After what seems like eternity, the artist is going home.
The artist, of course, is painter Lolita Valderrama-Savage. An accomplished painter, she lived and worked in Scandinavia as an artist in the mid-70s, leaving the Philippines after earning her Fine Arts degree from the University of Santo Tomas. After college, she accepted a scholarship by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to specialize in painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence where she received her Licenza in Pittara back in 1975.
The youngest in the family (she has two brothers and a sister), Lolita is thankful to be a part of a family that is very supportive of her. Her parents helped her nurture her dream of becoming an artist of international caliber allowing her to move to Europe where she devoted herself to the study of exuberant landscape paintings.
Among her early exhibitions in Europe was in 1974 at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, followed immediately by a solo exhibition at the Centro di Cultura e Galleria Lo Sprone. She had also staged one-woman shows in Stockholm and other cities in Sweden, the first Filipina artist to do so.
Lolita has also exhibited her masterpieces at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and in 1999, she was one of the distinguished international exhibiting artists presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Months later, she was presented in a month-long solo art exhibit at Casa di Dante (family home of Dante Alighieri, the famous Italian poet who wrote The Divine Comedy) in the historic center of Florence.
She has been traveling and painting since the 70s, and next month, Lolita Savage will make Manila her latest pit stop, as she is ready to showcase 61 of her prized paintings at an exhibit at the Ayala Museum from February 8 to 21, 2010.
“The retrospective exhibit will have pieces that are reflective of all the places I’ve lived in through all these years,” the self-proclaimed lover and painter of nature shared.
As an artist, Savage believes that the ultimate goal of art is to recreate beauty that surrounds her. Indeed, her paintings reflect her solitudinal communion with the outside world, relating her spiritual and divine perception of nature’s elements.
“I love the liberty of creating. It’s like entering a world of discovery. There are endless possibilities in the field of art,” Savage said in a recent interview held in her Central Park West home, whose walls adorn dozens of her favorite paintings.
It is also her goal to continually use her artistic talent and knowledge to encourage general appreciation of art’s intrinsic values, as well as pursue the uniting force of art by bringing together diverse people to her exhibitions to allow interaction and inter-cultural understanding and education.
For her, art has given her an extraordinary ability to express the most beautiful human feelings and sentiments that one could ever experience and share with other human beings.
While she has exhibited her paintings for the Filipino community in New York, Washington, DC and other parts of the globe, her homecoming exhibition will be her first in the motherland.
“I am very excited to share my art with my fellow Filipinos in the Philippines. I have exhibited in many other countries but this one is going to be extra special because this is my first in the country,” Lolita said.
Aptly called The Art of Lolita Valderrama Savage, the exhibit will run from February 9 to 21 at the Ayala Museum in Makati City. Filipinos in the homeland will now get a glimpse of Lolita’s paintings, most of which are inspired by nature and reflects her many travels abroad.
“Being away has enabled me to acquire deep knowledge, understanding, and sensitivity to the uniqueness of every country, its landscapes, people and culture,” she shared.
Her impressionistic technique, characterized by emotional strokes in bright, pulsating colors, will be in view at The Ayala Museum ArtistSpace Exhibit. It will showcase 61 of Lolita’s works in oils, watercolors, pencil drawings and mixed media painted on site in Italy, USA, Sweden, Norway, France, Switzerland, China and Africa.
The landscapes of different countries which became her homes after she left the Philippines come to life through the paintings of Lolita. Her memories of the old country and scenes from the Philippines she knew while growing up, were painted using only her childhood memories.
“I only started painting formally when I was already in Italy, so in all my body of work depicting the Philippines, all of those were culled from my memory,” she quipped.
Born in the Philippines, Lolita owns a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and a diploma from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Italy, where she studied under the supervision of prominent artist Silvio Loffredo. In Sweden, she painted for a while with the famous artist and mentor, the late Staffan Hallstrom.
It was in Sweden where she developed her fascination for nature because it was there where she experienced the colorful yet temperamental change of Nordic seasons. Her paintings are mostly inspired by the places she called home, and her many travels abroad.
“I love to paint nature because it is a subject that draws together diverse cultures which otherwise would be different in mentality, thus separated from each other,” Lolita explained.
Having been born in Manila, a chaotic, sometimes boisterous city, Lolita longed for silent moments and when she was in Italy, she heard of how beautiful Scandinavia was and how this was her opportunity to commune with herself.
“I love to be alone sometimes because you get to know your own self and when you get to know your own self, the world becomes an easier place somehow because you are at peace with yourself,” she added.
Asked what the best part about being an artist was for her, Lolita turned wistful.
“The best part is that I’m actually playing the part that I was created for. I believe that an artist is born; you don’t try to become an artist. If it’s not in you, I don’t think you have it. It’s a gift,” she explained.
And the worst?
“I don’t know if you can consider it that, but artists can be very sensitive,” Lolita said, laughing.
As a woman who has seen and traveled the world, Lolita has sage advise for young women of color who want to have a career in the arts: Be very proud of what you are, be comfortable with yourself and be confident.
“Erase the minority part in your minds, but be conscious of it in a certain way. The world has changed so much. Be comfortable with whatever you are, you can do anything,” she added.
In all her travels and her work experience, being a Filipina was never an issue. This, coming from a woman who has met people who had pre-conceived ideas about Filipinos and other people of color, particularly back in Europe in the early 70s.
“It was actually my inspiration. I’m very proud of my heritage,” she said. “All along in the things that I did, I feel that I had to do better than the others because I had to prove that being a Filipina, I could do better. That was my attitude.”
Her love story with her husband Frank Savage follows the same trajectory as her love story with art as they have one thing in common: travel.
It all began when she was in Los Angeles visiting her sister. Frank, who was then also in LA, worked in the same company (The Equitable Life Assurance Society) as her sister’s, and introduced them to each other. The rest is history.
In 1979, Lolita moved to the United States and applied for a job at the United Nations because she didn’t want to de entirely dependent on either sister or her soon-to-be husband. The following year, Frank and Lolita got married.
They were blessed with three wonderful children (Fredrik Antoine, Grace and Frank, Jr.), two of whom were born in New York. They eventually moved to Stamford, Connecticut, where their third child, Frank Jr. was born. Then in 2000, they moved back to the city.
Frank is the Chief Executive Officer of Savage Holdings LLC, a private equity firm which advises global clients on investing and doing business in international markets and provides consulting and advisory services, generally in the financial services industry. He was Chairman of Alliance Capital Management International, a division of Alliance Capital Management LP, an investment management company; Senior Vice President of The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. He was also Chairman of the Board of Equitable Capital Management Corporation, a $35 billion Equitable Life investment management subsidiary, which was merged with Alliance Capital in July 1993.
He currently serves on the boards of several corporations and not-for-profit organizations, including ARCO Chemical Company, The Council on Foreign Relations, Bloomberg, L.P., the New York Philharmonic, New York Academy of Medicine and the Yale School of Management. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of Howard University and Trustee Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University.The couple is active in social and community gatherings in both Stamford and New York City, serving on various boards and staging different fund-raisers for the non-profit organizations that they support.
In the Filipino community, Lolita sits on the advisory board of Ma-Yi Theatre Company, and served as an Honorary Chairman of the Foundation for Filipino Artists, Inc., whose main objective is to promote Filipino artistry and creativity, as well as preserve its heritage in the United States.
The Ayala Museum exhibit next month is a testament to Lolita’s passion to continually promote Filipino artistry.
“I’m hoping that a lot of Filipinos come out to see the exhibition. I have family and friends who are flying from various parts of the world to see it. Knowing that makes me feel really blessed,” Lolita said.
(Cover photo by Alex Baguio)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(NYNJ Jan 28-Feb 3, 2011 LifeEASTyle pg. 2)
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