The art of mothering, according to Naomi Banal
For as long as I can remember, art has been a part of my life. My childhood home was filled with artworks—a mixture of pieces done by my mom, the artist Naomi Banal, and works by her artist friends, even my own paintings from when I was a child.
My mom had a small art studio right by our living room. It had red terracotta tiles stained with acrylic paint and a big wooden easel that held quite a few canvases. She also had a trove of art supplies that she had collected through the years. Acrylic paints that lined the walls, brushes of all sizes, watercolor tubes in every color possible, palettes and knives, pencils and pens, pastel, watercolor and oil paper, rolls of canvas— an artist’s equivalent of a candy store if ever there was one.
Mother got me and my sister involved in her paintings at a young age. Early in her art career, my mom painted simple home scenes for one gracious purpose. Her canvas showed chairs and ladders positioned against a wall. My mom would ask us to draw on the “walls” of the painting with a crayon. Whatever we wanted and to our heart’s desire! We mostly drew stick figures and even wrote our names on the paintings, but what I recall most of all was the freedom from restrictions mothers often imposed on their eager, crayon-wielding kids. Interestingly, it was the childlike touch that enamored people to these works of my mom. The buyers would place their frames against a wall in their homes for their young children to draw on.
During the summer, my mom held art classes for a few of my peers from school and church. Naturally, my sister and I joined in as well. By the time I was five, I had learned how to draw a pear with a graphite pencil, sketch out flowers in a vase using oil pastels, and mix certain acrylic paints to get a specific color that I wanted. I even learned what complementary colors were even before I learned how to add and subtract numbers, which is funny considering the career I am currently pursuing.
With an upbringing like that, you would expect that at least one of my mom’s two children would follow in her footsteps and pursue art as a career. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both my sister and I are numerically inclined. My older sister is in Finance while I am currently finishing a bachelor’s degree in Statistics, where the closest I get to creative work is choosing which color and font to use for my graphs.
But my mom’s artistic influence continues to manifest in me, just not through an exemplary talent in painting or sketching. Fashion has been an avenue for me to express myself creatively. Growing up, my sister and I had drastically different clothing preferences. While she consistently wore T-shirt, jeans, and Converse sneakers, I was much more open to wearing anything. This was probably why my mom liked to dress me up as a kid. She conceptualized outfits for me that were quite different from what my peers were wearing. The clothes that she bought me were sometimes unique and interesting in design, and she would help me style my look around them.
This artistic approach to fashion has stayed with me, so much so that some people mistake me for an art student. Some of my favorite outfits involve statement pieces like a denim vest or an asymmetric skirt in vibrant colors. I have also racked up quite an extensive earring collection—polymer clay earrings (sandwich and hot cross buns, anyone?), earrings with crochet detailing, large dangling ones, others that cluster, drop, or hoop expressively. I also play around with colored eyeshadow and bold lipsticks, depending on the overall mood of my outfit.
My mom is very supportive of any creative endeavors my sister and I have that go beyond visual arts. I have a deep love for dance, particularly ballet, and my mom advocated for this passion of mine when I was younger. My sister is more musically inclined so my mom encouraged her to explore different instruments until she found which ones best suited her. As an artist, she understands how important it is to have support for such outlets and she gave it to us with all her heart. I would not have been able to experience the opportunities ballet has given me, including a scholarship to a dance school in Seattle, without her.
Mom’s creativity has definitely helped shape who I am today. Though none of her daughters inherited her giftedness in painting, she has instilled in us a deep appreciation for the arts in various forms. She encouraged me to express myself through fashion, using colors and textures to present myself in a way that resonated with me; and through dance, where I convey emotion through movement. It is because of her that my sister and I are confident in who we are and the choices we make.
In our own small ways, we support Mom and her art. Sometimes we are not so subtle when she complains of fatigue and sleeplessness pre-exhibit. We push and push in the most loving way we know because once she lets out that passion and loses herself in the whirlwind of creation, the result is as much a gift to herself as to us and her audience. Then we make ourselves available when she’s curating and preparing her pieces for a show. Since her canvases are large, especially the triptychs, she usually needs physical help from her husband and daughters in photographing and putting them up.
So now, we are busy getting ready for “Endless Possibilities: An exhibit by Naomi Banal” which is slated to open March 1 at Arte Bettina, Greenbelt 5 in Legazpi Village, Ayala Center, Makati City. Please drop by and take a look at my mom’s wonderful colors, layer by layer, grace by grace. The show is ongoing until March 15.
