black jeans, wayfarers, and a glass of wine in one hand. Jethro Jocson creates and plays music but he breathes arts and teaches it, too.
“I make my own music and I listen to it to enhance my creativity. I paint whenever the sun is up, when it’s daylight. At nighttime, I create poems and stories,” he says.
In his recently concluded exhibit called Integrity, Jethro showcases his strong moral principle and his sunny disposition, visible in the paintings that showcase happy colors, curves, and lines.
In “Integrity,” he chose his masterpieces, recreated, and tweaked them. “I chose my best works. You see? They’re all minimal. This is my way of thinking, simple. I get inspiration, with like I said, lights. Whenever I see light, an idea pops in my head,” he says.
As an art teacher to special children, Jethro applies a simple trick he believes in: “visual order of things,” which, according to him, is about figures and lines, construction and color theory and color composition. “I believe that a person is molded with his upbringings, experiences, and educational background. That’s my ethics and that’s how I do it,” he says.
His paintings offer a tinge or, sometimes, too much of Jethro. For example, in Opportunity of Happiness, he paints about marriage, a marriage of two contrasting objects, which, when combined, produce chemistry despite their differences. Salvation of Youth, on the other hand, focuses a picture of a red balloon on a cloudy day. The painting reminds one of childhood memories. “These are the things that remind you that you’re getting old,” he says, smiling.
He has a short poetry included, too. Called High Fidelity, it summarizes Jethro’s integrity as an artist: positive and simple. “We will cry without sadness to fly merciful with true happiness in motion,” one line says.
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