SINING FILIPINA: EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF WOMEN

Into a patchwork quilt, lovingly sewn together by women workers, are woven the hopes and dreams of a community coming alive in the artwork by Jou'ee Anne Aguinaldo titled "Panatagpi-tagpi" that won first place at the Sining Filipina "Her Earth, Her Future" art competition.

- By CHING M. ALANO

Into a patchwork quilt, lovingly sewn together by women workers, are woven the hopes and dreams of a community coming alive in the artwork by Jou'ee Anne Aguinaldo titled "Panatagpi-tagpi" that won first place at the Sining Filipina "Her Earth, Her Future" art competition. Holding a giant symbolic check for P250,000, Jou'ee, 29, still dazed from besting hundreds of entries from all over the country, humbly declares, "This is a big deal for me because it shows that women artists can do what male artists can and they can even do it better."

In the local art scene dominated by men, this young artist from Los Baños, Laguna is out to disprove that men are better artists than women. And how is Jou'ee spending her prize money?

"I will buy art materials," she quickly replies. With her fiancé Jomar smiling beside her, she adds, "And use some for my wedding next month."

Standing next to Jou'ee is second-prize winner Gleanne Gentizon, 27, beside her painting titled "Si Nanay sa Merkado" (mixed media). Her love affair with the paintbrush started as a child and today, she still paints in between her work as medical technologist at a hospital in Guimaras, Iloilo. Her winning work was inspired by her trips to the market with her mother.

"I always enjoy tagging along with my nanay whenever she'd go to the market," says a beaming Gleanne, looking pretty in a pink dress with flowers sewn all over it. "As a child, I remember we would ride a sikad (padyak or pedicab) going to the market."