#2. The second best way to show love for Baguio city is to support the Baguio Art Community.
Thousands of residents reside in Baguio but some of them are not able to maximize the experience.
Some just shop and hang out at SM city Baguio or Good Taste and that's about it for their social life.
This means that if they don't have the money to hang-out, they will just content themselves staying at home watching telenovelas.
Others just stroll at Camp John Hay and take some strawberry jam as pasalubong and that's about it...
This is a big waste of what Baguio has to offer, because the truth is...Baguio is so much more than just one SM Shopping mall, it is more than just the expensive lighting equipment courtesy of the Mayor at Rose Garden.
Baguio is the home of some of the best artists of the decade.
For me, Baguio tourism can only be revived if due credit and respect are given to artists.
They are the life line of Baguio...
Most of the pine trees are gone--if you came to Baguio to experience the glory of nature--then you are in the wrong city.
The creativity of the residents is the only thing that will save the place from total ruin.
The poets, the writers, the sculptors, the dancers, the theater productions, the musicians are the only ones that can save Baguio from utter ruin.
Artists that have been recognized worldwide and artists who continue to inspire us despite the fact that they are not featured in any book live here.
Baguio is the home of artists that are published in the chronicles of life...
Baguio is the home of legendary artists, sculptors, musicians...poetry slam artists, writers, photographers..
Baguio City contains a thousand pages of magical characters but only if you will follow the correct map.
I can openly claim that Baguio City should be the center of Art in the Philippines-- and when I say art I do not mean the fancy museum collections or the pa-sosyal conyo type of art that usually alienates people from different walks of life--
I speak of art that is given free to the community by those who understand that art is a way of life--- art is not something that you buy inside a store and display inside your living room.
The level of art in Baguio is at its highest--mostly because the creativity of artists are needed during this crucial time for Baguio.
In fact I would be so bold as to say, that the art community is what saved me from taking my own life after graduating in college.
You see, after college graduation you have all sorts of question on where your life will go.
Average people like me are just expected to graduate, work in a call center most probably or get a Korean teaching job or work inside a University if I am lucky to get accepted.
Baguio is still a small town, you cannot expect us to get kick-ass jobs.
After college I thought that was the end of the line...that I was just going to spend my life in front of a computer, answering the call of nasty and angry American clients.
I hated my life truth be told, I always thought I am someone who is going to be special after graduating in Philosophy and taking up Education subjects.
You see we had studied complex subjects like existentialism, Asian and western Philosophy, Women Studies, Marxism so and so forth..
.. and to realize that I am just going to sit in front of a computer taking up calls and drinking my days away in a call center work environment was the breaking point for me.
If I believed myself to be special...shouldn't I be doing something kick-ass..then why am I stuck in a job that I do not even like...am I just here to pay the bills and nothing more?
Is it possible to get inspired if my only task is to answer calls for the rest of my days?
Is there not something inside every person that tells them they ought to be doing something great...but why are they not doing it?
When did they stop believing in their own voice telling them to live their life to the fullest...we will never know...
Perhaps...it was the first day we stepped inside the school...the first day the system has removed our creativity...
6 months I tried my best to understand working in a corporate environment.
I tried blending in, I wore suits and high heeled shoes- I did enjoy several parts of the training and meeting people part, but after the training stopped and the real work started--I just felt completely lost.
I did not envision this kind of life, and I most certainly will just have a short lived happiness every time I will buy a new gadget. I have never been a gadget freak--and if the idea is to get a job to pile up more things in my room that I never use--then all is meaningless.
I tried making myself believe that I am a working girl and I am proud of what I was doing--but deep inside I felt empty and not just empty but...lost.
If graduating means working in a job that I hated with all of my heart then I'd rather die.
Waking up every day to answer calls about debt...is hardly called a life...and I will not believe anybody that will say that there is no other way--because I have met people from every walks of life who have striven to reach their life goal--just by simply believing..
People choose to lose their own color...people choose where they work, who they are---we always have a decision to bring back the color into our eyes...
I had this grand dreams for myself you know...The universe I believe heard my call... I have always asked myself if there was something more than the kind of life that others are used to...and the answer came so swiftly and at the right time.
One of my friends got acquainted with some of the best artists in town..a friend in college who for some reason became a part of my world without me even trying..
one day after resigning form work I got invited to one unbelievable party.
It was 10pm in the evening, and a black pick up truck with 12 or more people inside invited me to jump in and join the party.
I of course, knowing that my life was a complete bore decided to join. After all, a suicidal person need not worry if this people are harmful or not.
This people were very different, some of them wear shabby clothes, they had all this weird bracelets and tattoos and dreadlocks and all kinds of attire--but they had this amazing freedom in their eyes and I just jumped inside the pick up truck.
We ended up having a party at one of the abandoned buildings in JohnHay. This was the first time that I met people like Kawayan de Guia. Kidlat Tahimik( first born), Rene Aquitania, Rommel Pidazo, Bong ti Baguio, Rocky Cajigan, Carlo Villafuerte and Gawani Domogo.
They had a friend who owned the spot, they filled it up with various artworks
. Impressions, book collections and they started a bonfire inside the building and some of them had some djembe drums. I bet, some of them did not really know each other, but then they all danced to the music and sat contentedly near the bonfire.
All of them danced to this wonderful beat, I remember watching Gawani Domogo dance like there is no tomorrow, her grace...the way her dress sways to and fro... I remember Bong Ti Baguio having this one of a kind dancing step that really got you going...he was this energetic dance God and despite being strangers I felt welcome...
I felt so welcome in fact, and watching them dance just uplifted my soul--something moved inside me..something powerful that has ignited my will to live up to this very day.
I just felt I was now among my family...my soul family.
You see, this people just danced because their hearts told them to do so, there are no dancing requirements, there are no dancing steps... here is just a dance floor..a dance floor called the universe..
You don't need to think about who you are when you are dancing, you just merge with the energy around you
and I felt it that night and I will feel it forever and I am so glad I jumped inside that black pick-up truck.
They provided us with free painting materials, spray paints and brushes and each of us had been allowed to get a brush and just paint whatever came to mind.
This was a freeing activity for me, and like I child I picked up the coloring materials and painted and painted abstract colors on the walls...
I will never forget what Carlo Villafuerte said that day...you see Carlo is a master of colors, and despite him not remembering what he said that day--I just knew that by just looking at the abstract paintings I made--he connected with my thoughts...
I remember telling Rene Aquitania ( a humble and the most talented performance artist in Baguio) that I have never tried having a dance partner..I said I really wanted to try out some ballroom steps.
I don't know why I felt like I needed to say that...but I did... we did not sleep. We were awake until 6am in the morning and I remember Mang Rene asking me to go outside the door near the grass area...
He stretched out his hand and asked me to take it, he said let us dance... I will never forget the day he took me for a dance.
It was one of the most powerful life changing experiences that an artist gave me...me..a person who thought she is emotionally dead already...
I needed that dance from a stranger in order to believe that life has something better to offer.
Life is not just about working 24/7 hating the job that you do because you cannot relate to it.
Life was not merely about impressing people you do not know by buying things you do not need...
Life is a beautiful beautiful rebellion...and what a loss it would be if people who are residing in Baguio are not given the chance to Baguio artists...they have changed my life and continue to do so...
I have hundreds of stories about each and everyone of them...but right now I will stop here. I will add more in the coming days...
Get to know the Baguio Artist and I assure you...you will value and love Baguio like I do...
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