Atin-Atin Lang

Untitled Landscape (1), one of Mae's early paintings, a view somewhere in Caliraya.

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One of my mentors in graduate studies, learning about my sister Mae's work and her tragic end, suggested that I arrange with De La Salle Univerity - Manila's Main Library Museum to have her paintings exhibited. I was then working at that university while writing my thesis. She averred that it is the logical course that an artist take. For my sister, it would have served as a closure to fulfill her dreams.

At the onset of negotiations with the museum's curator, however, I left my work in a huff to concentrate on writing my thesis. At least, that was what I told my director. In truth, I was reeling from shock at my sister's brutal death. Actually, everyone in the family was going through a harrowing experience, most specially my parents. Feeling an overpowering emptiness, we were drawn together seeking strength from God and each other. I resigned from work, went home to Laguna and left this business of exhibiting Mae's work hanging in the air. That was in 1994.

Moving on, I got preoccupied with many concerns, started getting odd jobs and forgot the whole thing. And now twelve years after, as I posted my tribute to her in the very first article in this blog site, I thought, "Why not have her virtual exhibit here instead?" So, here are a batch of her earliest paintings... landscapes near home.

Untitled Landscape (2), a view somewhere in Caliraya

Untitled Landscape (3), a view somewhere in Caliraya

Untitled Landscape (4), a view somewhere in Laguna from SLEX

Untitled Landscape (5), a view somewhere in Laguna from SLEX

I don't really know whether these works are untitled. I have to dig into her things and see if she left any notes on these paintings. Or perhaps, I have to look under the frames to see if she scribbled any clues. I shall do that when I get the time to visit Laguna and take pictures of her other works as well.

Mae S. Kabamalan, my sister, a few days before she met her fate (1994).

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Come the 2nd day of May this year, Mae would have enjoyed 41 summers of her life. That would have meant dazzling colors on many canvasses, more play of light and shadows on her drawing plates, more oohh and ahhhs evoked by her compositions. But it is not to be. On February 10, 1994, as she was painting her last frame at home to complete her thesis at the Philippine Women's University, College of Fine Arts, someone took her life and robbed us forever of her gifts and the chance to see how she would mature in her art.

Malayang Daloy 5: Mae's unfinished painting of two boys playing in a river, the sole witness to her tragic end.

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Though her passage through this life was cut short, Mae lived her life to the full. She was a summer's child with sunny disposition and a sense of humor. She was the joker in the family ready to pull pranks on anyone. She was always full of life, filling our home with her chatter and the laughter she would evoke from all of us. The fourth child in a brood of six, she emerged as the leader of the younger half. She would organize my youngest brother and sister to dress up like celebrities or scary movie characters... to sing and mimic pop groups complete with costumes, choreography and a nice blending of voices... to tape radio dramas and programs impromptu...

In her 6th grade, she surprised us with an animation of a stick figure jumping, swinging and dismounting from a bar drawn frame by frame, page by page on the upper right edge of her thick notebook. In high school, she amused herself by painting landscapes on cards small enough so she could insert them at the back of her ID and wear them proudly to school.

Already a licensed pharmacist, she surprised us with her announcement that she was going back to school to study fine arts major in painting. She found time for her true vocation and exerted efforts to pursue it. She managed to work and study at the same time often commuting between Laguna and Manila to make things happen. With her dimunitive figure (standing only 4'11") she looked like a small girl matched by her child-like spontaneity and zest. Yet, she never complained about having to carry her drawing plates, frames and all her paraphernalia from time to time. She even did little carpentry work to put together some frames for her paintings to save on money.

She really loved painting and her paintings showed her other passions: her love for nature and children. Her compositions were unassuming and merely tried to capture the joy of life in her canvasses. Thus, most of her paintings depict children at play in mother nature's splendor. There were moments, however, when she doubted her ability to create compositions that have depth. She doubted even more her capacity to verbalize the deeper meaning of her paintings that she even asked me for ideas to expound in her undergraduate thesis. I refused, and I'm glad I did, as I would have only imposed my own interpretations of her work and done injustice to her simplicity and matter-of-fact approach to her works.

She also had her moments of triumph! Joining at least 3 seasons of Shell National Students Art Competition, her Ama Namin (Our Father), a portrait of a child praying in the dark with one lighted candle, was named one of the finalists in one of its staging in the early 1990s. It was bought by a leading art connoisseur in Manila and our family have lost track of it. Her Hanapin Mo at Iyong Masusumpungan (Seek and You Shall Find), a painting that tells a playful twist in two boys' search for a lost toy (pls. see the painting to the right), placed third in another. In such times, Mae knew how to relish and enjoy her achievements. No one could stop her from celebrating her life's gifts as if she won the top awards herself.

Entering the homestretch of her fine arts course, she chose as her thesis subject the waterfalls and river of Kalayaan, Laguna, our hometown. She painted five (5) canvasses of waterfalls and riverscapes with children playing in abandon, including the unfinished painting shown above. She called this series Malayang Daloy, which roughly translated means "free flowing."

And so like the waterfalls and the river, life continues to move on, freely flowing where the collective consciousness of men and women directs it. And in this little corner of this world, Mae's life, no matter how short, had carved its mark in our hearts... her memories continues to flow and inspire because of her love for life that she was able to communicate through her paintings.

Malayang Daloy 1