The plate symbolizes food which then almost always translates to “life”.
Other than the description of a ceramic plate as being an “inorganic, non-metallic solid prepared by heat and subsequent cooling…hardened in fire”, we also take its metaphors and ask the question “What is on our plate?” In essence, what we put on our plate is basically how we choose to exist, who we become. And like the plate, life can be as fragile.
A movement is synonymous to “action, execution, change, journey”. This, then, hopes to encourage or provoke people to get involved, make a change in their state of being, by “creating something”, consequently, a change in the community for the better.
With encouragement and guidance from an aunt, the urging of artist Hersley Ven Casero to just do it, mentoring from artist Razcel Salvarita, positive conversations with Dessa Quesada-Palm, Elle Divine, Jana Jumalon, and Kris Ardena, and blessings from my family, I took a leap of faith.
This shall have been my first art community project outside the Fine Arts program at Silliman. Though I would not have had the guts to do it if I did not get experience from art school in Silliman, headed by Yvette Malahay-Kim.
In this particular project, we invited children to create, and just explore their artistic potential, and embellish or decorate (literally) ceramic plates with whatever media they would like to use (paints, beads, decoupage, recycled, even indigenous materials).
The works are currently exhibited at Restaurant Kri in Dumaguete City. Then we opened the silent auction of the works (until Nov 6, 2013), and people can bid, then a portion will go to children currently undergoing cancer therapy/treatment.
To be specific, this will help in their chemotherapy medications. The proceeds will go through pediatric oncologist/hematologist Dr. Sheila Loo-Flores, (a cancer survivor herself), as there is not really a foundation that supports pediatric cancer patients and their families here in Dumaguete or the province of Oriental Negros.
The artists will also get a percentage of the proceeds.
And so we asked parents and mentors to let their kids participate, “fill their plates with love”, create, encourage, and let them know that “no act of kindness, however small, is wasted”, that they, too, can make a difference!
We had our first “creative session” on Oct. 13. The turnout was quite overwhelming! With the help of the Pan Hellenic Society and some financial support from Dr. Abel Gomez and family, we managed to accommodate about 30 kids.
There was an abundance of willing kids and kindhearted, supportive parents who showed up.
It is true that we just don’t know how many people are willing to help until we ask. But it did not end there.
With the help of Emmylou Violeta and her colleagues at the Bais City Pilot School, Special Class in the Arts, through Hersley and Anna Koosman (who had the Laughing Boy /”HA” Experiment art activity with the school a year ago), we were able to have about 40 of their students join in.
Then the GATXs Art Shop facilitated by Sherwin Tobias and Glory Abueva-Tobias encouraged their students to participate as well.
Since the parents got so inspired by the creations of the kids, we asked other willing adult friends and artists (Susan Canoy, Jutzse Pamate, Anna Lacson, Rica Maceren and her sister, David Teves, Rhea Alo, Louanne Pinero and her sister, Flom Datoy, Dr. Santiago Tiongson, Empalz) to embellish smaller plates.
They have agreed to donate their proceeds to the victims of the earthquake in Bohol.
Installing the plates for the exhibit was not easy but somehow, the world conspired. I would not have been able to do it without my husband Ritchie, Manong Bobords, the kids’ babysitter, Carlo & Teresa Teves, Magz Gonzales, Aida Espiritu, and Phil Calumpang.
In other words, I don’t take full credit for the success of this project. God had been planning this all along, I just happened to be in the right place, at the right time.
Seeing kids just create without inhibitions was very refreshing and inspiring. Their honesty and the purity of their hearts were evident in the colorful and original works.
I think social consciousness just follows. I hope that in their creations, they realize the impact they have, not just on the people who need it, but especially the parents and others who may have, at one point, become so cynical from all the negativities that’s been happening around them.
I think there is hope. We just need to be inspired. The plate is our canvas. We get what we make of it or what we put on it. And may God be glorified in all this.
Iris Tirambulo-Armogenia
KRI Restaurant, Silliman Ave., Dumaguete City
