MEL VERA CRUZ: "WHY DO WE PRESERVE WHEN ALL ARE MEANT TO FADE?"
“Why do we preserve when all are meant to fade?”
MEL VERA CRUZ
March 2019
Interview Between Eileen Tabios (ET) and Mel Vera Cruz (MVC)
I love dwelling in the dark. I feel at home in it. It’s where I feel
nurtured and protected because of its silence and emptiness. It is where all my
creative juices come from. This trance is my reality and it’s where I keep my
balance because everyone’s afraid of the dark. They keep on rushing to the
shiny and glossy like the moth to the flame.
I must stay and impregnate the abyss because it’s where all creations
come from. I must honor it so I won’t burnout and not be its slave like most
people seem to be.
—Mel Vera Cruz on “Rice Boy’s
Deity”
ET: Your statement
regarding “Rice Boy’s Deity” seems to summarize a fundamental belief on your
part about life and art. How did you come to think this way—about the dark, and
the notion of “impregnating the abyss because it’s where all creations come
from”?
MVC: When
I was young, I had no clue what I was up to but I already knew which path I
wanted to take. I really never understood ‘art’ up until my adulthood when I
realized I used it to cure myself. I understood I was confused but it never
occurred to me that I was using art to cure my psychosis. Art has done wonders
for me physically, mentally, and spiritually. I never lost that reason or
purpose because I knew at the back of my mind that it was the source. It was a
revelation. Art is the light that guided and saved me through my dark moments
and this understanding kept me grounded. I finally understood because when I
really get to my core, my gut, my essence, the beginning or the source, it isn’t
about ‘fame,’ money or the accolades. Art made me realize myself and understand
all of the reasons why I was making art.
It took a lot of
courage because a lot of people told me otherwise, especially during my time
when our parents think that we’re only fooling around when we’re drawing. My
parents were so scared of something not tangible or something they cannot
equate with money, which I totally understand. But the moment it dawned on me
that what I was doing was right, no one—and no institution or tradition—can
stop me because I asked all the questions they were all scared to look into,
and this unlocked all of the doors that were invisible for others but not to
me. My courage to ask those questions revealed to me my core, my essence. Once
I knew myself, I was unstoppable.
I think we will
only repeat everything when we only follow what we’ve seen or what we’ve been
told to do. Artists should have the courage to go beyond the norm or beyond
what the eye can see. We need to dive within the deepest abyss of our ocean, or
what we call the psyche, to really understand. That’s what I meant when I said
I can impregnate the abyss because I totally believe that, as with the inside
of the womb, it is where creation and originality come from. I must be the Yang
to the Yin. I think it’s the artist’s duty to guide others on how to navigate the
unconscious or the unknown.
ET: I can see how,
when you were younger, you might start out with non-traditional art supply
store materials. But you stuck with this idea of never using art supplies from
art stores (do I have that right)? What happened over the years that made you
adhere to using material from your daily living? That is, when or how did you
create more philosophical thoughts to how you would integrate such material
into your art? Any influences from other artists? (I think you once told me
years ago Santiago Bose was helpful to you in thinking out your approach… ?)
MVC: The
main reason I use everyday materials is that art isn’t a career for me. It
isn’t separate from the rest of my life. My views always comes from the eye of
an artist and that’s the reason everyday things are part of my art materials.
The cosmos is my workshop as they say.
I had no art
resources when I was in grade school because I lived in the province. All I had
was a pencil so it was my only drawing tool. During high school, we got to do
stencils to print on textiles. I didn’t have access to silk screens so I used
cardboard stencils instead and this stuck with me because I love everything
that deals with the basics. All of the noise can be confusing so the gut or the
core is very important for me because I know how important it is for everyone
to not listen to the noise so as not to lose their essence.
I lost it for a
while when everyone told me to paint in the European style because everyone
thought that whatever they say as art was art. I followed that tradition for a
long time so I painted a lot of cubist and impressionist styles until I
realized it’s all empty for me. I was like the moth to the flame. It was a dead
end. I was like a parrot mimicking what I heard. It wasn’t me. This was when Santiago "Santi" Bose came to me. He’s the one who lit my fire and showed me the right
way. He gave me the courage to be myself. I had an instant bond with Santi
because we’re both ‘syano,’ FOB or country boys. He came from Baguio, I came from
the province of Quezon. It’s hard to explain but I feel that our kind of people
uses intuition more than logic as compared to others who had no ‘provincial’
experience.
The revelation
Santi showed me gave me the guts to go back to my core. It was one of the
greatest gifts ever. Being liberated from the dictates of society is ‘nirvana’
and I will never exchange that feeling from anything else. I realized my own
power. I will stick to it and that includes the art materials I use because I
never want to lose it again.
With Ajax, one of the gallery dogs:
MVC: I’m
pretty sure my conviction not to use traditional art materials is political
because I am protesting against what they tell us what art should be. I am the
artist and I know that we are the ones the system should follow, not the other
way around. As I stated above, I did paint a lot on canvas but I’m not saying
everyone should stop doing it. To each their own. It’s just my conviction not
to follow others because I feel I have to stick to my core so as not to lose
myself again.
ET: How do you
create and/or source the text that you come to write on your works?
MVC: Oh,
those texts. They are my informal manifesto. Those writings came from my
esoteric studies like astrology, palmistry and numerology. I have been reading
and studying them for several years now. I am thankful these divinations
(considered by the church as taboos) opened a lot of knowledge for me. With some
of them, I just rearrange; but a lot of them are original. Those texts are
samples of what I say that I gathered from the abyss. Some ideas came while I
was riding the BART so it’s important for me to always have a pen handy because
we never know when that spark will come.
ET: How have people reacted (either positively or
negatively) to your use of daily life material vs. more recognized “art
supplies”? Reacted as art viewers or as folks you meet during various
public showings.
MVC: Haha.
I find them (reactions) funny because most of them have no clue what I was
trying to rebel against. I totally understand that people are scared of
everything that they haven’t seen or heard before so it doesn’t bother me. I
never take it personally when someone tries buying one of my pieces but wants
something removed from it. I just say no sale. Haha. These reactions are normal
and I am ready for them because I never take my or anyone’s opinion seriously.
What’s important for me is that I know for sure that I’m carving a new path for
anyone to follow.
*********
North Fork Arts Projects is pleased to share close-up images
of Mel Vera Cruz’s artworks, followed by a brief artist statement. All of these
exhibited works are from a mixed-media series he made in 2017:
Title: Rice Boy’s
Deity
Size: 24x32
inches
Statement: I
love dwelling in the dark. I feel at home in it. It’s where I feel nurtured and
protected because of its silence and emptiness. It is where all my creative
juices come from. This trance is my reality and it’s where I keep my balance
because everyone’s afraid of the dark. They keep on rushing to the shiny and
glossy like the moth to the flame. I must stay and impregnate the abyss because
it’s where all creations come from. I must honor it so I won’t burnout and not
be its slave like most people seem to be.
*
Title: Guy N Pip /
Bobot ‘N Vi
Size: 32x20
inches
Description:
Art isn’t a separate thing for me. It is not a career. It lives inside me. It
is my reality. I used that pizza box from Costco as guard for boiling oil
popping out while frying fish. The background on the left side is a Manila
envelope with a picture of Maya Angelou glued on it. My subject, Filipino heart
throbs during the seventies (Guy and Pip / Bobot and Ate Vi) were icons and
considered as ‘low-brow’ but a lot of gourmet foods started as street food. I
can see when a king is naked because I maintained my innocence.
*
Title: Carlos
Bulosan
Size: 26x20
inches
Description: I
used to make t-shirt stencils when I was in high school because it’s so
accessible and easy to make. You just need a cardboard and X-Acto knife and
boom, you’re in business! Back in P.I during the 70’s, we only had Alemars and
National Bookstore, the only local source of limited art supplies. I won’t lie
to you, Banksy influenced me to use it again.
*
Title: Mukasim
Size: 16x18
inches
Description:
My wife asked, ‘Do you want this mango box in the recyclables bin?’ I told her
no because I might have some use for it in the future. Here it is. Mukasim was a popular TV commercial
about the Datu Puti brand of vinegar which is very common among Filipinos. It
means your face gets distorted with goodness or sourness when you try Datu Puti
vinegar. That image was from a Datu Puti bottle of vinegar, which is why I
titled it 'Mukasim.'
*
Title: In Transit
Size: 38 x 43 inches
The work is two-sided, hence two images are presented--this is the reverse side:
Description:
When Filipinos travel, they don’t care if the other passengers use Gucci or
Louis Vuitton because what matters to us are the contents of the luggage, not
the outside. Sharing our experience and abundance are way more important to us
than any of those brand names combined.
*********
ET: By the way,
and related to your cardboard-based works, I’ve been able to visit the
Philippines and visit some contemporary art galleries in Manila only once; this
was decades ago. But I remember the works I saw in this one gallery (I think it
was owned/managed by someone whose last name is “Dee”) of various Filipino
artists using non-traditional material and how the dealer said it was partly a
means of rebelling against Western art. I recalled this conversation when,
subsequently, I first saw your cardboard works years ago at the Philippine Embassy
in San Francisco; I’ve been forever grateful you gave me two of those works and
I have enjoyed living with them over the years!
Interestingly, after living with these works, I came
recently to see their influence on some shadow-box poetry sculptures I made.
For the shadow box, I used cardboard boxes typically used for my dog food
supplies. What’s interesting is that I could have used these wooden wine boxes
for shadow boxes; I live in Napa Valley and see many wine boxes, many of which
are rather elegant. I set aside numerous elegant wood wine boxes thinking to
create shadow box sculptures one day. But I finally recycled them and used
these plainer cardboard boxes instead. I think their “ordinariness” ended up
having a greater appeal than the elegant wood boxes I got from wineries—and I
think living with your two “Adobado” works influenced my thinking. So thank you
for that.
This is a photo of all of the shadow-box sculptures, which
are some of my explorations of the line and the circle, using the hay(na)ku
poetry form. As they also were published by Datableed, you can see close-up
images at Datableed's website HERE.
MVC: Awesome!
It’s what I live for, Eileen. To spread the light! Cheers!
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