Claudio Bravo is Bravo!

Studying the Aesthetics of Art, or nature and beauty of art helps me learn more and appreciate more art as a part of my life. At first, I really thought that art is just colors, beautiful things around, etc. but now, as I learn from it, I feel that art has really deeper meaning and valuable meaning.


    The society uses art as one of the important things in life. Sometimes, they don’t even know how art was involved in their work, even in their lives. When we look inside our houses, some of our living rooms have these portraits posted in the walls. We see portraits as a design in our homes. We place them in our walls because we believe that when there are portraits in our houses, it gives us lively feeling and somehow, it fills the emptiness inside us. Sometimes, when we look at a portrait, we try to understand its meaning and what is it all about. There are stories behind those portraits. Aside from portraits in the living rooms, we use these as a source of income. We sell creative portraits and it helps us to earn money from it. It sells because the buyers see the creativity in those portraits, and sometimes it’s because they want one for their living rooms. Some portraits also are ways of supporting the Arts. By means of galleries, museums, and such presentations of portraits, art is showcased to all of us. But I think, portraits do represent what the artist feels. The bottom line is that a work of art is created simply because artists just want to show to us what they want to express, and what they want us to know, from our history to our own reasons. 

     We went for a trip at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and we were asked to view artworks made by Claudio Bravo, a Chilean painter who went to the Philippines. Looking at his artworks, I was astonished because first, I’m no painter so looking at it, I was like “wow!”. Second, the materials used in the paintings were listed and some of them are just pencils and charcoals. There were famous personalities like Evelyn Forbes, Jaime and Beatrice Zobel de Ayala, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, etc. Some paintings were incomplete but I still appreciate these works because it was still creative and artistic. Looking at the hair of some women painted, they were like painted in an exaggerated way because some have hair that is so high. I asked one of the museum guides on some background on Claudio Bravo, she said that Claudio is a fashion artist which means that when he paints or draws something, what he would do is to give a touch of fashion to it before painting it. Like for some of his models, they were dressed beautifully because he wanted to showcase his talents not only in painting but in fashion as well. Some paintings there were confusing though, like “The Neighbors”. We didn't get what he wanted to say on that painting. It is a painting of two abdomen and that was all it. After looking at the portraits/paintings, I was jealous in a way that I wanted to paint like him but I know that I don’t have that kind of talent so it’s fine with me. 

Metropolitan Museum of Manila

My ticket to the Museum

Welcome to the Claudio Bravo Exhibit

The Tarps outside the Museum

     Giving importance on portraits is one thing we almost care about. Looking at our display pictures on Facebook, Twitter, on Instagram, etc., we always wanted to look good because that’s our portrait, that is the thing that represents us and by these photos, it describes us and symbolizes us from everyone. I think this is one practical reason on how we see portraits. 


My self-portrait is very simple; it is a collage of several pictures of me with my friends. With the use of Photoshop, I was able to do this collage of myself. Seeing it closer, the pictures I have used are my photos of myself with my friends. I don’t know why but I felt like placing them there as a part of my collage. I think at some point, I know that these people were the ones that formed me of who I am. They were one of the people who molded me and help me and pursue an art-related course which is Filmmaking. I was thinking of what is the symbolism behind this collage and come up with simple things. I think that in ways of color, Impressionist way of coloring is present since it was edited in Photoshop, the lighting of the photos was different, and it was not based on real life colors. Value of the photo is one element as well since some photos were light and some were a bit dark. I made most of the pictures lighter so that my self-image would be seen. In the aspect of Composition in space, there is rhythm since there are repetition of different images, and variety as well among the self-portrait. In terms of symbols, the portraits in the Claudio Bravo and my self-portrait have this similarity of own interpretation. Claudio Bravo wanted to show to the viewers his different way of painting his artists and as for me, I wanted to show that through people, I could create an artistic things through making films in the future. Every artwork has its own meaning and explanation and I think it is a way of showing us what we really are. 

Self- Portrait