The Neighborhood 'VAN GOGH'

In the year 1898, an ancestor of Joemari first arrived on our shores and signed up for the army. He went back to Palma de Mallorca in Spain in 1903 and returned with his four brothers — one of them, Bartolome, settled in Cebu in 1918. He was the grandfather of Joemari.

Fast forward to the year 1957, a young Joemari was recovering from a fractured femur and stuck at home with a cast. A relative gave him some blank sheets of paper and with that, he started to draw; by his elementary school years, he was already using watercolor. When he was in high school, a mentor of his — architect Pio Bonilla — taught him how to paint using oil.



Joemari trained in aviation and engineering while in college and worked for a while as a charter pilot. That company however went bankrupt, much to the relief of his mother who always feared for his life while he was flying. He went on to work for a brewery until he decided to return to painting full time.

His initial style was realism, but he eventually shifted to impressionism, and in that he found his niche. It was around that time when, while painting outdoors in his now signature style, someone told him that his work was similar to Vincent van Gogh. He honestly did not know who van Gogh was.

He began to read more about artists, excitedly finding out more about their lives, as he continued to pursue his God-given talent. With regard to picking a favorite work of his, he said that all of them are his favorites; all masterpieces, he said, because his art represents what life is like; it is not a decoration, it represents a memory, a frame fixed in time. The downtown areas of Cebu hold a special place in his heart so a lot of his work is inspired by everyday scenes — past and present.

He likes to paint on the spot, quickly and rarely deviates from reality. The devastating typhoon Odette in December 2021 was a particularly traumatic time for Joemari. A lot of his mementos were literally swept away by the sheer force of its winds.

The sadness is palpable; the uncertainty of recovering them is relatable as Cebuanos have lived through the aftermath of Odette. One thing is sure though, there is only one Cebuano “van Gogh” and that is the way it shall remain. S.