Om's world: Child prodigy, 6, paints from her dreams
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Om's world: Child prodigy, 6, paints from her dreams
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... Blue Heart" Dre, 10. The Dueñases are devotees of Ananda Marga, and are
strict vegetarians and practitioners of yoga. Om goes to ...
BOLD, HAPPY, MAGICAL strokes create “Tiki, Dinosaur” in acrylic on paper
board. Other favored subjects are birds, butterflies, houses, flowers,
rainbows, human forms and all other things that delight her. The child
artist is due to hold her second solo exhibit of 30 acrylic paintings in
Iloilo City. GUIJO DUEÑAS
Om's world: Child prodigy, 6, paints from her dreams
First posted 03:58am (Mla time) Oct 16, 2005 By Hazel P. Villa Inquirer News
Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A1 of the October 16, 2005 issue of the
Philippine Daily Inquirer
ILOILO CITY-THIS CHILD named after the first sound of the universe could
identify primary colors at nine months, was holding a Chinese paintbrush at
11 months, and had done more than 50 simple paintings on bond paper using
India ink by the time she was a year old.
When Eouia Aum "Om" Dueñas, second child of Ilonggo artists Guijo and Jyh
Ming Dueñas, was five, she held a one-child show of 25
acrylic-on-paper-board paintings measuring two by three feet each. The
exhibit, titled "My World," ran on March 22-28 last year at SM City Mall
Iloilo.
On Nov. 12-14 also last year, the 5-year-old was the youngest of 20 artists
holding a group exhibit for the Sunrise Festival at the CAP Building in Cebu
City.
Om's ideas for her paintings often come from her dreams, according to her
father.
Once, she talked about flying and singing horses, and Guijo told her: "Why
don't you paint them?"
The result? "Flying Horse Dream"-a colorful horse standing on three legs,
with a rainbow for a tail.
"If I show her what a real horse looks like, she cries out, 'That's not my
horse!' And I just let her be," said Guijo, 39, a multiawarded visual artist
and photo contributor of the Inquirer.
Born on March 24, 1999, Om has been a vegetarian since birth and was
breast-fed for three years, like her brother John "Blue Heart" Dre, 10.
The Dueñases are devotees of Ananda Marga, and are strict vegetarians and
practitioners of yoga.
Om goes to the Special Education-Integrated School for Exceptional Children
(Sped-Isec) on Luna Street, and Blue Heart, the adjacent Mabini Elementary
School.
Guijo said that at the age of 2, Om could identify secondary colors and was
using water-based paints.
Using a No. 12 brush, and just having learned to mix primary colors to make
secondary ones, Om had finished about 30 oil paintings on canvas in various
sizes by the time she was 3.
Some of the paintings are in abstract and the others are in identifiable
forms. The constant features: predominant blue, pink, red and yellow colors
in bold, happy strokes.
Guijo, a prolific painter who paints most of the day, said he discovered
Om's talent when he made the child hold a Chinese paintbrush at 11 months.
"Her first output looked like Chinese calligraphy. She used India ink on
Oslo paper. Several months later, she used watercolor, still on Oslo paper,"
he said.
Midnight sleeper
By her parents' account, Om went to bed at midnight in her first five years.
Her mind was so active that whenever anyone tried to dissuade her from her
nightly painting, she threw a tantrum.
When she was 3 or 4, her paintings had clearer form and had more colors. She
could also prepare paints and clean brushes by herself, and discovered more
color combinations that she thought "magical," Guijo said.
Most of her subjects were dinosaurs, birds and butterflies, houses, flowers,
rainbows, human forms, and all the things she saw and liked.
She painted five to six hours daily, and came up with three to four
paintings at the end of the day, said Guijo, who worked beside his daughter.
"Stopping Om from painting and encouraging her to play or do other things
would trigger a tantrum and long crying spells," he said, recalling the time
when he walked the child for almost an hour around the neighborhood to
comfort her.
Discipline
As she approached her fifth year, Om became more disciplined and would paint
for five straight hours by herself, Guijo said.
Of her 30 paintings in acrylic, the most attractive is the expressionist
"Angels on the Playground."
Again, it is a dream interpreted in a painting-herself playing with angels
and other children with blue wings (boys) and pink wings (girls).
And since Om did not yet know her ABCs, Guijo told her to "sign" her works
with "a moon and mountains beside each other," which led the child to form
the letters O and M.
Special school
Now that she is 6 years old and in kindergarten 2 at the Sped-Isec, Om has
discovered the world of other children. She still paints, but now prefers to
play with the neighbors' kids.
Her parents enrolled her at Sped because they believe the school would help
her realize her artistic potential in the course of receiving a normal
education.
"Om did not take a qualifying or assessment test. She was qualified [to
enter] Sped-Isec because of her works, and she excelled in that field. Her
exceptionality is in her blending of colors," said Lilia Ramos, coordinator
of the school's "Head Start Program for the Gifted, the Creative and
Talented," which is for kindergarten 1 and 2 students.
Ramos, a 2003 Metrobank Outstanding Teacher, said that in other aspects, Om
was like any other kindergarten pupil, except that she had to work
double-time because she came to the school with no academic preparation.
Prodigy
Joy Cañoso, 33, one of Om's three kindergarten teachers, considers her a
prodigy in art but an average student in academics.
"So far, she [has proved] exceptional in painting, but not necessarily in
other forms of art. Not only does she have mature color choices, she also
has good fashion sense," said Cañoso, who also observed that her pupil
always completed whatever work was assigned to her.
Sped-Isec's Head Start Curriculum, which was started three years ago, is
interest-based, meaning the kindergarten pupils are exposed to their
"specialties" every Friday at 9-10:30 a.m. The teachers call it "Sensory
Perception/Talent/Creativity Day."
According to Cañoso, Om has yet to overcome nerves and a perfectionist
attitude over activities that she thinks she cannot finish.
Play before painting
But she always looks forward to the first Friday of the month, which is
devoted to arts and crafts classes. (Cooking lessons fall on the second
Friday. The third Friday is devoted to theater arts and a talent showcase.
On the fourth Friday, the children play games, and on the last Friday, they
watch films.)
Although relieved that Om has now started formal schooling, the artist in
Guijo sighs over her "not being an artist anymore," having stopped daytime
painting since December.
But the doting father pointed out that Om was still drawing "anything" every
night from 9 to 10 p.m., after which she had to be cajoled to sleep.
"Prior to her attending kindergarten classes, Om's friends would call her
and she would say, 'Wait, I'm still painting.' But now, it's play before
painting," he said.
But he noted that Om's emotional quotient had risen since she started
mingling with other children.
Lucky mom
Jyh Ming, 31, an occasional painter herself, takes her two children to and
from school.
"I am lucky that I am the mother of such a child. She is a gift to me," said
Jyh Ming, who conducts yoga classes in their home on Ybiernas Avenue beside
the UP Iloilo City campus.
Jyh Ming said she practiced yoga when she was pregnant with Om and read to
the baby the works of Eastern writers Kahlil Gibran and Rabindranath Tagore.
Also musically inclined, Jyh Ming recalled Om making noises and moving to
the tunes of the boy band Boyzone at the age of two months.
Now 6 and very affectionate, Om has discovered dancing. She also sings her
own compositions, prompting her mother to laugh and exclaim: "She just might
come up with a new art performance where she dances, sings and paints at the
same time."
2nd exhibit
The Dueñas couple are preparing for Om's second one-child exhibit of
paintings in acrylic on paper board, temporarily titled "My Dream."
But Om is now less passionate about painting, having discovered the joys of
watching the Powerpuff Girls and Nickelodeon on cable TV.
The family home is devoid of the typical furniture and decorated only with
Guijo and Om's art works.
And for the moment, the child artist and her brother Blue Heart are
oblivious to the world around them as they lie stomach down on a mat,
giggling over TV cartoons.
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