Interesting enough– growing up, I remember 4 artworks in the house– 4 paintings. 2 small ones and 2 big ones. The other 3 were ordinary landscape impressionistic paintings. they were nice and easy to understand. A very Filipino seascape and sunset silhouette and 2 European cities by the water, small ones, they looked like watercolor but they were not, they were paint. The 4th one was always a super weird almost Picasso type– especially when you were a kid. But that was a long time ago when were were growing up in the farm town of Isabela.
When I worked the farm after college back in 1995, the 3 paintings were still there except for this 4th one. I haven’t seen it since I was a kid.
Then just this Christmas, I saw it. It was hanging in my Dad’s house. The frame was already dilapidated but the painting held on. It was a weird cockfighting painting.
And this would probably be the artwork that has influenced me the most–if I were to recall, that painting always made me curious because of the style.
Note: So I asked my father where he got this and he just replied that this was in fact a print (19/25) by the father of printed media before. His name was Tolentino. And this was in the late 1960’s.