MADRUGADA

me and some artist friends organized this group back in our avellana days. we did this to escape the 'boxed-in' life of advertising. you know i've been painting while doing my 9 to 5 job as always. this was what i was doing during my 9 years at avellana and associates and I’m quite thrilled to say that at least in my mind I influenced some other avellana graphic artists to do the same. It felt ‘illegal’ doing stuff that’s not related to our work but in this case we got the license.

I think it’s because what we were doing was what we got to know as ‘art.’ You know the heaviness of that word. You can get away with almost anything with it. You can do drugs, be a bad boy if you’re an artist. So I guess this was the reason why we got away with it. Besides, art really is an exercise of the mind and when you exercise your mind, you get more creative so it’s a win-win situation. Of course we didn’t really paint while working. We painted during our free time.

Me and my friends realized that we need to formalize the group and we named it madrugada. Cris Villanueva thought of the name. I think it means ‘dawn’ or madaling araw in tagalog.



We deliberated on how to initiate new members. I suggested there should be no initiation. The criteria should be his/her dedication to his craft. As long as the person produced any kind of art, that person could be a member. Plus new members should be able to survive drinking with us. I think this got vetoed to a more structured kind of background check which did not materialize either so I guess the former is the unwritten rule we follow.

All members were excited about the group. Each member produced a lot of art and we really had fun doing it. We held exhibits in any venue who allowed us. We did 2 at the city gallery in luneta. I think we did it 2 times at the windows café because we knew the owner. You know how hard it is to look for venues because all gallery owners think of profit first before art. This was one of the reasons why art becomes 50% less when you hang it in a gallery. This didn’t stop us though. We pushed through and we’re still doing it today.

Once in a while starting today I will feature a madrugada member on this blog so I hope you enjoy. I will not ask for each members’ background. I will write and feature their art based on how I see and know them.