Filipino artist sparks creativity in Neepawa students

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This article was published 22/06/2023 (1018 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Filipino art and culture is on display in Neepawa, home to the “Little Manila” on the Prairies, at ArtsForward, where Carberry artist Akosi Tengnamoe’s graffiti and pop art is on display all month for Filipino Heritage Month.

Neepawa, the third-fastest growing town in Manitoba, located 76 kilometres northeast of Brandon, has a sizeable Filipino population – 93 per cent of the town’s visible minority, thanks to waves of people from the Philippines coming to work at the HyLife pork processing plant just east of town on the Yellowhead Highway.

Akoski Tengnamoe is Clemente Miranda Villamayor’s artistic name. Akoski means “I am” in Tagalog, one of the two official languages of the Philippines, and Tengnamoe is a play on a Filipino curse word.

While Villamayor lives in Carberry, he said he’s happy to have the chance to display his art at the Neepawa gallery.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Villamayor said.

Though he had started painting and being involved with art from a young age, some personal difficulties in college led Villamayor to give up painting for a while.

“I was stressed,” he said. “I stopped painting, and I changed careers. I became a cook.”

Villamayor came to Canada from Singapore, where he worked as a cook, nine years ago. Before moving to Carberry, the artist also lived in B.C., and in Newfoundland where he met his wife.

And despite all the beautiful places in Canada he has once called home or visited, the Prairies hold a very special place in Villamayor’s heart, which is why he eventually settled in Carberry.

“I fell in love with the Prairies. I like it,” Villamayor said.

For his next project, Villamayor hopes to capture the spirit and magic of the Prairies with a series of landscape paintings.

Many Filipinos who relocate to Canada are often very shy and avoid drawing attention to themselves when they meet people — something Villamayor says he had to overcome to promote his art.

“Sometimes people think I’m snobbish or whatever, but it’s because I am shy,” he said.

Overcoming that shyness and self-doubt and showing other Filipinos — especially young students — that it’s possible to succeed in this country is one of the things Villamayor is most proud of.

“I’m here giving them inspiration. That’s why I do this. That’s what I want,” he said.

Eventually, Villamayor plans to open a gallery and an art school where he can teach local Westman youth not only art techniques but the value of being an artist and pursuing creativity.

“I want a place where people can learn and hang out,” he said. “Where people can do whatever they want. I want to teach kids, because they’re the future of Manitoba art.”

It’s work that he’s had a taste of before, when he taught an art class for kids in Carberry for one year. Villamayor showed them the work of famous American artists, and told them how much their pieces sold for.

“I told them, ‘You won’t have something like that if you don’t try.’ Art isn’t only for people who know how to draw … art is for everybody,” he said.

So strong is Villamayor’s belief that students are the future of art in Manitoba that he told them to keep every single piece of work they create, and to sign their names on it.

“Maybe five, or 10 years from now, you’ll be an artist. You’ll be famous, and some collector will want your art, and you’ll have some things to show,” he recalls telling them. “Every single student after that became so into art.”

Before that, he asked the students what they wanted to be, and they responded with various careers. After they were inspired by Villamayor, they all changed their minds and said they wanted to be artists, he said.

One student who has been inspired by Villamayor is Mac Pascua, a seventh grade student at Neepawa Middle School, whose class dropped by the exhibit on June 8.

Pascua, who immigrated with his family from the Philippines in September of 2019, loves art, and says that every day he tries to complete a drawing in his notebook.

“Nearly every weekend, I commit myself to making a painting. And even if I don’t like that painting, I try to use it to improve,” he said.

Seeing Villamayor’s art hanging in the ArtsForward gallery is both inspiring and motivating for Pascua, he said.

“It makes me feel that the Filipinos here are getting accepted by the art community, and I like it.”

Richard Smith, the Grade 7 and 8 arts teacher at Neepawa Middle School, says it’s incredibly important that children are exposed to local artists.

“I think it’s cool for them to come and see the different styles of art and to actually meet and talk to the real artists,” he said.

Having exposure to art and artists may also lead to children developing a passion for art and following it either as a hobby or even a career, Smith said.

“They walk around, they can see the prices [of the paintings] they see for sale and that they can make money,” Smith said.

The students seemed to enjoy Villamayor’s style of pop and graffiti art, with its bright colours and themes of urban life, he added.

ArtsForward is proud to display Villamayor’s art, and to see the effect his gallery has had on local students, said Yvonne Sisley, ArtsForward administrator.

“The kids are super excited,” she said. Sisley said she hopes ArtsForward can continue to work with Villamayor and even have him teach art classes in the near future.

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