At the Cafe, lithograph, 2010 (Photo by PINGGOT ZULUETA)

MANILA, Philippines - She cuts across a wooden tablet with delicate ease, as if caressing a lover with sweet intent. With each impression, she imbues her will into her medium careful not to disturb the wood’s presence. She works much like a tattoo artist, subduing the pain of each scratch with caution and respect.

Printmaker Ambie Abaño’s relationship with the wood, a medium that she is currently pre-occupied with, is a passionate connection similar to that of a rapport between two people. With utmost care, she carefully wields its surface, enhancing its being and building its character. “I’m so in love with the wood and I have such respect for it. A friend once said that when I cut the wood, it cries. Not in my case. The wood loves that I cut it and it cooperates with me,” Abaño shares.

Abaño’s explorative works and her active participation in the field of printmaking have made her one of the most recognizable names in the discipline. Being the president of the Philippine Association of Printmakers since 2007, the artist’s dedication towards sharing the beauty of her craft is second to none.

However, the artist’s rise to her current stature was paved by her own necessity to discover herself. With determination and a little bit of chance, Abaño’s transitions led her to a craft where her talents and personality would blossom.

While most teens would pour into textbooks and thrive inside the classroom, Abaño’s focus was into extra-curricular activities early on. Although the artist’s mother didn’t agree with her thespian dreams, Abaño was given an opportunity to shine when she was enrolled in painting workshops.

Even though Abaño took up architecture at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST), she still pursued her artistry, shuttling to the Philippine Women’s University (PWU) after classes to take up courses under impressionist Ibarra Dela Rosa. “Ibarra didn’t really teach me techniques; he taught me more about the trade and the philosophy behind it. He never touched my brush, he never taught me how to mix but he taught me about life,” Abaño recalls.

During this time, the artist showed flashes of her visual mastery by winning the grand prize at the 1987 AAP Open Art Competition with her super realist painting. Abaño would then take time off from her art to focus on her studies and earn her title as a professional architect. However, even after trying out her luck, Abaño never felt at ease with the practice.

The artist went into a downward spiral while in the process of discovering her identity. “I didn’t know what to do. I got so depressed because my biggest problem was that I don’t have a problem,” Abaño shares. A chance encounter with her first mentor Benjamin Torrado Cabrera proved to be a critical turning point in her craft and in her life. It was Cabrera who talked the artist to try out printmaking as a new medium. Although initially hesitant, Abaño dove right in once she saw what the discipline was all about. “When I went to the PAP workshop behind the Folk Arts Theatre, wala na. That started it all. I stopped painting because I fell in love with printmaking,” Abaño expresses.

Talking about how dedicated and how passionate the artist is with her craft doesn’t do justice to the intensity of how she truly adores printmaking. When Abaño talks about her craft, the people, the process and even the materials, something in her eyes light up like a flame that she’s all too eager to share. “One thing about printmaking is that it’s addicting,” Abaño shares.

The artist believes that the medium offers endless possibilities. Aside from the different techniques involved with each of the four basic printmaking processes, namely intaglio, relief, stencil and planographic printing, the medium itself offers such dynamics that’s already challenging in itself. “With printmaking, there’s always that element of surprise and there’s always that feeling that the exploration that you can do is endless,” Abaño says. “There are also accidents in printmaking. So you’re sort of jamming with the accidents and you’re jamming with the materials,” she adds.

It is precisely this limitless potential that drove Abaño to create avant-garde works that show precisely how versatile printmaking can be. Having explored so many surfaces to which her impressions could be printed on, the artists has continually pushed the boundaries of her craft. Some of her noteworthy works are that of prints fashioned into installation arts. Paper, textile, wood, stone and metal, Abaño mixes her medium well in order to maximize the capabilities of printmaking. “Sa 'kin kasi printmaking tuloy-tuloy yan, walang katapusan. You want to try out everything,” the artist shares.

Her prints on spandex enable Abaño to manipulate the surface and add a new dimension to her visual creations. By distorting the textile’s surface, the printed portraits, a subject that the artist is incessantly fascinated on, are given renewed vibrancy that can only be possible through the free flowing nature of prints.

Currently, the artist is engaged with a convergence between woodcut and painting. Although Abaño knows the difference between the visual qualities of painting from the stark features of wood reliefs, she fearlessly engages the challenge enabling her to reconcile the contrast. Apart from this, Abaño utilizes her wooden blocks as canvasses by incorporating color through painting. This produces unique aesthetics where the background enhances the emotions of each cut and depressions made on the medium.

Aside from the tedious process and the discipline involved in knowing each material, what really captured Abaño’s sentiments towards printmaking are the people involved with it. “What’s amazing about printmaking there’s camaraderie because you share the same workshop and the same facilities and even without you asking them to teach you, they will just do so,” Abaño shares. “It’s like handing down traditions and it’s very natural for them to do it,” she adds.

Combining the dynamic nature of the discipline, the versatility of the medium and the relationships between the artists, Abaño is completely engulfed by a world that satisfies both her personal and artistic needs. “Kahit saan ka pumunta, parang long lost relative ang printmaker. You can talk about paper the whole day and get excited about it. It is a universal synergy,” Abaño says.

Abaño’s sentiment towards her art is an engagement with one’s own psyche, everything else is just fringe benefits. “More than anything it’s an experience and an encounter that fills you because it adds to you and it opens up a lot of understanding. The material object that we call art is an incidental necessity because that becomes the object by which you can relate to others what happened, what you encountered, what you experienced,” says the passionate printmaker.

Ambie Abaño’s solo exhibit “Surface: Explorations with Woodcut and Painting” runs until February 24, 2011 at the Total Gallery of the Alliance Française de Manille, 209 Nicanor Garcia St. (formerly Reposo St.), Bel-Air 2, Makati City.