COLORFUL artworks depicting winged creatures are the main attraction in “Colors in Flight: Artworks of Colorists,” an exhibit that opened last March 29 at the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences.
A sequel to last year’s exhibit “Color More, Stress Less,” the exhibit features the works of over 35 colorists, composed of Thomasian alumni and invited artists.
The colorists focused on the bible’s various depictions of birds, particularly the story of Noah’s Ark, in which Noah saw a white dove flying above the coast, signaling the end of the Great Flood.
“I’d like to see this as something that’s inspired by the Holy Bible because birds are very much connected with the symbol of life,” museum director and colorist Rev. Fr. Isidro Abaño, O.P. told the Varsitarian.
“It was a bird that brought the message of life to Noah. And it is also the symbol of the Eucharist,” he continued.
Abaño’s work, “Feathered in Red,” used colored pencils and ink on paper to show a pink and a red bird protecting a nest, with three eggs perched on a branch.
Vivid colors dominated Abaño’s “Aviary Box,” a series of four artworks that depict birds of different feather patterns perched on branches and twigs.
The exhibit also features three metal sculptures embedded with magenta, light blue, lilac and pink beads by Joanna Angelique Papa-Rebustillo. Her “In Flight” and “Spread My Wings” resemble the structure and color of the Sarimanok, the legendary bird of the Maranao people of Mindanao.
“Flutter By,” also by Papa-Rebustillo, shows a flying bird depicted by the trail of metal spiraling beneath its body.
Following the exhibit opening will be “Colors for the Refreshment of the Soul,” a lecture-workshop by clinical psychologist Grace Brillantes-Evangelista about the relationship of colors with psychology, on April 4. The prevalence of pastel art will also be discussed in a separate lecture-workshop by The Philippine Pastel Artists on April 20.
“Colors in Flight: Artworks of Colorists” will run until April 28. Audrie Julienne D. Bernas
