A RENEWING OF NATURA
By Alice G. Guillermo

A perennial traveler, artist Lina Llaguno-Ciani divides her time between her hometown in Daraga, Albay, lapped by the waves of the Pacific Ocean and her home-studio near Rome overlooking a lake in Trevignano Romano, Italy.  Both places offer diverse experiences of nature, but both share water landscapes providing close and sparkling marine views, as well as encompassing perspectives of land and water.   

            Llaguno-Ciani’s forthcoming show, “After the Rain” in February at Galeria Duemila in Pasay comes from the Philippine side, particularly Bicol, which suffered a wide devastation from a storm last year.  Lives were severely endangered and modest structures were swept away by the strong winds.  But as an artist, she did not paint in medias res to portray the lashing fury of the storm, but instead, waited for the rain to cease the morning after.  

            The spare moving landscapes are most expressive after the rain, like subdued and chastened beings exuding a new life.  One painting shows the Cagsawa sunken church standing bravely under a noon moon in a vast yellow sky, while around it are white rocks like gravestones that sprang up like mushrooms after the disaster.  The very simplicity of the scene slips into the realm of dream where it stays like a residual memory.  The work “6:59 pm” captures the magical moment when late afternoon slips into twilight, the sky a deep marine blue and the land a violet space fringed by a halo of light.  The trees in this long view are, however, denuded of leaves by the storm leaving only thin trunks and branches outlined in the dark.  But in recompense, long panels suspended on the side contain a catalogue of bright leaves and butterflies that are a repository for nature’s riches.  The chastened after-the-rain feeling is also found in “After November” where a hill-like landscape with a clear blue sky bears on the stony crest, a large perfect green leaf with all the promise of nature reborn. 

            The exhibit entitled “After the Rain” will run from February 2- 29, 2008 at Galleria Duemila, Inc., 210 Loring Street, Pasay City. For inquiries, call Mimi  Santos  at  Tel. No 831-9990  or  Telefax 833-9815, E-mail us at duemila@mydestiny.net