A Reason for Being: An Interview with Artist Celia Correa
by Yolanda Palis

Yolanda Palis:  Celia Correa is a Filipina Artist in Toronto, Canada. She works in the Graduate Admissions Unit of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Celia, this interview will appear in OUR OWN VOICE. Please give us your background and tell our readers what led you into Painting and Art.

"Nanay" by Celia Correa

Celia Correa: I was born and grew up in a beautiful town called Los Baños (Lost Bananas as a Canadian friend used to call it), Laguna. It is a university town (now a city) surrounded by magical mountains and lakes, and also home to the University of the Philippines at Los Baños and many international research centers. Both my parents come from a very humble background. My father (who ran away from home in Pangasinan when he was young) served in the army during World War II and then became a security guard in the university afterwards. My mother’s older siblings all went to school and when her turn came, my grandfather decided she would help him farm instead.

I am the oldest of 5 daughters. It’s only my youngest sister Alma and I now, with her nine-year- old son Jesse who is the heart of the family and the inspiration for many of my paintings.  

YP: When did you start drawing/painting; was there an event or a series of experiences that turned your interest to the visual arts?  How old were you then?

CC: I do not remember exactly when I started drawing but when I was maybe 4 or 5, I remember always asking my father to draw for me and he would always draw the outline of a human figure. One of my cousins told me that when I was very young, I was always drawing, using pencil on any available paper around. I would always draw people. In elementary school, I remember being so elated whenever my drawing was displayed on the board together with the other drawings.

"Kasama (Comrade)" by Celia Correa

YP: Tell us about the works that you were doing then.

CC: Three works stand out in my memory—my drawings of the ‘Secret Garden,’ Laguna Lake and Daffodils. At that time I had no inkling of how a daffodil really looks like. But I used the poem (Daffodils by William Wordsworth) we were reading at the time as my guide. When I got to see real daffodils in Vancouver many years later, I was so proud that my drawing in Grade 6 was accurate.

YP: Did you think then that you might want to pursue Art seriously? As a profession?

CC: I wanted to study fine arts but my family could not afford to send me to a university in Manila. So I just continued drawing for myself, on my own. I am self taught. At university, a mentor who had heard that I could draw, asked me to do a political cartoon that would be used for a position paper.

YP: Was it mostly in charcoals, pencil or ink drawing on defined spaces?  Are surface/medium or inspiration factors in your work?  What drives you, your art?

CC: I dabbled a bit in watercolour aside from pencils drawings. People are my main subject ever since. At university, I went on to drawing more political cartoons, to designing posters, painting murals on walls and canvasses and paper, I was using ordinary enamel house paint. I started experimenting with color in painting the human figure. Through my interaction with formally trained artists coming from other universities I developed confidence in my technique and my preference for figurative painting.

"Waiting" by Celia Correa

YP: It’s interesting that you took a different track in the beginning of your art. Most artists dabble in still life first before attempting the human body. What were your works at this time period?

CC: I became part of a group of artists called ‘Nagkakaisang Progresibong Artists-Arkitekto (United Progressive Artists-Architects) mostly formally trained artists from the University of the Philippines in Diliman and the University of Sto. Tomas. Because of the political climate at that time, we followed a very specific style of representing images of people. The farmers, workers, women, intellectuals and cultural workers were portrayed with very stern expressions and exaggerated strong features like super heroes, while the establishment characters as small and weak caricatures. I must admit I got so used to painting people this way.

YP: There is quite a gap of years when you resumed painting again. What happened?

CC: The declaration of Martial Law in 1972 ended this phase of my life as an artist. I became preoccupied with the humdrum of living, so to speak— finishing my studies and getting a full-time job. I completed my Bachelor of Science in Agriculture later than my peers in college because of my involvement as an art activist. I worked in several government and private agencies in Manila for a while and then completed my Master of Science in Development Communications at UP Los Baños also. I found employment at UPLB afterwards as a Communications Officer. In 1982, I left the country to pursue my second Master’s degree in Communications at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. I returned to the Philippines in 1985 and worked at the International Rice Research Institute in their Training Division for two years. In 1988, I applied and was accepted to the doctoral program in adult education at the Ontario Institute for Education of the University of Toronto. I’ve lived in Toronto ever since.

I call it my long “artist block” which began in the late 70s and lasted until 2006.

"Salamat sa padala mong t-shirt 'Nay" by Celia Correa

YP:  That long? Did you not want to paint anymore? What made you pick up your easel and paint brush again?

CC:  In between those years, I tried going back to painting.  There was a time when I used to make my own Christmas cards to send to friends. An announcement, a call to artists for an exhibit at OISE, my place of work, motivated me to finish two paintings of my nephew which I had started the year before.

YP: Have you participated in any exhibit in Toronto?

CC:  I submitted my paintings of Jesse for the OISE art exhibit held by staff, students and faculty artists. This was the first time I used acrylic paint on canvas. The choice of the medium was a practical one: I have limited space in my bachelor’s apartment and I need a medium that does not give off any smell and also dries up quickly. I still have not mastered the medium but I am learning every time I use it. I have joined the yearly OISE exhibit since then and have submitted one to three paintings each time.

Last year I also joined in the exhibits of the Philippine Artists Group of Canada and have shown my paintings in other events like the International Women’s Day celebration in 2009, the Philippine Independence Day celebration in 2007, and the first Filipino-Canadian Symposium of academic scholars held at OISE in 2009.

"Roberto" by Celia Correa

YP: Tell us about your solo exhibit in Laguna.

CC: I had my first solo exhibit at Nineveh Artspace in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, Philippines from November 2009 to January 2010. The exhibit was entitled: Lagpas: Mga Pinay sa  Diaspora. It is a tribute to the lives and condition of Filipinas living in Toronto. I would like to expand this theme as a continuing project. I am using the portrait as a tool to increase the visual space devoted to images of Filipinas particularly in places like the galleries or other sites of cultural production where images of Filipinas are either absent or confined to stereotypes. Nineveh Artspace is owned by an old friend, Louie Sevilla, who started the gallery in memory of his departed mother and adopted son Jonah. The gallery has flourished through Louie’s devotion to and support of Filipino arts and artists in the Philippines and abroad. The gallery has exhibited works of very prominent Filipino artists like Esquillo, Justiniani, Garibay, as well as emerging artists. Nineveh is a house gallery set in a garden full of rare tropical trees and plants. 

YP: What motivates your paintings now?

CC: I have to have a purpose whether political, personal, or emotional in order to paint. I painted my nephew because of my love for him. I painted the portraits of Filipino women who attended the memorial service for a fellow overseas Filipino worker in 2007 because I was deeply touched by the whole story. Now I am painting about Filipinas in Toronto because their experiences are my experiences also. I painted the legend Maria Makiling because I was homesick for my hometown and the magical mountain that surrounds it.
 
YP: Among the contemporary Filipino artists, who are your favorite ones?

CC: There are so many – among the young and contemporary Filipino artists in the Philippines who inspire me in terms of improving my skills as an artist. Jaypee Samson and Nona Garcia are on the top of my list. I am partial to figurative artists and those who give expression to the unique or universal Filipino experience – whether in the Philippines or in the diaspora. I also collect art when I can afford it. I have one by Antipas Delotavo, one by Bon Mujeres, two of Bernard Vista, an artist from Pakil, Laguna.
 
YP:  Where would you like to be in the next three years?

CC: I would love to be able to wake up in the morning everyday and not think about anything but paint. I would like to continue painting people I love: my family and friends. Right now I have a list of the strong women whom I’ve met and who I would like to do portraits of. There are at least 20 of them! To have the luxury of being an artist on a full-time basis would be my heart’s desire!

© Yolanda Palis

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