ABOUT THE WORK

Araceli Limcaco Dans humbly began a career in the arts after the war by painting portraits to earn money in order to support her family. The young Araceli would then go on to hone her practice at the UP College of Fine Arts, where she was mentored by the master classical realist Fernando Amorsolo. As a student, Dans would also sell sketches and paint portraits of her peers to fund her own studies. All this practice allowed her to have an adept grasp of technical foundations early on, greatly impressing her mentor. Thus, Amorsolo let her take advanced classes, allowing her to complete her degree in just three years. While her forte began with portraiture, Dans found her muse in the details of the calado or the lacelike thread work of the barong tagalog. Here, for example, Dans paints a vibrant floral arrangement complemented by the demure intricacy of a calado curtain from behind. The juxtaposition is interesting: the elaborate quality of human handiwork and that of nature’s, now woven together in one composition that finds God in the details. The result is a quaint sense of home and history that threads through the exquisite detail of the brush. If Amorsolo’s Filipiniana finds its epitome in the sun-kissed women in baro’t saya basking in the warmth of rural life, Dans f inds it indoors within the gentleness of domestic living. (Pie Tiausas)