Toots Magsino: Art as Introspection
You just have to admire people who have no qualms about sharing their innermost thoughts and personal stories to someone they had just met or someone who might not be as sympathetic or empathetic as others. It takes a whole lot of guts to do so, especially when there are watchful and discriminating eyes waiting to pounce on you the minute they discover some vulnerable loophole in your otherwise pristine-looking life.
But mixed media and collage artist Toots Magsino would have you know that life’s vulnerabilities aren’t always as bad as they seem to be if you’ve got the right tools to deal them with. For Magsino, the tools have always been art and her inextinguishable passion for it.
Last month, Magsino audaciously bared her heart and soul through an exhibit at the Ayala Museum titled “Between Episodes.” She tells us that she was supposed to have a show in 2008 at the same space but cancelled it due to the repercussions of the condition she has been struggling with now for almost 20 years.
In her exhibition notes, Magsino writes, “To those who know me well, the exhibition is self-explanatory. But for many who don’t, let me tell you something about myself. I am bipolar… Though I’ve benefited from some of its creative highs, I’ve always paid for them dearly with some of the most debilitating lows. To this day, it remains a constant challenge to accept and make the most of the cards I have been dealt.”
Over glasses of pulpy orange juice, crostini with artichoke spread, and palitaw, Magsino tells us how she had to come to Manila after 13 years in New York because of her condition. She shares, “What was good about it is that it forced me to think about being in Manila. And also, it’s good to have family when you have this condition, and my family has seen me through all of these already. I guess the hard part is waiting because you’ll never know when you’re going to snap out of it.”
There are over 30 mixed media works in Magsino’s recent exhibit. All of them, Magsino says, were created during two major bipolar episodes. The pieces—done in various media such photo transfer, photo silkscreen calligraphy, acrylic, watercolor, wood, antique wooden frame, fluid acrylic, modeling paste, assemblage, text acetate, and wax seal among others—all bear Magsino’s stylistic leanings towards the intimate, the quaint, the introspective, and the quiet.
Magsino’s art is definitely driven by her life experiences. Her opuses survey the artist’s successes and struggles and document her sentiments and thoughts of the moment. While most people may find it difficult to expose their pains and sorrows in public, it seems that Magsino isn’t wary about this at all as her pieces flourish on them. More than ever, her condition serves as inspiration, as a deep-well of personal narrative and imagery that help make Magsino’s works as sincere and as empowering as they can be. Also, the charm of a Magsino work is in the details and nuisances embedded in each piece. One may see different things depending on what they’re going through or feeling at the moment. The works aren’t visually static but are seemingly in constant evolution and motion—one may never know what he or she is going to get from them.
“I think people can relate to my works because my subjects are the things people think about on their own. When you get old, you start getting more introspective and so you start learning more about life and so the works remind you of something you might have already learned or something you would want to learn,” Magsino discloses.
Notable artworks in Magsino’s exhibit include: “When Words Are Not Enough,” an acrylic collage, photo silkscreen calligraphy, and modeling paste on wood that aptly echoes the artist’s sentiment of art taking over when words don’t seem to fully express how one feels; “I Am Woman,” a photo transfer and photo silkscreen collage on hand-made paper which quotes poet Sylvia Plath (I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.); and “Crossroads,” a collage that had Magsino explaining, “Each bipolar episode has led me to a life-altering crossroad. Choosing the right path is always a challenge when all roads seem to lead nowhere.”
Magsino says, “My works have a lot to do with my life and how it happens as it happens. It’s never-ending. That’s the most exciting for me when I’m doing my work. I guess my works are the way they are because of the nature of collage. You can’t plan it. It happens. What I do is collect a lot of ephemera, anything that catches my eye. So my typical work style is that I set down everything that I have, which can be quite overwhelming. But I just set them down and see what’s going to happen for the day.”
According to the artist, art has tremendously helped her in battling her condition. She reveals how it has always helped her to make sense of life. “Every time I get out of an episode, that’s when I thrive as an artist and that’s when I do all the works that I do. I owe a great deal of my sanity and survival to it. Making a show that shows that in between these episodes I’m productive is a positive thing. It says that being bipolar is not all of you. It’s a part of you and it happens, but it’s what you make of it. That’s what makes the difference,” she tells.
Magsino also adds that she didn’t mount the show to beg for sympathy but rather with a more optimistic purpose in mind and that is to be able to tell people who have the same disorder as hers to know that they are not alone. What the show is anchored on, ultimately, is how people can make something good out of something bad, she says.
“The show was very good in many levels, because first of all, since I already had my fourth episode, there must be something I’m still not learning because I keep on having it. I thought maybe it’s time for me to use it to help other people,” she notes.
In putting up a bold and honest homecoming show like “Between Episodes,” Magsino has truly lived what she thinks how an artist is supposed to live—that is not just to make art but to share it as well. “The art, yes, you do it for yourself, for the satisfaction of it, and for self-expression; but when you put it out there, that’s the second part of why you do what you’re doing. That is what art is all about: Making it and sharing it,” Magsino closes.
And in so doing, by sharing her life through her art and by not being afraid to celebrate her vulnerabilities, Magsino has also shared with us a valuable thing one must learn in life and that is, in the grand words of poet Charles Bukowski, “What matters most is how well you walk through fire.” - Article courtesy of Manila Bulletin
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
