_Night Walker: Studies In Multiple Perspective_

Night Walker: Studies In Multiple Perspective

Tony Perez

New Works In Oil

I see rainbows even in darkness.

When I was 18 I loved roaming the streets of Cubao at night, taking in the lights and the shadows, marveling at how colors look different from what they do in the daytime, passing by workers closing up shop, listening to their conversations and their dreams, merging with the district before going home and processing my observations in the privacy of my own room.

In this exhibit I revisit those nights and see how "closing time" can also mean "retirement" for myself and my former classmates of 4-F Elans, which celebrates its 50th year. It is an exciting time in life because the night never shows up treasures and surprises until someone shines light on them.

Most of these paintings depict scenes from my neighborhood, in Cubao. It is the height of the Philippine summer, and people are switching from incandescents to fluorescents to dispel the heat and generate the kind of brightness they can work by, and read by, and write by, and paint by, and see themselves all the better by.

I walk the night. Come, walk with me.

Pink Canteen
Oil on cradled canvas
36" x 36"
March 6 - April 6, 2018

Orange Burger Stand
Oil on cradled canvas
36" x 36"
April 10 - 19, 2018

Green Sari-Sari
Oil on cradled canvas
36" x 36"
April 24 - May 13, 2018

Gray Outpost
Oil on paper mounted on wood
24" x 20"
June 14 - 21, 2018

Blue Ice Dealer's
Oil on cradled canvas
36" x 36"
April 10 - 24, 2018

Yellow Food Stall
Oil on cradled canvas
36" x 36"
March 6 - April 6, 2018

Violet Waiting Shed
Oil on canvas
16" x 20"
April 25 - 30, 2018

This is Violet Waiting Shed framed. It took the frame-maker long because it is in glossy, black lacquer, the kind that is used on the glass frames of Japanese dolls.

Red Vendor's Spot
Oil on canvas
14" x 18"
April 30 - May 5, 2018

Brown Pick-up Point

Oil on linen

7" x 5"

May 6 - 9, 2018

Framed in black lacquer

White Beer Stop
Oil on cradled canvas
36" x 48"
May 12 - June 13, 2018

Pentecost Sunday, May 20, 2018

Posted by my professor Manny de Guzman at Maryhill School of Theology:

"Sharing this reflections from my wall, with Tony's painting. - CHILDREN OF THE VOICE… It’s Pentecost Sunday, known popularly for the symbol of the tongues of fire for the Holy Spirit descending upon the community of disciples. Today I chose another symbol and another personage to speak of the birthing of the prophetic Christian movement…

"I’m wrapping up the academic year with defenses of final integration projects by student-groups. About 210 students sat in my classes this entire year: male, female; lay people, seminarians, priests, consecrated persons; in various ministries in the church and professions in civil society. Colleagues have been asking me if there are differences among the students in the different schools where I taught. I avoid directly answering them because of the diversity of course I directed and the range of number of students per class, from 10 to 49. I also respect the theological orientations or thrusts of the schools, and indeed there are differences, yet I try to be creative and productive in the spaces given to me as a laboratory for new landscapes and new sights. Some will say, 'It’s the school you choose' that matters. Maybe so. But the schools are as good as the teachers in the classrooms. There are teachers like me who teach across different schools and they bear their own disciplines as much as they leave their marks of theological personality and style which they impart to students.

"The mural below is a triptych of 'John the Baptist' painted by Tony Perez, a Filipino visual artist, lyricist, novelist, playwright, editor, clinical therapist, psychic trainer, and an alumnus of Maryhill School of Theology (M.A. Religious Studies). Measuring 5 feet x 12 feet, it hangs in the inner study room of the MST library. Whenever I sit and face the triptych, while preparing for my classes, reading books or papers of students, I find it as a constant reminder that we all are John the Baptist.

"We teachers are in the same boat as John the Baptist, whose role is to prepare the way for a deeper encounter with the Messiah. We do not make any miracles or exorcisms but hopefully like John teachers will be remembered for being the voice in the wilderness. That makes teachers examples for students to follow, that everyone’s calling has dignity to it and God seems to know better than we do and God seems to know better than what is in us (J. Green).

"Teachers of theology, again as John was, are a contrast-people to the world’s preferences. His voice in the wilderness is the voice that co-missioned him to prophesy against the ills of the world and announce the coming of a radically different world. John refused to be silent and it can be said that the prophetic Christian movement began with him: 'In his recorded teaching to the people there is not a word about the customary ritual of religion, about increased Sabbath observance, about stricter washings and sacrifices, or the ordinary exercises of piety. He spoke only of repentance, of ceasing from wrongdoing. He hailed the professional exponents of religion who came to hear him, as a brood of snakes wriggling away from the flames of the judgment. ... The way to prepare for the Messianic era and to escape the wrath of the Messiah was to institute a brotherly [and sisterly] life and to equalize social inequalities' (W. Rauschenbusch). As teachers we don’t teach just knowledge but a vision of life and a mission in the world. Jesus heard also a voice, The Voice. It is He who embodied the voice in actions through what he called the reign-of-God-already-in-our-midst.

"We are all the 'daughter of a sound' ('bat kol', בּת קול; 'kol' literally means 'echo' or 'whisper' but used in biblical sense it is 'divine voice'). Teachers could not have been using their voices if they didn’t hear and listen also to the voice within them and in the world around them, speaking of their vocation and mission. John and us, theology teachers, are path-breakers, path-makers, path-seekers. May all our students become voices of the voiceless in a divided and wounded world and trek the path of peace and justice no matter how dusty, winding, and precarious.

"Till then, happy vacation to students as we teachers need it too. Carpe diem, make your life extraordinary."