By YOLANDA L. PUNSALAN
THREE-YEAR-OLD Arianna Ysabel Aguilar Ramos can not yet read and write, but she can already paint like a pro.
Arianna recently mounted her first solo exhibit showcasing 40 paintings, which she finished two months before her third birthday last October 29.
The young artist decided to donate the proceeds of her one-day exhibit to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) pediatric ward after she saw a fleeting TV solicitation for help plugged by the hospital.
For this act of charity, Arianna’s name has been listed in the roster of donors as the youngest ever in the hospital’s history.
Her mother Catrina told exhibit guests, mainly family and bosom friends, that young Arianna was moved by that simple TV plug showing the paltry conditions of the sick kids and the hospital’s lack of basic medical supplies and facilities.
Arianna casually told her mom, “I want to help them get well.”
Catrina said the practice of giving generously to charity has been imprinted in the child’s mind. For the Ramos family, birthdays are for giving to others while receiving of gifts is only expected during Christmastime.
The right ingredients in turning out a happy, generous child are all present in this artist’s fortunate life. Arianna’s parents gave her more than enough encouragement and exposure to the arts (aside from their art collection at home, they went on foreign and local holiday trips) that all but expanded her artistic mind.
Surprisingly, there are no other artists in the family. Her father Romell Ramos is a lawyer while her mother Catrina Aguilar is a career woman, who honestly admitted she could not even draw.
Arianna’s Grandma Mildred had so lovingly and gently guided her fingers to hold a pen properly when she was only seven months old. After the pen, she learned to wield paint brushes of various lengths and sizes. Then the colors, the easel, and the pastel paper came.
Mom Catrina recalled that Arianna and one-year-old sister Alessa would draw on the living room drapes, on their white tiles and on each other’s faces and arms, turning one another into cartoonish cats.
That, she said, was before art teacher Jerome Malic homeschooled Arianna with art techniques.
Arianna’s whimsical paintings as shown at her exhibit are essentially fun pieces, done in playfulness, and in between hyperactive moods.
It is art without hypocrisy. There are no portraits of sunsets, or falling leaves or churches or icons — nothing surreal or cubist, nothing calculated or precise. Her artworks are essentially lines that twirl like ribbons and zip and zap across the pastel paper, scribbles that crisscross and then go in circles and squares, then in dots and splashes that mess the page.
The outcome exudes a kind of serene innocence that captivate. The viewer can not help but just hold back, be still, gaze intently and smile.
Fittingly, Dr. Carmencita Padilla, PGH pediatric chair, opened Arianna’s spacious exhibit, which was big enough for the artist and her cousins to run around, complete with a rocking wooden toy horse, kid study table and stools, and an easel board, with colorful folded circular fans hanging on the glass doors.
Although Arianna has not learned how to write her name so she could sign her artworks, she however has a gift for giving titles to her own paintings as her three-year-old vocabulary can allow.
She entitled her works as follows: Round and Round, Crayons, Dreams, Barney, Alessa, Lollipop, Yoyo Bounce, Forest, Scribbles, Sprinkles, Cupcake, Big Blue Circle, Motorbike, Yellow Hoop Loop, Swirls, Polka Dots, Square on Square, Fountain, Dots, Christmas, Spilled Milk, Mr. Golden Sun, Waterfall, Peeping Cloud, Waves, Rainbow, The Number Four, Black Cat, Duckling, Winter, Thunder Cloud, Messy Room, and Pink.
Not to be outdone in creativity and generosity, the PGH resident doctors gifted Arianna with a handmade storybook made up of bound sheets of art paper. Written on it is an original children’s short story, which was beautifully illustrated.
It is about a touching story of a young girl named Arianna and her magical paintbrush. It tells of how she painted lively colors of reds, greens, blues and yellows to give color to the sad lives of hospital patients who were fading away.
Aside from including the child artist in the PGH’s roster of donors, Dr. Padilla said she will submit Arianna’s name to the Philippine Association of the Gifted Children.
Being a child with boundless energy and multiple interests, Arianna seems however to be momentarily setting aside her paints and brushes.
She has asked her parents to allow her to learn how to do the tap dance this time.
