Om's 2nd solo exhibit at the Capitol
Eouia Aum Duenas- known as the Child Wonder of Iloilo and the Youngest Artist to stage a solo exhibit at the age of four and now at age 6, is ready for her 2nd one-child show. The exhibit is entitled "My Dreams" featuring 24 paintings in 2x3 ft. sizes when she was 4-5 years old. The show will be open to the public on March 1-10 at the Ground Level of the New Iloilo Provincial Capitol Bldng. The Opening Program and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony will be on March 1 at three in the afternoon (3pm).
The artist entitled her exhibit as well as each of her paintings. She chose "My Dreams" because most of her paintings were inspired by her visions, colors and forms she remember from sleep. Known as Om to her friends, classmates and relatives, she loves to talk about her dreams when she wakes up. Her parents Guijo and Jyh Ming encouraged their daughter to get her ideas on what to paint in her dreams. The mother tells her stories before going to sleep and both parents make sure that she is in a very happy state before she goes to bed so she can have a beautiful dream. Sometimes Om complains about bad dreams and nightmares especially if she had enough tv watching for a day but she don't want to talk about it.
Om named one of her painting "Falling Star Dream." She told her parents upon waking up that she dreamed she was sleeping among the stars with different shapes, like a twirly star and shooting star shaped like an octopus. She said that she had a soft cloud as pillow and that it feels so comfy. Her painting "When Smoke Turns to Flowers" shows the innocent wisdom from a child. The painting shows a house with flowers going out of the chimney, a car with flowers going out of its exhaust, the painter explained that "when smoke turned to flowers the bushes will smile and the birds will fly." This is an environmental statement from a child who just turned 5 when she created this painting dated May 5, 2004. You cannot underestimate the wisdom of children, who sees the world differently from us adults. Another painting speaks of the effort the adult should make to preserve the environment for the future generation Om named this painting "Nanay and Tatay Singing Kiirtan", as member of Ananda Marga the family practice yoga, mediation and are pure vegetarians. Kiirtan is a spiritual dance to balance the body mind and spirit. Om explained that her nanay and tatay are dancing and singing as they cry, and this gives light to every home that gives light and life to the stingrays. At first this message is quite strange but as you come to think of it, it gives a wake up call for adults to make a move to preserve the environment, stingrays are endangered therefore protected here in the Philippines.
The set of painting featured in "My Dreams" is different from "My World" a year ago. In "My World" the paintings has gigantic forms and mostly contains one subject. In "My Dreams" the artist already collaborated a lot of ideas in her paintings using her dreams as an inspiration. The influence of school as a Kinder 1 student at SPED-Integrated School for Exceptional Children is another factor in the changes of her style and expression. As she is confined in a bond-paper sized activities her hands were used to draw small forms and objects and affected the way she handles the brush. Unlike the gigantic forms before, Om's painting now contains smaller and different subjects but has an original theme and thought.
Om will be graduating this March from Kindergarten. She is now more matured and is very eager to learn other expression of arts like dancing and music and other approaches in painting. Every experience is learning and every expression is an art itself.
Guijo, Om's father also an artists and a photojournalist said that Om finished all the 24 paintings 3 months after her 1st solo exhibit and was ready for another solo exhibit, but due to financial matters like the costs of frames and other expenditures the exhibit was postponed a number of times. Both parents are very thankful that finally the exhibit was materialized by the support of friends relatives, sponsors and thru the cooperation of the office of the Governor.