In 2011, Elmer Borlongan worked with CANVAS on a digital art project, Rizalpabeto, where he used the iconic iPad to hand-sketch Letras y Figuras interpretations of poems by Vim Nadera all about our national hero. The quality of the artworks aside (always a given when Emong is involved), it was a risky project because the output was a very limited edition set of digital prints, at a time when hardly anyone else was even exploring the medium. It turned out to be one of CANVAS’ proudest, and most successful projects.

Ten years later, we now have the honor and privilege of having Emong participate in “Vignettes”, CANVAS upcoming exhibition featuring interpretations by various artists of lessons and stories from the past five hundred years, except that this time, from the high tech medium of Rizalpabeto, Emong decided to explore ancient traditional printmaking to bring the above vignette to life.

The story appealed to him in part because he now lives in Casa San Miguel in San Antonio, Zambales where his brother-in-law, world-renowned violinist Coke Bolipata runs a nonprofit program teaching music to children in that community. In fact, he requested some of the students to stand as his models and recreate the scene in the gardens of Casa San Miguel so he could better compose the work.

With their help, he was able to create a very tight composition of the characters in a garden, and to distinguish Hibiya Park, he painstakingly carved a background of cherry blossoms with Mt Fuji in the distance. From research that he did in preparation, he found out that Rizal was in Japan on a side trip in the spring when the trees were in bloom, right before he was to go to Europe.

It is also serendipitous that he already had with him some large handmade Kozo paper, made from mulberry trees, that he had purchased from a Japanese paper maker in the past.

Finally, the story connected because Emong had enjoyed an artist in residence stay in Fukuoka, so he already had a personal appreciation for the art and culture of Japan. The tradition of printmaking in Japan enjoys a long and deep history, an artform that Emong rediscovered (he had self-taught himself sometime from 1997 to 2001) and explored during this extended lockdown. He then saw “Vignettes” as an opportunity to create a large rubbercut print similar to those that he saw in Japan, in the US, and among printmakers of Mexico.

Emong emphasized that he is not reviving printmaking as some might assume. It actually never left us, he says, ever since it was pioneered here by Manuel Rodriguez Sr. in 1962. There are many Filipino printmakers continuing the practice today, and it is from them that he has also learned and sought advice.

If anything, Emong wanted to assert that printmaking is not a “minor” artform, and it remains a major creative medium for self-expression.

For him, this project only shows that art is a continuous learning process, and that there is much to be learned from the past and from tradition. The challenge is to use these lessons to create your own identity. In that sense, it is also a perfect metaphor for what we want to achieve with “Vignettes”.