Tony Perez Portrait of Cecilia Brainard

I work at my computer just a couple of arms length away from this oil portrait by the artist/writer/master Tony Perez. I have been studying this portrait and admiring it, appreciating how difficult it is to create something big (for one thing) and get the proportions right, how challenging to get the expression right, and so on.

Tony and I first met years ago, when the US embassy awarded me with a travel grant; my first novel had just come out and the US embassy sent me on abook lecture to Mindanao, Baguio, and Manila of course. Tony and Tanya Anderson took care of me. I recall that there were teachers who traveled for 6 to 8 hours by bus to attend the lecture. I was amazed.

Tony is a psychic apart from his other gifts, and we had great talks about supernatural phenomena. One of the things he did was organize a "Ghost buster" type of group at the Ateneo, and they would go to haunted houses and send away the ghost or spirit haunting the place.

I recall Tony saying our hotel in Zamboanga had a ghost. I didn't feel the presence of the ghost -- I sometimes do --- but I thought that it was really fun, to have a ghost in your hotel while on a book tour.

These are some thoughts that come to my mind as I look at Tony's work of me -- his creativity, his broad interests and gifts are impressive.

Here are some pictures of his "Cecilia Brainard" which he includes in his gallery of Philippine writers.

Hi, Tony, thanks for the wonderful painting, and all the pleasant memories.

tags: Filipino art, Filipino artist, TonyPerez gallery