PI VILLARAZA GUIDES US THROUGH THE WILD AND SCENIC CREATIVE ENCLAVES OF THREE ARTISTS: MUSICIAN WAWAY SAWAY. PHOTOGRAPHY BY IVAN SARENAS

Kublai Millan, Waway Saway and Rosalie Zerrudo may live a distance from one another, but the three artists – who also happen to be very good friends – know they walk hand-in-hand along their artistic journeys. What’s more, all three share a deep and abiding affection for their beloved Mindanao. Their creative spaces express the energy and passion that drive them to create art.

KUBLAI MILLAN, sculptor Location: Davao City

Countless newspaper articles and TV features have described Kublai Millan’s work with the following superlatives: towering, colossal, visionary, and grandiose. Perhaps it’s because the sculptor erected 80-foot monuments – large “Kublais” – dispersed across Mindanao. Recently, he even managed to fill Davao City’s Peoples’ Park with 100 dynamic, life-sized sculptures of children.

Within less than a decade, Kublai’s larger-than-life art pieces now include a 40ft Durian monument at the Davao City International Airport and 50 sculptures for the Bukidnon Overview Park along the national highway from Cagayan de Oro to Davao City. His work is also in cathedrals, on church grounds, and in provincial government buildings as well as Ponce Suites, his family’s five-storey hotel, Manny Paquiao’s Saranggani farm, and the artist’s own retreat house built in Mt Apo National Park in Kapatagan, Davao del Sur, which is open to the public.

After earning an art degree from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Kublai took a long hiatus from city life to explore Mindanao’s frontiers.

“Much like the vision quests of ancient tribes, I wanted to find out who I was as a person and as an artist,” he says. In the course of his journey, he discovered that Mindanao’s farmers and simple fishermen were prolific teachers of life. “If college taught me how to use a paintbrush, my journeys taught me the art of living.”

As such, Kublai never stops looking for inspiration for his sculptures. He admits that his profoundest insights can come from the simplest impressions.

“Seeing a family riding a carabao to a farm can have a lasting effect on me, just as the image of an entire community hauling a huge net of fish for the night’s dinner can stick to my head for days on end. If I can share even just an iota of the peace that I have found during my long sojourns through Mindandao, all my hard work will have been worthwhile.”

WHERE TO GO

You can see Kublai Millan’s art at Ponce Suites Hotel, Corner Roads 3 and 4, Dona Vicenta Village II, Bajada, Davao City, tel: +63 (82) 227 9070, email: info@poncesuites. com, www.poncesuites.net

Opening spread: The rattan and capiz lamps function as the apples on the Tree of Life Sculpture inside the Agung House in majestic Mt Apo. On this page: The artist and a few of his monumental sculptures

HOW TO GET THERE

Cebu Pacific flies to Davao from Manila daily and from Hong Kong three times a week. Visit www.cebupacificair.com

ROSALIE ZERRUDO, eco-peace artist Location: Camiguin Island

Even if artist Rosalie Zerrudo is gallavanting around the world, her presence is deeply felt in her home, the Enigmata Treehouse on Camiguin island. Ross is a film-maker, theater actress, dancer, painter, published poet, eco-tourism instructor, and recording artist. Although her simple roots trace back to a small barrio in Negros Occidental, she has lived all over the Philippines through her advocacy and NGO work, and has traveled to more than 14 countries. It was only when she founded Enigmata in Camiguin that she had found a place she could call home. Here, she organizes grassroots community-based projects that allow students and travelers from around the world to experience the eclectic world of Enigmata.

She describes Enigmata as “a backpacker’s eco-lodge and art gallery in one.” She leads me to a performance area where she conducts concerts and Earth Camp events by artists and ecologists such as Joey Ayala, Roy Alvarez, and Waway Saway. Beside it is a sculpture garden featuring some of the early works of sculptor Kublai Millan. Within the tree house eco-lodge is a honeymoon suite called the Shell Garden Room, a family suite called the Eagle’s Nest, a turtle pool garden, a jamming space for musicians, an art shop and above it all, a fourth level view deck that overlooks the eastern Camiguin horizon.

She leads me to an isolated part of her garden, which is concealed by some bushes. There is a labyrinth here, shaped like a human hand, which is adorned with a sculpture of a man and a woman linked by dance and music. This amazing garden maze was a birthday gift to her by good friend Kublai Millan in 2003. She walks along the labyrinth, silently weaving her way to the center of the spiral. When Ross reaches the center, she raises her hands in the air. “This labyrinth walk is very sacred to me. It is probably the only labyrinth in Mindanao. It is a constant reminder that we should keep going back to our center.”

Like her close friends Kublai Millan and Waway Saway, Rosalie has an intense passion for art and Mindanao. “We’re learning that we all belong to just one tribe. If my friends and I can help bring this unity in our unique ways, thriving in our creative spaces in the heart of the earth, this is enough fulfilment for one lifetime. Indeed, we will be blessed.”

WHERE TO GO

Enigmata Treehouse, Maubog, Balbagon, Mambajao, Camiguin Island, tel: +63 918 230 4184, email: enigmatatreehouse@yahoo. com, www.enigmatatreehouse.com

HOW TO GET THERE

Cebu Pacific flies daily to Cagayan de Oro from Manila (book at www.cebupacificair.com). A ferry sails to Camiguin Island from Balingoan pier

Waway Linsahay Saway sits cross legged in the treehouse he owns, which has a spectacular view of the Bukidnon mountains from a distance. Waway has performed in the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Taiwan, South Korea and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival at Washington DC. But here on Mount Kitanglad, he is husband, father and artist. His late father was a widely-respected talaandig datu (tribal chieftain). His brother Datu Migketay has been the tribe’s culture-bearing Datu since the early 1990s. Together, the brothers try to protect Mindanao’s fast-fading traditions. They dream of a united Mindanao, which Waway describes as “a harmonious rainbow painted on the cheek of a clear blue sky.”

Waway is a genuine multi-media artist. Some examples of his art are his trademark terra cota pendants bearing alibata (ancient Philippine alphabet) imprints as well as the soil-painting technique he teaches young tribesmen. Last year, the tribe joined an international show held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Their very own Balugto Necosia’s soil painting, When Earth Dies, won the prestigious 2007 Philip Morris Arts Award for the region.

WAWAY SAWAY, world musician Location: Mount Kitanglad

Waway does not see technology as a threat to his tribe’s heritage. In fact, he is plugged in. He googles for foreign references. He uses a digital recorder to capture the sounds of nature, which he uses in his music. The tribe watches art films and documentaries on DVD. A Canadian funding agency gave him a digital video camera for making his films, which he edits on a computer courtesy of a Korean NGO. He understands that technology plays a role in preserving their native traditions.

WHERE TO GO

The tribe has a big house for visitors, called Tulugan (they accept donations for food and lodging), Barangay Songco, Lantapan, Bukidnon, tel: +63 906 953 9392, email: wawayska@yahoo.com. You can order Waway’s albums like Kulahi Hu Bugta (“musicry” of the land) at enigmatatreehouse@yahoo.com. His first film, Mayantudug, the Land of the Talaandigs is on www.youtube.com

HOW TO GET THERE

Cebu Pacific flies to Cagayan de Oro four times daily from Manila (book online at www.cebupacificair.com). From there, take a five-hour road trip to Bukidnon