Before anything else, a song: “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone / I can see all obstacles in my way / Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind / It’s gonna be a bright, bright sun-shiny day.”

Nothing else could go wrong from this perspective, where everything above seems bright and blessed each day, and where everything below seems like a good subject of laughter and gaiety.

There is, after all, beauty not only in sorrow but also in happiness, as there is always charm exuded in the corners of even a crooked (or contorted) smile, not to mention, in the far corners of a wall-eyed face. Comical is the word for it, perhaps, and this is exactly the mark Dansoy Coquilla makes upon his art pieces. Charming in the most unpretentious sense, his is the art that is candid in nature but exceptional in caliber, reeking of genius obvious enough to see and humor simple enough to appreciate.

“‘Yung obra kong mga nakatingala ay freeze frame ng everyday life ng bawat isa sa atin, captured na dalawang uri,” Dansoy shares. “Tumitingala ka to make a statement sa itaas o sa nakakataas sa society. At ‘pag galing naman sa itaas, alam mo it must be from God and not from the ‘nakakataas.’”

At first glance, Dansoy’s signature top view paintings may seem to imply the artist’s peculiar way of looking at his subjects—looking down, that is—but in truth, it is exactly the opposite: Dansoy’s top view paintings are precisely re-presentations of himself, in the way he, as the artist, looks up at checks the view above to be able to pursue the art he may have been destined to create.

As a child, however, Dansoy recalls how, if he was ever destined to create art, he had to do it in secret, in hidden spaces. “May dry goods store kami. Batang palengke kasi ako, e,” he relays. He recalls how he would draw on all the covers of the shoeboxes they have at home, and how buyers would take these unknowingly with them whenever they buy shoes from Dansoy’s family. “Tinatago ko kasi noon, medyo may problema kasi sa drawing ko ‘yung parents ko, strict kasi sila,” he says.

Strongly influenced by the comics he used to rent, read and copy as a boy, he eventually came across Vincent Kua Jr., for whose comics illustration workshop he departed from his native Davao del Norte to participate in the urban buzz that is Manila.

“Dumayo talaga ako dito sa Manila, wala akong kamag-anak, para lang hanapin siya.,” Dansoy shares. “Sa workshop ni Vincent (Kua), dun ko nakilala si Kuya Fred (Liongoren). Famous painter na pala siya, tapos may project yata siya noon na may comics, kaya nag-workshop din siya kay Vincent.

Nakilala ko siya dun, napaka-humble niya, sabi niya may shop siya sa Cubao tapos niyaya niya ‘ko dun. Pagdating ko dun, art gallery pala. Dun na ‘ko tumira, dun ko na rin nakilala ‘yung mga artists. Napakilala rin ako noon kay Dean (Nestor) Vinluan, nag-workshop ako sa kanya, ‘yun pala sa UP College of Fine Arts siya. One year ako nag-workshop kay Dean bago ako kumuha ng entrance exam sa Fine Arts.”

And everything came easily, one after the other. Such a coincidental turn of events could, of course, only bring about more twists, ones like Dansoy’s encounter with Prof. Roberto Chabet, which resulted to his unique perspective in art. “‘Yung una kong top view na work, isaw siya, para sa class ko kay Sir Chabet,” Dansoy recalls. “Still life lang, drawing ng isaw, pero ayoko naman ng still life lang. Gusto ko kasing may human figure dahil na rin sa influence ng comics. Kaya nilagyan ko ng vendor. At kung lalagyan ko ng face, kailangan nakatingala para makita. Naging part lang ng design.”

Much like Dansoy’s way of viewing the events in his life, the faces he paints, though lopsided, express a certain contentment and cheerfulness, resulting from the play in color and detail. His subjects project lightness and a sense of humor that is not quite naïve but simple enough to pull strings on the corners of the viewer’s face. Since they look up from top view, they inevitably look up at the viewer, and so the dynamics of the look—viewer looking at the subjects of the painting, and, on the face of it, vice versa—takes place. The painting then lends itself to the inescapable narrative play taking place on the viewer’s head, the story seemingly coming from the onlookers from the painting. But the story is not dictated nor forced; the onlookers are far from overbearing, imperfect and, in a sense, human as they are. They smile at the viewer with their crooked grins, banlag and all, and warmly accommodate the story/ies coming from “above.” The viewer, on his/her part, senses the submissiveness of the onlookers and subjects himself/herself to the narrative dictates of another, higher state, in the end realizing that s/he himself/herself has become part of the painting, his/her head also tilting upward, waiting for their individual and communal stories to unfold.

This, Dansoy achieves, through his preferred medium: Oil on canvas. “Medium ko, oil. Dahil sa texture. Saka sa amoy,” he says jokingly. Joking aside, though, Dansoy favors oil as a medium since it is only with oil that he can make colors and figures come alive, almost jumping right out from the canvas, dancing with their heads tilted up, flaunting themselves in the light. It is with oil that he can make carts and carriages move through brushstrokes in streets that never seem static to the eye, at least, that is, from his perspective, just like his primary source of inspiration: Pop culture.

“Mahilig ako sa pop culture,” Dansoy begins. “Siguro dahil na rin sa training ko sa comics illustration, na ‘yung nakikita mo, pwede pang paglaruan.” Which, obviously, is what he does really. “Gusto ko humor lang, hindi seryoso. Syempre may social awareness, pero hindi ko siya ica-capture na seryoso. Minsan seryoso, pero ‘yung pagtingala pa lang, nag-create na ng humor, natatawa na ‘yung viewer. Which is good, kasi ‘yun naman ang gusto kong iparating talaga, eh.”

But is that just it? Dansoy explains further: “Ang art ko dito ay buhay na captured sa isang frame lang.

Sa araw-araw na ginagawa ng mga tao, sa pagtingin ko rin sa kanila, nata-transform sila sa art, na ganito sila sa isang situation. Sa editing, ‘di ba, frame by frame, aayusin mo talaga. Sa painting, ‘yun na ‘yung best frame.” Furthermore, a final note on appreciating views, both of above and from above: “‘Pag may tinitingala ka, ‘pag galing sa taas, it is from heaven, galing kay God. Hindi mo matignan