Norberto Carating: The Absolute Serenade
There are many forms of artistic expressions. There’s the cognitive form of literature, the gastronomic form of culinary arts, and the emotional art form of visual presentation. Each of these is represented by artisans who emanate creativity from conscious waking moment to the subconscious slumber.
There is another form that appeals to delicate humanity and listens to the voice of the heart. The art of singing is a craft that serenades the spirit. Nothing can change a person’s inner hue in a snap than an appropriate rhythm or a timely note.
Renowned abstractionist Norberto Carating is an artist who is caught in a space where the raging rivers meet the slumbering body of the sea. With a life overflowing with vision and emotions, Carating found that he could not be contained by any singular form of expression. This artist’s craftsmanship with his hands can only be compared to the voice that reverberates within himself.
Carating’s rise as one of the prominent abstraction artists started when he formally took up Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines, all the while carrying the hum that his heart could not willingly extinguish. “I wanted to be a performance singer but I also wanted to be an artist. Until the point entering college came where I had to choose,” Carating recalls. Perhaps it’s the artist’s pursuit of security or his inherent love for creating visual aesthetics, but Carting subsequently followed the pulse of his hands.
As his early works would suggest, there is an unmistakable undertone eager to break the surface and be liberated. His Lamang Lupa series seems to reflect this dilemma as the works suggest a feeling of containment. Masked underneath a shadowy hue is a world that rests, silently waiting behind a veil of mystery. Although the impressionistic portrayals of images suggest grotesque hints, it does not at all conceal darkness, it was merely holding back light.
Removed from the academe and gaining ground on the early days of the world of visual art, Carating could no longer restrain his inner voice. Granted a scholarship, Carating pursued his singing career by studying voice in the University of the East at the same time practicing it through opera performances. “I was already performing in operas. In fact, I was performing more than I was painting,” Carating shares.
Free to follow his other passion, the artist’s temperament seems to bloom, which is evident in his Anilao Series. Rendered to illustrate elements from an underwater seascape, Carating opened up his emotions through an illuminated subject matter. Using a radiant set of hues to express his free flowing art, Carating matches the mystic images of a submerged world accentuated by blithe lines and structured by geometric shapes.
Carating pours his being into a presentation of weightless bliss offering a glimpse of his radiance, riding his unique rendering of lines and texture. “Ever since I started I was really into lines and texture. Regardless of periods or phases, that is what constantly comes out and that’s what I developed,” Carating says.
With his performing career in its waning stages, the artist resolved himself into dedicating his life to his visual creations. “You can never do two things at the same time. There has to be focus,” Carating shares. “I realized that I can’t be a jack of all trades,” he adds.
However, much like when fresh water joins the unfathomable depths of the ocean, the river never really loses its consistency. It blends in and conforms but its character is kept intact. Slipping underneath, barely noticeable but undeniably present. In a sea of overwhelming beauty, Carating found that nothing is more definitely distinguished than one’s own personality. “We’re only working with lines, textures and colors. Nobody owns it. You just have to inject your personality to make it your own,” Carating says.
The artist’s recent works would illustrate just how much he has come to terms with himself and the situations around him. This balance resonates with his works, which Carating expresses as a summation of his life of art. “This is now the synthesis of everything I have done in the past. I have refined everything about my work,” Carating shares.
While retaining his rendering of strong geometric shapes, Carating however experienced an evolution in terms of his application of color. The artist shifted from a primary set of hues to a contemporary range of metallic shades. Apart from his overwhelmingly distinct compositions, Carating also creates intuitive pieces that reveal the artist’s humane emotions.
Departing from his delicately structured works, Carating also engages his spirit through impressionistic pieces that render gestural strokes, unbound by any constraints. “There is anger in some of my more disordered works. There are times when I just want to be alone,” Carating expresses.
Regardless of the progression, Carating’s signature application of lines and textures still linger in his works, albeit refined and technically sound. The artist scratches his canvas and creases through layers of acrylic paint to reveal a character muddled by levels of pigments. The unearthed accents create an interesting element, a restless vision quieted by solid bodies of dynamic colors.
Despite reaching a state of harmonious aesthetic values, Carating never relinquishes his pursuit of discovery. “It just follows that you have to explore other techniques and other subject matters. It develops through continuous painting, it’ll come out subconsciously,” Carating says.
Carating is a person profoundly susceptible to his surroundings. “I’m sensitive to everything, to the people and environment around me,” Carating shares. Being at the current disposition of serenely melodic existence, the artist projects himself through his ultimate form of artistic expression. Carating is a prime example that attests to the saying that an artist lives and breathes art.
Norberto Carating’s solo exhibit runs until October 16, 2010, at the Gallery Jose, 67 Gil Fernando Avenue, Barangay San Roque, Marikina City. – Article courtesy of Manila Bulletin
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