Ronaldo Ruiz

Visual artist Ronaldo Ruiz’s lithe and sinewy figurations have undeniably rendered him famous in the art scene here and abroad. As a committed performance artist, he has performed and staged shows within and outside the country. There are also a couple of prestigious awards tucked in his belt—CCP’s Thirteen Artist Award being one of them. One of his winning pieces in an art competition has been brought by the Singapore Art Museum, as it probably saw in the painting Ruiz’s potential and disciplined (almost compulsive) mastery in technique and style without compromising content and relevance. But despite all of these successes, Ruiz has remained perfectly humble, without the airs of a know-it-all.

Ruiz didn’t see himself as an artist or as having the capability to be one not until one of his friends recognized his inherent creativity and drawing skills—manifested in the graffiti and skulls painted using enamel and screaming on his bedroom walls. The fondness for the imagery came from Ruiz’s sheer love for punk hardcore. As the unofficial creative director of a scrap fanzine (fan magazine) dedicated to punk music back in high school, Ruiz would cut letters and photos from magazines, and then glue and collage them in their makeshift glossy. Once he and his team mates were done with their music-inspired “art project,” they would troop to Recto, photocopy the fanzine and sell it there at P20 a piece.
 
The artist’s heydays as part of the fanzine didn’t go down the drain. It was probably a waste of time for some, but it wasn’t for Ruiz, for it allowed him and his friends access to underground and independent tunes, which anyone who’s addicted to the genre would die for. International fanzines would send them hard-to-find cassette tapes and records and grant them band interviews, Ruiz remembers.
And they couldn’t be any happier. Instant gratification aside, though, it was in being part of such project that Ruiz started out to flesh out his would-be artistic journey.

“Noong nakita ng kaibigan kong gitarista at fine arts student ‘yung mga gawa ko, tinanong niya kung saan ko natutunan ‘yun at kung nag-workshop daw ba ako kasi marunong na raw ako ng rendering,” Ruiz says. “‘Yung mga drawings sa wall kasi eh kinokopya ko sa mga logo ng mga banda, sa mga cassette tapes at sa magazines. Tapos sabi ng kaibigan ko na kumuha na lang daw ako ng fine arts sa college kasi mas advanced na nga raw ako sa kanya.”

Ruiz’s parents were apprehensive about their son’s decision to pursue the arts. But Ruiz, influenced and persuaded by his friend, told his parents that he would just try. At the University of the East, the advertising major gladly took upon the challenge to excel at what he does. “Ang technique ko eh tumabi sa mga kaklase kong magagaling din at tinitignan ko ‘yung istilo nila,” he quips. Later, his professor Gemo de Luna took him under his wings one summer and offered him an apprentice position in his workshop. There, the young Ruiz would under-paint in oil some of de Luna’s commissioned works. “Kahit na hindi pa dapat, pinahawak na niya ako ng brush saka ng oil para lang makasubok akong magpinta,” he shares.

Not shortly after, Ruiz found himself joining art competitions—his prime reason being he needed the prize to sustain his schooling and to buy art paraphernalia. He lost in a couple; he won in some. In Malabon, where he and his family used to stay, he would accept painting and silkscreen t-shirt printing jobs just so he could afford his tuition. Nobody said it would be easy, the life of an artist, that is, but Ruiz kept moving on, hurdling obstacle after obstacle like a marathon runner who does not seem to run out of breath.

“Nag-abroad na ako. Pumasok ako sa advertising agencies and garments industry pero ‘yung passion ko talaga eh ‘yung pagpipinta eh,” Ruiz relates. “Pero kumbaga hinayaan ko na lang kung saan mapunta ‘yung buhay ko kasi alam ko naman na may nilaan na sa akin ang Panginoon eh.”

And what God has ensured Ruiz is a provident and inspired artistic career.  He is known for his convincing and elaborate images of the human form in its naked (sometimes half-naked) glory oftentimes in limber and sensual positions that depict fluidity and movement.
Seeing a Ruiz painting is like seeing a real live male or female magically trapped inside a canvas, with no way of getting out. This shows just how skilled of a draftsman Ruiz is, as every inch of the human body is drawn and painted in mind-boggling likeness to the real thing, as if the artist’s brush and brushstrokes have faithfully discovered and learned each of a human body’s crevices.

Seen in realistic details in Ruiz’s soulful and animated paintings are a man’s “strained muscles, furrowed brows, sinewy contours of the body to the taut veins bulging through his smooth skin”—all of which represents man’s great effort to propel his body in the same manner as his excited and zealous spirit moves. But while some may think that Ruiz’s opuses are just for aesthetic flair, his are pieces that visually tackle issues related to our society, environmental concerns to be exact. Ever seen a Ruiz artwork with large oxygen masks hiding the troubled expressions of his subjects? If yes, then a piece like this is actually giving commentary about man’s forthcoming state if and when Mother Earth decides to bring the apocalypse on us.

“Noong ginagawa ko ‘yung series ng masks with pigs, sumakto doon ‘yung pagputok ng A (H1N1),” he recalls. “Sabi nga ng iba parang na-predict ko na raw kung anong mangyayari eh.” Ruiz however didn’t believe he prophesied a thing at all. “Para sa akin naman, symbolic ‘yung ginawa ko. Pwede siyang mangyari kahit kailan at nangyayari na siya ngayon,” he reasons, referring to man’s destruction of the environment. If the artist is prophetic, then this author would not dare think what would become of us if men are to share their last breath with goldfishes in bowls, as what one Ruiz work portrays.

If painting gives Ruiz such a high, performance art induces him into a trance. “My performances are spontaneous. They are not scripted,” he tells. “Naghahanap lang ako ng materials or props na available na sa venue.” Ruiz says that when he performs, it’s his spirit that provides him the backbone. “Hindi ako nahihiya kapag nagpe-perform kasi parang ‘yung tunay na pagkatao ko naba-blackout ng urge and obsession ko to create art.”

The 38-year-old artist giddily and proudly admits he cannot live without art, because in his own words, “it’s the food that my spirit needs, it’s the nourishment that my soul desires…sa art nasasarapan ang puso ko.” And it is apparent in Ruiz’s canvases that triumph the beauty of the body and the spirit—sinuous figurations in canvases which we will surely hope to see for the years to come.