By Vanette Colmenares
New York – Art takes many forms and last week’s expression was through painting. I was privileged to see so many talented artists each having their own interpretation of life at the launching exhibit of the International Women Artists’ Artiste Feminae on Broadway in Queens. The Foundation for Filipino Artists, headed by Ms. Aida Bartolome, has provided support to the newly formed women’s art group.
IWA founding president Ann Constantino Beck rendered two paintings: Nudus and Tu Solus (Only You). Debra Simsek, in a striped colored dress, painted colorful mermaids, and I just loved them. The shades of color that she used portrayed the mood of her mermaids. Debra holds art workshops and does them in Kabisera Kape in Manhattan’s lower east side, whose owner, DJ Chinita is also an officer of IWA,
Anna Leah Sanson’s Kalilangan series, artifacts of Mindanao.
Debra Simsek and her colorful mermaids.
Jan Andrada, the baby nurse is a painter too.
The Battle of Sibuyan, one that has a Philippine historical innuendo, was a beautiful interpretation of WW II by Jan Andrada. She is an artist on her free time, but is also a baby nurse by profession. She is an advocate of mother and child issues. Her Kandungan collection depicts just that.
The one painting that intrigued me was made by Amira Aziza, whose medium was the x-ray of her grandmothers’s knee. She painted over the plate, and what came out was a beautiful luminous work of art.
Abstraction on x-ray film by Amira Aziza.
Ann Beck’s Tu Solus (Only you)
Anna Leah Sanson is a cultural painter who derives her inspiration from her native Mindanao. Hers is the Kalinga series. Ana is an advocate of environmental and cultural preservation in New York and in the Philippines.
Veteran artist Art Zamora’s Mathematics of Life is depicted in circles of bursting colors. If I may make my own it would be “sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down.” Life is never a constant, there is always something going on. It could get complicated, depending on one’s own perspective.
After the presentation of the artists, we were entertained by Kevin with his saxophone interpretation of Kenny G.
Artiste Feminae runs until September 30, 2018 and has been moved to Kabisera Kape on 151 Allen Street. Kudos to all. It is worth the visit. (Photos by Vanette Colmenares and Anna Leah Sanson; Featured photo L-R: Debra Simsek, Aziza Amira, Jan Andrada, Ann Constantino Beck, DJ Chinita, and Anna Leah Sanson)
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