Portrait of former teen star as an artist

EARLY this year, Jao realized he had assembled enough paintings in the attic to mount a solo exhibit.

“Each painting tells a story,” actor-turned-painter Jao Mapa explained.

While other storytellers use words to weave a tale, his preferred media are acrylic and oil on canvas.

“I’m into bright colors,” Jao pointed out.

He has tried watercolor as well, and experimented by using wood instead of the usual cloth as canvas.

He also painted pictures on the cement walls and wood ceiling of his parents’ home in Antipolo.

He recalled that it took him years to finish that one on the ceiling near the spiral staircase.

It was his Sistine Chapel, he jested, and he had dubbed it “Sun and Moon.” His mom complained of the delay, quite understandably, but the artist remained unperturbed.

Sweet time

Art takes its sweet time.

His mom Tess also asked him to paint an avian mural in the bathroom. “I saw a photograph of endangered birds on the front page of the Inquirer and asked Jao to paint it on the walls,” she said.

Years later, it’s still a work in progress—much like the home, which is perpetually buzzing with the promise of renewal.

Jao prefers working in the attic—a room that offers a view of his father Tito’s vegetable garden below.

Art always had a mystical allure for him.

His mom related that when she displayed Jao’s painting titled “Sabong (Cockfight)” in the living room, there was constant discord in the house.

Coincidence? When she replaced it with a rustic scene of farmers planting rice (“Harvest”), peace and plenty took over.

Curiously, Jao painted “Kainan,” which shows a family of five having a picnic, before his youngest Stacey was born.

Family portrait

“Now, ‘Kainan’ can very well be a family portrait, because my wife Cecil and I have three kids,” he said.

Aside from serving as a peek into the future, art is also a window to the past for Jao. Another special painting, “Tambay,” shows his old stomping ground as a child.

“We used to live in an apartment, also here in Antipolo, and I had a favorite hangout in front of our gate,” he recounted.

While some works recall his childhood, one painting depicts a typical scene from the movies.

With wry humor, “Shooting a Love Scene” features a leading man and his female co-star, both half-naked, while a slew of movie workers mindlessly mill around them.

“I have an idea for a series of paintings that will show what happens on a movie set. A behind-the-scenes look,” Jao enthused.

Yet another piece is his take on Pieta, the Virgin Mary cradling a dying Christ. Turned out, it was a scene from a senakulo (Lenten play) that Jao did with character actor Lou Veloso’s theater troupe in Sta. Ana, Manila.

“The play was entitled ‘Martir sa Golgota’ and I portrayed Christ. One of my kids cried when he saw me in costume. He got scared. He didn’t recognize me,” Jao related.

THE STUDIO offers a view of the hills that he loves.

One striking painting, “Palimos,” shows a street kid begging for alms, as if seen from a motorist’s side-view mirror—thus, the cartoon-like distortion.

“He would see the same young beggar every time he drove by GMA 7 studio,” mom related.

“While driving, I often came across something interesting on the street,” Jao said. “I didn’t carry a camera with me, so I’d paint a mental picture.”

Once home, he would turn these mental pictures into acrylic paintings.

Cover boy

His myriad experiences in and out of show biz have lent color to his art.

For those who grew up in the 1990s, Jao was known simply as a cover boy in teenybopper magazines.

The former teen star, however, chose to pick up the paint brush long before the shrieks of fans quieted down. He counts himself lucky that he got to experience normal life away from show biz—as student and employee in a photo studio; as son and father.

A Fine Arts graduate from the University of Santo Tomas (2003), Jao has been doodling, drawing, sketching and painting for as long as he can remember. “When I was small, I would draw Marvel superheroes and other cartoon characters. I joined art contests in school. It wasn’t about winning for me. I just loved to draw.”

Growing up

He also made illustrations for the magazines that his mom edited when he was younger.

As a little boy, he would tag along when his mom interviewed some of the country’s top artists. “She took me to a lot of art galleries and museums,” Jao said.

At home, he grew up surrounded by art works as well—particularly, several Cesar Legaspi drawings in the attic.

Among Filipino visual artists, he admires the works of Tam Austria, Danny Dalena, Ben Cabrera and Ang Kiukok, among others.

His dad and cousin Paolo were early influences, too. “They encouraged me to take art seriously,” Jao said. Growing up in Antipolo inspired him to record everyday scenes on canvas, he said—“Simple things.”

One favorite is “Labandera,” a loving tribute to his family’s old laundress, Aling Mareng. “She worked with us for 20 years,” his mom said.

“Everywhere you look, there’s inspiration,” he said of his parents’ home, tucked in a hilly subdivision. And after years of slaving away in the attic, he has amassed enough paintings for a major show.

He has unveiled these paintings—mostly in acrylic and oil—in an exhibition called “Old and Recent Works of Jao Mapa” at the Grey Gallery in Antipolo.

“The show, which opened March 10, will run until the end of the month. Around 20 paintings will be on display,” he said.

Celeb artists

WITH wife Cecil and their kids (from left) Ben, Stacey and Caleb in an early family photo.

In the past, he joined a group show that featured fellow celebrity-painters Maria Isabel Lopez, Cesar Montano, Baron Geisler, Dranreb Belleza and Epi Quizon, among others.

Between sessions in the art studio, he still pursues acting.

He recently appeared as a cab driver in “Balang Araw” directed by UP film students Jono de Rivera, Archie Dimaculangan and Cheska Ramos.

He’s in the cast of three indie films: Jigs Recto’s “Binatilyo” and “Tagsibol,” and Neal “Buboy” Tan’s “Larong Bata.”

This thoroughly modern painter also does commissioned pieces for clients who can reach him online. His Facebook page showcases some of his works.

“I’ve done a painting for GMA 7 exec Joey Abacan, for example,” he said.

Jao has his own condo unit in Quezon City, where he lives with Cecil and their three kids Ben (9), Caleb (6) and Stacey (5), but Antipolo continues to enchant and entrance this artist.

“Antipolo is home,” he conceded. “This is where I grew up. This is where I learned to act and paint.”

He related that he first dabbled in acting via school plays in La Salle Antipolo.

Inevitably, his three children are showing keen interest in the arts. “Stacey is quite good. I like Caleb’s style and Ben is very detailed,” he said, with more than a tinge of pride. “With only his imagination as guide, Ben draws robots and faces well. All three enjoy playing with colors.”

The cycle of life as art continues.

(Grey Gallery is on the second floor of the Village Corner, Beverly Hills Subdivision, Ortigas Avenue extension, Antipolo, 1870.)