JINGGOY BUENSUCESO is a young artist who is already perfecting an artistic process uniquely his own, which he calls ?painting on aluminum sheet.?

He started in 2003 with a piece called ?Element? (now in the collection of architect Ed Calma), and has done some 60 pieces since.

He explicates his art thus: ?The use of buffed-aluminum panel instead of canvas gives a distinctive look to the painting --or should I call it ?burning,? because of the use of a welding machine and welding rods to draw the images??

It?s a simple method, really, consisting of four steps in the process: sanding the metal sheet with 100-1,200 grit sandpaper; buffing; then burning with arc weld; and scratching with any sharp object. In a way, it is reinventing the canvas.

The remarkable result immediately gained a following. There?s now a growing number of collectors of Buensuceso?s unique pieces, and they have been exhibited abroad.

In May, he held his second solo show, ?Tryst,? at the Philippine Center in Manhattan.

On September 4, his ?Connections,? 15 plywood-size pieces in aluminum, opens at John Erdos Gallery in Singapore and runs for two weeks. He would be the first Filipino artist to exhibit there.

Natural world

Most of these pieces consist of rectangular or square aluminum sheets forming a diptych or triptych, often framed in recycled wood. Calligraphic lines and forms have been created by scratching, scorching or burning holes through the radiant surface of the metal sheet.

One sees here minimalist landscapes in gray monochrome, showing semi-abstract images of rocks, grass, rain, twigs. Having grown up in the province, the artist has naturally imbibed the energies, sights and atmospherics of the natural world, particularly the four elements.

?Dry Spell? 1-4 evoke the withered grass and scraggly twigs of the parched land and a sudden downpour on the treetops -- a homage to the life-giving element.

?Luna? 1-3, the only circular pieces in the collection, represent the moon and its craters. The artist reveals they?re also a wishing plate, since when he was a boy he would wish upon the moon, and thought his wishes formed its craters.

?Deserted,? a diptych, is an abstracted self-portrait of the artist on a mountain, surrounded by the four elements. This, of course, is a variance of the Wise Old Man of the Mountain motif in Oriental art.

The artist does not limit himself to the physical world, however, as he also tries to limn the range of human passion and spirituality.

In ?Tryst,? a series of 15, the scorching, boring and scratching of the metal sheet produces gashes, swoops and squiggles that constitute pieces with suggestive titles such as ?Dance,? ?Embrace,? ?Hope,? ?Dream,? ?Romance.?

Mutable art

Lovely -- but we would be hard put to call these ?paintings,? simply because, there may be a metal sheet that can serve as canvas, but there is no paint.

It is also mutable art, which a painting shouldn?t be. As the artist himself expounds: ?The reflections on the surface of the panel and the natural dents created by the burning process give a changeable texture to each piece in a different environment, view and position.?

And not only texture but coloration as well. Since the surface is reflective, it naturally assumes the colors of the objects before it, turning the dull monochrome into a kaleidoscope of shifting hues.

These are sculptures, in fact, properly, reliefs, with passing resemblance to repoussé. You may call them etching on metal if you want to.

Buensuceso was not new to metalwork when he started on this.

As early as in Grade 5, he would pilfer the zinc washers and roofing nails from the church in his hometown of Samal, Bataan. These he would smelt in an aluminum container burning in a small digging in the ground, then fashion into flatbars and knuckle-dusters that frat boys would order from him for a fee.

In art school, when they were taught how to sandcast aluminum, it got him thinking, Ginagawa ko ?to dati nu?ng bata pa ?ko, a [I used to do this when I was small].

Formal innovation

Buensuceso is a Fine Arts graduate, major in Visual Communication, from University of the Philippines. This must explain his taste for formal innovation and experimentation. He considers himself skilled in figure drawing but can express better through abstraction.

?Ayokong pa-kahon [I don't want to be put in a box],? he says. ?Ayoko talaga sa advertising[I really don't like advertising].?

Artists he admires include Picasso (?I like his lines?), Gus Albor, Lao Lianben, his uncle Rico Lascano, Arturo Luz -- the first an exponent of direct sculpture and art primitif, the last four associated with Zen-like abstraction and minimalism, all of which inform his own art.

After graduation, he worked as assistant production designer to Leo Abaya in Unitel; later, as an interior stylist in Jeddah, KSA, working on the interior designs of palaces.

On his return to the country, he became a product designer for various export manufacturing firms, designing furniture and home accessories.

His products had been exhibited at the Manila FAME (Furnishings and Apparel Market Exchange). Among these were lamps and wall décor of cast white cement, resin and crushed capiz shell -- strangely beautiful creations that were just a step away from sculpture proper.

Three years ago, he put up his own firm, Disensyo Indigoy (compound of independent, the royal color indigo and Jinggoy), which specializes in contemporary furniture design and house furnishings.

Artistic symbiosis

The artworks in his exhibits certainly bear the stamp of his product-design work. Such symbiosis can only enrich both.

One may find these images, for instance, in commercial pottery, etched glassware, Japanese screens. Of course, one may find them in painting proper, too.

In the evolution of his art, Buensuceso is planning to combine capiz and metal, then clay and metal. He had enrolled in pottery fundamentals in Singapore.

Now 27, he is marrying Mutya Laxa, former beauty queen and Pond?s global brand manager based in Singapore. They met in November, were engaged in March, and would wed on September 9 (at 9 a.m., hence, an auspicious 9/9/9/9).

The engagement ring, of course, was fashioned by the would-be groom, a sculptural piece in buffed aluminum.