Darnay at the End of the Day
What Darnay is Doing in Retirement
'I never thought of getting rich on my work' - Demetillo
By Elizabeth Lolarga
Retirement becomes Prof. Darnay Demetillo. He admits to missing teaching, yes, "but what I don't miss is going to school," he said. These days find him savoring retirement, sleeping almost all morning, rising at lunchtime for his first cup of coffee and going out to look for a place to eat "a real lunch." Then he walks around Burnham Park to stretch a bit, heads home, sometimes tinkers in his print workshop, but often ends up asleep again.
But recently he managed to compile enough colographs—plates consisting of cut-out Bristol paper pasted on cardboard with the paper as cardboard backing like a collage. The 23 pieces, mostly in color, some in sepia and unified by no theme, were shown at the Galerya Kordillera from Dec. 2 to 9 in an exhibit entitled "Variations: The Collograph." The varied subjects included people, mostly women, horses and roosters.
This year, Demetillo put aside time to study the collograph, a kind of print whose principle he learned to do way back in his University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts days. "That's more than 30 years ago," he quipped.
He liked the collograph's smallness and the textures produced. As a matter of fact, he is more keen on printmaking than painting because "there are lots of room for experimentation, and it is technically challenging."
He resumed doing collographs in March last year and continued after his retirement, using his own 8"x10" printing press, "the maximum size that a print can come out of." He has shared this technology along with engraving with the Tam-awan artists.
Early in his career he found the prints of Pandy Aviado, Ofelia Gervezon Tequi and Manuel Rodriguez Sr. admirable. In his family home, a Rodriguez etching of a young girl with a ponytail hung on one of the walls, and he found it fascinating.
As for all the efforts expended on monographs, then destroying the plate afterwards, Demetillo explained that he hated repeating something. He wanted something surprising. A monograph "is good enough for me," he said, "then I destroy or deface the plate."
His small press has paid for itself from the sale of his works. He has done woodcuts and rubbercuts, the latter he used to teach at UP until it acquired a press only four or five years ago.
Some of his fellow faculty members and friends are avid collectors of his works. Under Prof. Grace Subido's initiative, a mini-retrospective of Demetillo's works was organized at the college auditorium. He said Profs. Rina Locsin and Candy Torres are among those who collect many of his works. The numero uno collector, however, with Demetillos from different phases of his life is Grace's mother, Dr. Lourdes Tabora Subido.
The artist said he was touched by the retrospective and the essays written by the collectors posted beside the artworks. He felt happy because for the first time he was seeing some works that he had forgotten making already.
Demetillo has gone far from his Silliman University years when he initially majored in English because of personal reasons that made him flee Manila. AB English was the only course he found interesting and with which to kill time. At age 26 he enrolled in fine arts at UP Diliman. He realized that "all along I wanted to be a painter so I got finally to where I wanted to do."
His initial paintings used dark colors, then he moved to yellows and greens. Blue and green are his favorite colors for no reason at all.
And after 30 years of teaching, he feels glad that he has retired and been given the hope and challenge to paint again. "As of now, I'm not yet ready," he admitted. "When I wake up I feel I have to go somewhere like school, then I realize I don't have anything to do. I just read the newspapers. I haven't done some serious reading yet. Students text me to ask technical questions and I reply. What I don't like is text na sosyalan lang."
Asked the sensitive question of why his works have been reasonably priced all these years (he is hesistant to peg anything at P10,000), Demetillo replied, "I haven't raised my prices. Talo pa ako ng mga estudyante ko who price their works at P35,000. It's hard to sell in Baguio. If someone likes my works, I don't want to give him or her a hard time to acquire it. Tiyak na isasabit niya sa sala niya. As for the material success of my students, I can only be glad for them. I never thought that I would get rich on my work."-- First published in Ti Similla, academic newsletter of UP Baguio, January issue
'I never thought of getting rich on my work' - Demetillo
By Elizabeth Lolarga
Retirement becomes Prof. Darnay Demetillo. He admits to missing teaching, yes, "but what I don't miss is going to school," he said. These days find him savoring retirement, sleeping almost all morning, rising at lunchtime for his first cup of coffee and going out to look for a place to eat "a real lunch." Then he walks around Burnham Park to stretch a bit, heads home, sometimes tinkers in his print workshop, but often ends up asleep again.
But recently he managed to compile enough colographs—plates consisting of cut-out Bristol paper pasted on cardboard with the paper as cardboard backing like a collage. The 23 pieces, mostly in color, some in sepia and unified by no theme, were shown at the Galerya Kordillera from Dec. 2 to 9 in an exhibit entitled "Variations: The Collograph." The varied subjects included people, mostly women, horses and roosters.
This year, Demetillo put aside time to study the collograph, a kind of print whose principle he learned to do way back in his University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts days. "That's more than 30 years ago," he quipped.
He liked the collograph's smallness and the textures produced. As a matter of fact, he is more keen on printmaking than painting because "there are lots of room for experimentation, and it is technically challenging."
He resumed doing collographs in March last year and continued after his retirement, using his own 8"x10" printing press, "the maximum size that a print can come out of." He has shared this technology along with engraving with the Tam-awan artists.
Early in his career he found the prints of Pandy Aviado, Ofelia Gervezon Tequi and Manuel Rodriguez Sr. admirable. In his family home, a Rodriguez etching of a young girl with a ponytail hung on one of the walls, and he found it fascinating.
As for all the efforts expended on monographs, then destroying the plate afterwards, Demetillo explained that he hated repeating something. He wanted something surprising. A monograph "is good enough for me," he said, "then I destroy or deface the plate."
His small press has paid for itself from the sale of his works. He has done woodcuts and rubbercuts, the latter he used to teach at UP until it acquired a press only four or five years ago.
Some of his fellow faculty members and friends are avid collectors of his works. Under Prof. Grace Subido's initiative, a mini-retrospective of Demetillo's works was organized at the college auditorium. He said Profs. Rina Locsin and Candy Torres are among those who collect many of his works. The numero uno collector, however, with Demetillos from different phases of his life is Grace's mother, Dr. Lourdes Tabora Subido.
The artist said he was touched by the retrospective and the essays written by the collectors posted beside the artworks. He felt happy because for the first time he was seeing some works that he had forgotten making already.
Demetillo has gone far from his Silliman University years when he initially majored in English because of personal reasons that made him flee Manila. AB English was the only course he found interesting and with which to kill time. At age 26 he enrolled in fine arts at UP Diliman. He realized that "all along I wanted to be a painter so I got finally to where I wanted to do."
His initial paintings used dark colors, then he moved to yellows and greens. Blue and green are his favorite colors for no reason at all.
And after 30 years of teaching, he feels glad that he has retired and been given the hope and challenge to paint again. "As of now, I'm not yet ready," he admitted. "When I wake up I feel I have to go somewhere like school, then I realize I don't have anything to do. I just read the newspapers. I haven't done some serious reading yet. Students text me to ask technical questions and I reply. What I don't like is text na sosyalan lang."
Asked the sensitive question of why his works have been reasonably priced all these years (he is hesistant to peg anything at P10,000), Demetillo replied, "I haven't raised my prices. Talo pa ako ng mga estudyante ko who price their works at P35,000. It's hard to sell in Baguio. If someone likes my works, I don't want to give him or her a hard time to acquire it. Tiyak na isasabit niya sa sala niya. As for the material success of my students, I can only be glad for them. I never thought that I would get rich on my work."-- First published in Ti Similla, academic newsletter of UP Baguio, January issue
posted by Unknown at 1:17 PM
6 Comments:
hi, i'm a up baguio alumnus. i'm glad to know that a former teacher is still alive and working on his art. (of course, I don't expect my coll. teachers to remember me for i was a so-so student.) :)
Darnay Demetillo is the only father I ever knew. His daughter's Maisa and Donna Demetillo are my cousins and all three of us grew up together until I moved to New York City in 1993. Darnay and I keep in touch through email and he is a great artist. I can only hope to look back when I am his age now and know that I was always happy with my profession.
I only wish i could have inherited a teeny weeny bit of my dad's talent. he is indeed, in my opinion, one of the great artists of his time.
magaling talaga si lolo mag paint! i love you lolo!
*******************mysie*********
i am willy lazaro, a fan of Darnay way back n UP. i plan to make a trip to Baguio to, among other things, visit Darnay. my prob is how to locate him. can any one help me, my email s mawilaz@yahoo.com. cps 09082455452; 09062444772. tnx n regards.
naalala ko pa noong musmus pa kami ni Junley sa Up.haha. Stalker kami ni Sir Darnay kapag namataan namin siya sa campus. kakaibang kasiyahan para sa akin ang mayroon sa mga alaalang yun.
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