WHEN ARTIST Joey Cobcobo was preparing for his exhibit at the Avellana Art Gallery in Pasay City, his eyes fell on a box filled with drawings made by his four-year-old son Ark - and then an idea hit him. He would print his son's drawings.
This active member of the Printmakers Association of the Philippines had just selected terra cotta bricks to use as his new printmaking plate, but when he tried using this material to print his drawings, he felt that this process didn't suit his drawing style. Maybe it will have a better effect if I use my son's drawings, he mused.
He tried it out and the results can be seen is his exhibit, I'm Doing My Father's Business. The title of the show is based on the Bible verse Luke 2:49, where after losing track of Jesus, his parents find him preaching in the temple. When the young boy gets a reprimand for leaving his parents' side, Jesus responds, Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?
It seems like Ark has also been doing his father's business. Pampatulog niya ang drawing (Drawing helps him sleep), said Mr. Cobcobo, in an interview with BusinessWorld on March 8. He explained how his son hangs out at his studio and just draws for hours. He doesn't cry even if you leave him alone in the studio, said Mr. Cobcobo in the vernacular.
If Ark's day was filled with non-drawing activities, at bedtime, Ark would say, Ay nakalimutan ko mag-drawing (Oh I forgot to make a drawing), and then would work on some images before he finally falling asleep. Nakasanayan na niya mag-drawing (Drawing has become a habit for him), said Mr. Cobcobo.
TRACE AND PRINT
From the pile of drawings that were collected since Ark was one year old, Mr. Cobcobo selected some for the show. He traced the drawing onto the bricks with carbon paper, then carved the images into the bricks. The bricks were then covered in printer's ink, then pressed on paper.
The final result held the child's imaginative world, which Mr. Cobcobo initially printed with earth colors. The combination of reds and browns with untrained scrawls makes the prints look like cave art, said Mr. Cobcobo. Cave art is the origin of printmaking, he said, explaining that prehistoric humans began scratching images on surfaces, which would later evolve as plates for prints.
Though Mr. Cobcobo was satisfied with his color scheme, Ark wasn't. Tatay bakit ang dilim dilim? (Father why is it so dark?), the boy asked. Taking his crayons, Ark added candy colors to Mr. Cobcobo's prints. Ayan pala colors mo. Sige gagayahin ko (Oh those are your colors. Ok I will imitate them), said Mr. Cobcobo, who used watercolors instead of crayons.
Kailangan ko siya pakinggan. Baka mas alam niya kasi drawing niya yan (I need to listen to him. Maybe he knows better because that's his drawing), said Mr. Cobcobo.
The second batch of prints resemble contemporary art, said Mr. Cobcobo, providing an interesting contrast with the earthen prints.
In the end Mr. Cobcobo agrees that his show's concept was a total risk, especially since it came up a mere month before the exhibit.
If the battle of art-making is on the grounds of coming up with beautiful and polished work, Mr. Cobcobo said that one cannot compete against the likes of Ronald Ventura. 'Di ako ganun (I'm not like that), he said.
'Di siya yabang (It's not arrogant), he added, describing his show. Galing siya sa puso (It comes from the heart).
The exhibit runs until April 6 at the Avellana Art Gallery. The gallery is located at 2680 FB Harrison St., Pasay. It is open from Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
For more information, call 833-8357, or e-mail avellana_gallery@yahoo.com.
WALL STREET 1 (Brick Cut Intaglio)
I’m Doing my Father’s Business
Written by: Rachel Mayo
Artist Joey Cobcobo (b.1983) adapts the Bible verse, Luke 2:49 as the title of his latest works. The show, “I’m Doing my Father’s Business” is a collaborative work by the artist and his four-year-old son who at a very young age has been encouraged to express himself through the visual medium. The artist have been gathering and collecting his young son’s drawings and doodles which has become the inspiration for his new works utilizing the printmaking technique of intaglio.
An active member of the Printmakers Association of the Philippines (PAP), Cobcobo has created a collection of works that not only showcase his son’s early signs of artistic talent but also the artist’s printmaking abilities.
Initially the artist traces his son’s childlike lines and forms using carbon paper and transfers these on to red bricks. The image is then incised into the brick surface and applied with ink. The incised lines that hold the ink is then pressed on to paper. The result of Cocobo’s project recalls primitive cave drawings that feature human and animal forms, some containing random alphabet letters. The works, all monoprints are done on rough handmade paper, while others are hand colored expressing the stark contrast either between the dark ink and the reddened paper, or the black ground that highlight the thin colored lines.
Cobcobo, is a recognized young figure in Philippine art with a Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists awardee in 2012 and in 2010, a Juror’s Choice of Excellency in the Philippine Art Awards, with a series of shortlist nominations for the Ateneo Art Awards. A holder of a bachelor in Fine arts degree (Cum Laude) major in advertising from Technological University of the Philippines, Cobcobo has had numerous exhibitions here and abroad such as New York, Seoul Korea, Singapore, Australia , Vietnam and Japan.
WALL STREET 2 (Brick Cut Relief)
Father and Son
By: Bulosan, Patricia Mae and Lacdao, Angela Mericci
Art Appreciation students
I am just an ordinary student, curious on different kinds of artworks such as painting, print-making and sculpture. Every time I see paintings, i am fascinated about it and I wonder how it is made because I know in myself that i cannot do the same thing. I can paint but it is not extraordinary and good as the artist do.
Then me and my friend did an interview to a Filipino-Japanese artist to gather information on how he came up to his artworks. Sir Joey Cobcobo, a veteran and well-known on his career was inspired by his family, church and society.
In his family, he is a good father that guides his son on what he wants to be and it was the same thing that his son at a young age starts to draw and loves to draw every day. Sir joey keeps the drawing of his son inside a box and every time he looks at it, that brings him an inspiration to make it as his current artwork. At first, he didn’t know that it will be his inspiration because he thought that his theme was his Japan experience. Sir Joey chose the print-making because it is a full-pack artwork. It contains many output such as drawing, brick-cutting, print-making and coloring. And for me it is an awesome artwork because it is unique and multitasking. He used the drawings of his son by using carbon paper to copy and to engrave it unto the bricks then the final output is the print. His next inspiration was his church. Because we all know that without God, man is nothing. Sir Joey always ask for wisdom and talent to the Lord to have a good outcome in his work.
His last inspiration was society. He is our professor in art appreciation and we learned so many things in him. First very important thing is we were exercised to pray always and thank and ask for his blessings and guidance. Next is we were oriented in art galleries and art talks. And last is we applied our skills and knowledge in natural drawings and paintings. He was inspired by his students because he just love to teach and share his talent and skills.
BRICK PLATES
First Run 1 and 2 (Brick Cut Intaglio and Relief)
Carbon Copy 1 and 2
Carbon Copy 1 and 2
Medium: Traced carbon papers
Cobcobo, Joey Vendiola (Joey Cobcobo)
b. Umingan, Pangasinan 6 May 1983. Painter, printmaker and mixed media artist. He is the son of Claudio Cobcobo and Marcelina Vendiola-Cobcobo. His father is an Igorot while his mother is from Pangasinan, where he was born. The Cobcobo family moved to Mandaluyong when Joey was still in grade school and he grew up in Metro Manila. He is married to Ella Aquino-Cobcobo and has two sons with her, Ark Daniel Cobcobo and Bezaleel Buhay Cobcobo, and is Baptist by religion. Joey Cobcobo graduated cum laude with a degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts Major in Advertising in the Technological University of the Philippines in 2004. He was an artist-in-residence of the Koganecho Bazaar 2013 in Yokohama, Japan.
Cobcobo’s work include paintings, sculptural installations and printmaking. His use of a wide variety of materials is partly motivated by his interest in the potential of the materials, often experimenting with the different ways he can use them in his work. His process also involves developing art by moving them through different art forms: images from prints are translated as clay sculptures that he uses as reference for paintings. The work Crown Him King, which won the “Juror’s Choice of Excellency” for the Philippine Art Awards in 2010, is an example of an oil painting that was developed through this process.
Thematically his works are often inspired by his personal history, experiences and beliefs, although he can be also inspired by the stories of behind the found objects that he uses in his work. He acknowledges the graphic look of advertising, which he took up in college, as an influence especially for his printmaking, but his aesthetic tends to veer away from the clean and modern look normally found in commercial designs. Instead, his works reflect his fascination for the natural and aged, and an appreciation for the unsophisticated.
Cobcobo’s interest in art began as a child when his father and brother, who used to do all his art-related homework for school, decided to stop doing drawings for him. Because he wanted to continue submitting impressive work in class, he began to seriously practice drawing and discovered that he had talent for it. He eventually joined art workshops before deciding to take up an arts-related course in college.
The connection to the personal in his work began when he joined the 2nd Art Petron National Students Painting Competition (2002), which had the theme “Lumang Galing, Bagong Sining” and called for works inspired by indigenous arts and crafts. Cobcobo chose to do a work that highlighted wood carving in the Mountain Province, where his father is from, and subsequently won the Grand Prize that year. After he won Grand Prize in the National Piñana Art Competition in 2003, the organizers and Japanese sponsors brought him and other winners to Banawe to research and learn about the culture there, further encouraging his interest in the culture of his ancestors. It was also during this experience that his interest in printmaking began, after one of the Japanese they were with suggested to have his works translated into woodcut prints.
His first solo exhibitions in the gallery Big & Small Co., Black Saturday (2007) and Evangelio (2008), and 7 Heads and 10 Horns (2009) in Avellana Art Gallery, are all heavily inspired by his Baptist belief and features religious imageries. The Lola 101 series of exhibitions (2010 and 2012), were inspired by how his mother became a grandmother after he had his first son, Ark Daniel. His mother also participated in the art making process by doing the crochet work where the prints inspired by his interviews of grandmothers were set. This series also informed the resulting exhibition for his Koganecho Bazaar residency, Grand Ojisan/Obasan (2013) in Japan. The exhibition I’m Doing My Father’s Business in Avellana Art Gallery, on the other hand, is inspired by his son and is a collaboration of sorts with him. The images come from drawings by Ark Daniel that his family collected over the years, which he decided to use because he liked their unschooled nature. He then transferred the images into the red bricks he had been experimenting with as intaglio plates before printing them on handmade paper.
The international group exhibitions that has featured his work include an Invitational Mini-Exhibition (2008) held in the Post Office Gallery, The Arts Academy of Ballard Victoria, Australia; the 26th Asian International Art Exhibition (2011), Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul; Pinoy Ako (2012), held in various venues in Ho Chi Minh; and Printmaking, Pinoy Printmakers (2013), Philippine Center, Manhattan, New York. In the Philippines, the institutions that have exhibited his work include the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Bencab Museum, Ayala Museum and the Ortigas Foundation Library.
Cobcobo has been recognized twice by the Philippine Art Awards, as the “NCR Winner” in 2009 and “Juror’s Choice of Excellency” awardee in 2010. He has been shortlisted for the Ateneo Art Awards thrice: in 2009 for the work he contributed to the 8 Printmakers (2008) group show, Avellana Art Gallery; in 2010 for 7 Heads and 10 Horns (2009), Avellana Art Gallery; and in 2013 for Lola 101 – Parts 2, 3 and 4 (2012), held in Avellana Art Gallery, Ortigas Foundation Library and Bencab Museum. In 2012, he became one of the recipients of the 13 Artists Awards given by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
He has been a faculty member of the Technological University of the Philippines since 2010 and is Secretary External of the Printmakers Association of the Philippines (PAP). He is also a member of the Philippine Committee of Asian Artists Inc. (PCAA INC.).
