I am an artist who writes. I write for two reasons: one, it leads me to a contemplation zone, where I can reflect on personal issues, think about ideas relevant to my convictions, and collect my fleeting thoughts and imaginations,” explains Davao City painter Victor Secuya in the essay “Why Do I Write” in his book Art Insights: 66 Essays on Art and Life (Davao City, Image World Digital Printing, 2017).

It is rare to have a painter who also writes. Although there are quite a number of Filipino writers who can paint like National Artist Cirilo F. Bautista, Gilda Cordero Fernando, Luisa A. Igloria, Carla Pacis, and Isidoro Cruz. There are also those who are both writer and visual artist such as cartoonists-comic writers Josua Cabrera of Cebu and Manix Abrera of Manila. In the case of Secuya, he is primarily a painter, and he writes on the side.

Art Insights is composed of 60 short essays, which are musings about life being lived around art. He decided to write 60 essays for his sixtieth birthday in May 2017. Secuya is generously sharing the authorship of this book to his editor, Celia Castillo, who, according to the note on the back cover, is a medical doctor and a writer.

“I also write because it gives me so much pleasure. I enjoy every moment I put my thoughts in black and white. I really get a kick out of the process,” writes Secuya.

I would quote him to my creative writing students, saying that while writing may be difficult, it can also be pleasurable.

In the essay “The Artist,” Secuya gives this definition: “An artist is someone who sees something—the moon, a flower, trees, a face, dreams—feels it and experiences it deeply and tremendously. He thinks about the details; caresses the shapes and textures; relishes the colors and gets awed by the play of light and shadows.”

This will come in handy as a reading for enrichment for teachers and students of humanities or art appreciation. If the short essays of Secuya sound like little lectures, it is because he was once a teacher of art and philosophy at the Ateneo de Davao University.

Another feature of this book useful for students and teachers are the quotes about art and life from other artists and writers like H.R. Ocampo, Pablo Picasso, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Pico Iyer, and even from Aristotle and Saint Francis of Assisi.

In an art exhibit, sponsored by Phoenix Petroleum in Davao City in December 2017, which featured the works of Mindanao artists curated by Secuya, it is said that Mindanaoan art features “image of bold colors and shapes, varied textures, and indigenous patterns (www.phoenixfuels.ph).” Secuya’s paintings, Memories of My Father’s Farm 1 and 2 depict his beloved island Mindanao with “bright and vibrant colors and unique shapes that communicate movement (ibid.)”

Is there a signature Secuya painting? In his essay “Secuya Style,” he says there is no such thing. Instead, “if there’s one word to describe my artistry, it is change. My works are manifestations of the changes occurring in me. Through every exhibit that I mount, it’s no longer the same as the Secuya paintings exhibited before. I can’t repeat the same painting, same subject, same composition, same color scheme.”

It is refreshing to read a book on art by an artist. For someone like Secuya who has devoted years of painting and contemplating on this art form, his insights about art using lucid and crisp prose is a gift for the reader’s mind and heart. Who can write more with authority and credibility about art than an artist?

I bought my copy of this book in Morning Light, a gallery selling original paintings by Davao artists and a fine arts supplies store, along Quirino Avenue, in Davao City. The next time I return to Davao, I will surely look for the paintings of Victor Secuya.