| Wanna Wear An Artwork? |
| Some prescriptions are fashionable, or so designs this doctor. By Florence Pia G. Yu Published: Sun Star Weekend Cebu City, Philippines February 1, 2004 Pages 10-11 |
| How to make lilies, dragonflies, dirty sneakers, a multi-colored guitar and anything imaginable in loud acrylic colors mix well with stuffs utterly antiseptic such as a stetoscope and a white gown? Voila, welcome to the world of Dr. Nanette Nacorda-Catigbe. To see is to believe for those who've marveled at her pieces now on display at Joyful Weddings in SM City Cebu and at Cameron's boutique in Cagayan de Oro City. That's where expats in the U.S. have been placing their orders, she explains.� It happens as Doc Nanette gets her hands full with makeovers on clothing and accessories when she's not attending to her patients. Guess where her hand-painted designs went? To the closets of trendy teens and yuppies, politicians and their wives and even former president Cory Aquino, no less. Art Start First things first. She was an artist long before she became a doctor. Thus she underscores, as if stressing why art doesn't get in the way of her medicine practice, or vice versa. "Ma-exempted ko sa CAT sa una kay pabuhaton ko ug design sa bulletin board sa principal!" she recalls with a chuckle. During her grade school at STC, friends ran to her for help on art-related problems, while teachers egged her to join local and regional art competitions, which she always won "not always first prize, pero maka-place gyud ko ba." But when she went to a medical school, art had to temporarily take a back seat. As she was dreaming to become a doctor, she thought that fine arts had no money in it unlike medicine. "Oh, but now I disprove it!" she says with a guffaw. Two Hands She's Got "I never really left being an artist because art has always been a part of me," she reckons. |
| Does being a doctor and artist blend all the time? What if she gets emergency calls?� "It breaks your momentum," she admits, "but it can't be helped." While doing the last few pieces for her bridal show collection, she received a call from the hospital. "I had a patient at ICU, and I was trying to beat the deadline at the same time. Balik-balik ko from the shop to the hospital. It was very stressful, but I managed to pull it off." Working with Cagayan?s top designer Alma Roa, Nanette featured hand-painted floral designs on the collection--from the bride's gown and the groom's barong down to the flower girl's dress. She remembers how tensed she was� "because if you have a lousy painted design, the entire collection becomes lousy." Ethnic Technique Fancy a floral barong? While a certain writer for a national daily deemed it absurd, the reinvention was what caught the eye of fashionistas in Nanette?s applauded artwork on a wedding ensemble at a bridal fashion show held in Cagayan last August. "There were great designers who presented their collection before us, but we were the only ones who came up with a whole entourage with hand-painted designs," she recalls. "In the end, we were much applauded!" |
| Right after the show, a producer of exclusively distributed Mindanao silk asked her to be one of few artists in the country to design for the fabric, the country's answer to Chinese silk, although it is much more expensive at a floor price of P600 per meter. One of her earlier job orders was to paint an ethnic design on a barong made of Mindanao silk for Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon. "It took me three trials to work on that material because it is so delicate. Eventually, I developed a technique for the painting to stick." She likes turning things around: from bland to funky, boring to bristling with life. But never going overboard, she sees to it that her artwear is wearable The Rest Is Her Story People always think the design has to be conservative with just embroidery, which can be mass-produced with machines. "Hand-painted design is different," she avers. "It is a unique work of art." It's like heirloom, she says. Wearable heirloom. The idea sprang in college. Starting on her denim using funky designs, it was an instant head turner, and friends begged her to do the same on their pants. Hand-painted wear is cool, she says. "You can go out and no one will be wearing the same thing." Night is when she's most creative. It never feels like work for her. More like a release, her way to relax. Does she have a pre-painting ritual? "I say a short prayer before I start. It gives me a lot of confidence," she replies. Doc Nanette doesn't have a dream artwork, but asked if she could paint something for anyone in the world, she fancies doing a wall painting for the Pope. And create a floral barong for Raul Roco, she hopes. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| [ home . first dive . feature writing . poyen's write ups . advertorials . recycle bin . links ] |