The eyes of Ryza Cenon

Eyes are the leitmotif of Ryza Cenon’s art. The GMA Network actress, who is also a dancer, model and now visual artist, calls her debut art exhibit “Independencia: Ang Panimula By Ryza Cenon.” The exhibit is ongoing at Guevarra’s by Chef Laudico.
Ryza projects the image of a fashionista painter — an Exi (as Existentialists called themselves in Germany in the 1960s) with her preference for black. During the exhibit opening where she also displayed her painting prowess, she was clad in the dark hue, from her unadorned shift dress, her straight hair under a bowler hat, to her wristwatch and pumps she wore with chic socks.
As the restaurant’s first celebrity exhibitor, she had been drilled in the art of performance and public relations. When she saw Alvin Hipolito, painter-son of the master painter of Philippine heritage Dante Hipolito, Ryza quickly invited him to her upcoming show at Pinto Gallery next year.
You would think the face is her favorite subject as majority of her paintings show the single subject of all kinds — that of women, mother and child, an interpretation of Aura of the Disney film Inside Out in Aura and even animals in Dark Zebra and Peace of War, overlooking all mammals have the sense of sight.
On her smartphone, Ryza showed how a painting of hers evolved from a single female with strong cartoon characteristics to  a primitive interpretation of a favored subject. She embellished it with layers of paint to make it appear like a black woman with her aura emanating from her entire body.
When asked about her favorite subject, she pointed out it is the eyes. That’s not unusual from Ryza. She considers her expressive eyes as the sexiest part of her body. They are also the first things she focuses in a person on first meeting.

FROM WHERE SHE COMES. Ryza signs her paintings as “RACS,” acronym for Rhiza Ann Cenon Simbulan, her real name. Like most of us, she considers the eyes as the windows of a person’s character. It allows one to peer into the soul, determining its past and age They are the central parts of the face that do not lie.
Ryza’s black eyes, for sure, tell of a 28-year-old with an old and enlighted soul. If her preference for black fashion displays her uncomplicated but determined choices, her eyes are its indicators. Her publicity photos have them bleeding with a rainbow of colors, only possible with a real artist’s eyes that see nature in very particular ways.
“I paint to express how I feel. Iba ‘yung nabibigay  niyang satisfaction sa akin, especially kapag stressed  ako sa dami ng issues sa buhay in general and even sa personal life. Painting allows me to express my thoughts and ideas based on my feelings. I told myself, instead of expressing elsewhere your emotions, why not put them into painting?” Ryza shared.  GMA Artist Center handler Mark Salazar asked Ryza to share how she asks to be excused in tapings and shoots when there is downtime to be able to resume painting.
Ryza’s eyes are honest eyes, that of an outsider. She learned the rudiments of drawing and watercolor, she recounted, from a fan/friend. Her first painting was a watercolor of a red apple dated Jan. 15, 2015, a variation of her friend’s ripe apple that she converted into a fruit with a bite.
It seems her contemporary version of Eve’s biblical apple represents a passion that art created in her. She can no longer go back, having savored the forbidden fruit. Ryza has been painting ever since, producing some 50 works, 30 of which are currently on exhibit.

MOST-REALIZED OUVRE. For some reason, Ryza finds unfathomable expression in those two black circles. I get nothing more than renditions of the eyes in its infinite expressions. But Isah Red, entertainment editor of The Manila Standard, found the image of Jesus in Ryza’s 30 by 20-inch acrylic of canvas entitled Heroic Eyes of Innocence (2016).
Appearing like a two-color painting similar to Cesar Legaspi’s amorphous abstracts, it is almost impossible Ryza used the National Artist’s painting as template. You see, she admits being clueless about art and artists. Ryza as a primitive artist is unschooled in its history and heroes. She admits googling paintings without trying to reinterpret them.
I have reason to believe her as, upon closer study of the stylized painting, a face is revealed in the maze of darkness that is embellished by bold strokes and minimally with drip paint. It is not an abstract as I though it to be from afar at first view, not even in the Legaspi style that I originally considered it to be.
Unaware of the isms in the visual arts, Ryza is an expressionist that presents the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists seek to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality.
It is the panache of Ryza, the most realized application of her self-developed style, the exhibit’s best work as it exudes magic required for artworks to be considered important. Even more with Isah’s observation that he saw Christ’s face.
When asked to interpret the painting, she said it is about the brave eyes of a soldier who battles in darkness, thus, the title. He fights with the innocence of faith that he will come out alive; it is a heroic action as he fully knows he may pay it with his life.
Closer scrutiny discloses this truth. That is why Isah’s vision turns crucial as it confirms every soldier’s will to survive. This is the quality of Ryza’s paintings that many of her viewers see as child-like interpretations of reality unencumbered by master strokes and masterful color schemes.

UNSCHOOLED. Delusion can be very simple, even colorful yet detailed, such as Ryza portraits of life. Their underpinnings are the angels of transparent happiness or monsters of the hidden fears we all have in us — those that walk with us in the shiniest days of life or the dark corridors of our deepest, darkest desires.
Ryza’s frequently basic renditions have to be viewed subconsconsciously, even unconsciously, to be able to appreciate their beauty, truth and meaning as her eyes saw them. They tell of an eternal principle that art cannot just be seen, but have to be savored.
Proceeds from the sale of “Independencia: Ang Panimula By Ryza Cenon” will be donated to GMA Kapuso Foundation. The exhibit runs until July 8 and can be viewed on Facebook at RACS Online Gallery. Guevarra’s by Chef Laudico is located at 387 P. Guevarra corner Argonne Street, Addition Hills, San Juan City.