For as long as mankind has existed, man has kept in his subconscious, a vision of a peaceful existence in a place free from sorrow and strife. To want to exist in this perfect state is innate in every soul and, in most cultures, this yearning is as old as time.
In The Secret Hour, multidisciplinary artist Maria Pureza Escaño’s sixth solo show, she shares with us glimpses of her dreamworld, the world of Everthere, a paradisiacal forest which, for years, driven by a prevalent longing, she has depicted passionately through paint, brush, and clay.
In an excerpt from her published journal (2020), The Journal of a Lightcatcher, she wrote
“I started painting forestscapes in 2014, but these visions, seen only through my heart’s eye have existed in my mind long before that. All my life I have existed in two worlds, torn in half, divided between this world and these secret sanctuaries. I did not want to paint them at first. Somehow, I felt like they are too precious to recreate through my imperfect skill or to share to any other pair of eyes but my own. And then one day, it seemed that a door in me got unlocked and nothing mattered but the joy and freedom of recreating this world and sharing the vision with other souls in the hope that others may also find in this forest paradise a haven of peace and beauty.”
Through the use of her signature imagery, Maria Pureza Escaño’s brings to light her visions of this secret sanctuary – the serene and verdant forests—the tumbling waters, the green foliage and benign, colorful birds—as the substitute for this paradise, lost in time, but in her heart and mind, remains ever beautiful, ever beloved and ever there. Thus, the name Everthere.
Art critic Danny Castillones Sillada, in his article The Arcadian Forest in Maria Pureza Escaño’s Paintings sums up the essence of Maria Pureza Escano’s forestscapes:
“Maria Pureza Escaño’s canvases are open doors and windows that summon us not only to look from a distance but also peek inside the delicate forms and colors of her opulent garden. And there, as we frisk and frolic amid the sublime sight and sound of susurrant leaves, warbling birds, and garrulous waters, we could feel the inexplicable sensation of completeness in our being, as if the artist has put back together, as though never lost or shattered before. She created a mystical garden allusive to the lost Eden, where she kept all her secret dreams and longings to blossom, where all unfinished and unchartered journeys converge and become a reality, an Arcadian place where there is no more pain or anguish or sorrow.”
All these may make the viewer wonder: As far as the artist is concerned, where does the dream end and reality begin? For Maria Pureza Escaño, this question may be moot. To her, art has never been just an endeavor or a profession. Art is a way of being, a way of feeling, of thinking, of reacting to the world around her. An ardent longing in her soul compels her to create these visions of paradise. Thus, Maria Pureza Escaño’s The Secret Hour is not just a symbolic rendering of a narrative but a transcendent experience actualizing every human soul’s deep yearning to connect with his/her idea of beauty and perfection, to gain a lost Eden, to snatch away time and space in an attempt to be in a state which God, the perfect and the most beautiful, meant for all of us to have with Him.
