By Carla Mortel Baricaua
Photos by Michael Esguerra Garcia of Prime Lens
That obscure little quaint atelier in Antipolo is a safe place for the curious, the weary, and the artist in a creative rut. Filled with artworks on canvass and stones, sculptures, decorated and repurposed furnitures, tapestries, installation arts and handmade dolls, the artist touch is ubiquitous and unapologetic. The space doubles up as a café with conversations that is ever so lively and engaging with Magel Cadapan, the artist’s only child, an architect and art manager. Café Inday may look confined, but it is where your spirit can run free and your imagination can run wild, spurred by the musings of Inday Capadan.
Born sickly and mostly bedridden as a child, Inday Capadan would spend most of her time staring at the pictures clipped by her mother to amuse herself. While these images kept her company, her young mind dealt with how these were created, what technique were used, and when will hidden messages reveal themselves. Throughout her life, she battled with health issues (rheumatic heart disease, contracted Hepatitis B, ectopic pregnancy, underwent hysterectory procedure, liver cirrhosis) but that didn’t stop her from living and embracing life with such vigor and purpose.
She studied to be a secretary but quit right after a day’s of work. To earn a living, she sold vegetables, kakanin and lugaw at a public market, but these proved to be too taxing to her frail body. In 1974, she became an antique dealer after successfully convincing Architect Leandro Locsin to buy a random painting found tucked in a vase and was able to eke out a living to help sustain her family. That experience also helped her realize that artworks can bring in returns even after the creator’s demise. That was also when she started reproducing Philippine furniture, as her first steps in expressing her creative inclinations.
In 1979, the forty-year old budding artist began to voice out her opinion on the harsh realities of life on canvas. Undaunted by the lack of formal training, the self-taught Cadapan produced artworks carrying her social commentaries on poverty and unjust labor practices as she reached out to the people and their communities. “’Art is what you feel.’ Inday often uttered. She wants to use what God had gifted her, she didn’t feel that she is that special, she embraced the purpose in creating art,” shares Magel.
As an eager learner, Cadapan’s art eventually evolved to having deliberate single lines that carried images in bold colors, a style she developed after studying the works of Willem de Kooning, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. These masters influenced Capandan’s creations, mostly acrylic and watercolor paintings of still lifes, to be in line with Expressionist painters. She also expressed herself through wood sculptures with heavy references to Ifugao rice gods, as well as by using ceramic, paper mache, and fabric collages to create doll-like figures. This period also produced one of her most celebrated creations, Inang Bayan, that depicted key political leaders during the days of Martial Law and People Power and eventually got published on the cover of Panorama magazine.
Cadapan’s first solo exhibit, Expressions Inday ’86, took place at the City Gallery in Rizal Park and it featured her collection of paintings and sculptures from 1981 to 85. In 1987, she won first prize in the Higante contest at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
For a time, Cadapan’s artistic journey got sidetracked, as tried to keep her antique business afloat. After being diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, it was only then she dropped everything and hit the canvas again. Given six months to live by her doctor, she went into a creative frenzy where she painted, sculpted and sewed like a mad artist. Lost in her creative pursuits, she forgot her own mortality and as a result, ended up living 13 more years.
She spread herself around by joining art contests, and staging 25 solo and group exhibits. Her piece titled “Kay Tagal ng Umaga” (The Morning Takes Long) was chosen as the Jurors’ Choice in Sculpture by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 1997. She was also awarded the Hamiling Bayawanon Award for Culture and the Arts in 2003. Capadan finally answered the call of the Almighty in 2004, fulfilled and contented of the art world’s recognition and acceptance of her creations.
Inday’s legacy and café
Left with her mom’s numerous artworks and mini workshop, Magel decided to share her mother’s legacy to the public and welcomed guests just the way Inday would have wanted it to be. “My mom loves to entertain and create. She would always say that I will (eventually) know what to do with her art. Curator Dave Baradas’ wisdom was ‘let the world come to you.’ Now I always tell my guests ‘Welcome to our world!’”
Up close and personal, visitors now get to know what Capadan the artist was saying about life and art. “A lot of artists who visited were inspired to create their own haven, to be as productive as they discovered Inday’s atelier,” added Magel. Through her mom’s art, Magel also got to meet what she calls God sent collector-friends as “she inspired a lot of her collectors with her stories doodled in every art piece.”
One time she coincidentally got in touch with one of the subjects in her mother’s canvas years after it was created. “Last August 2018, a guest came to check out my place. She was scheduled for a hip replacement (procedure) when she goes back to the US. She found a piece where the subject was a woman with an exaggerated hip in juxtaposition. All the while, I always wondered who would want that piece, and viola! I think that’s a ‘get well soon message’ from mom, artfully and prophetically done way ahead of the lady’s circumstance.” Such encounters await Magel and those who dare to visit Inday’s Café.
Aside from awakening one’s creative self, culinary treats are also waiting to be discovered that can surely satiate one’s appetite for good eats paired with good coffee. “I like to entertain friends with mom’s native recipes and Antipolo dishes i grew up with. I’d like to share that also to the public by appointment basis. Chef Liz Montealegre is another expressionist artist who loves to create gastronomic dishes. I see her happy spirit while working in our kitchen. Like Inday, she is spontaneous when preparing her menu.” Thus, hungry souls and tummies can find a sanctuary in Café Inday, where these ladies will take care of you just like Inday would.
Café Inday is located at Gen. Luna St. in Antipolo. For more information, guests may visit their Facebook page.
Inday meets Oryang this September
In celebration of Elsie Inday Reyes-Cadapan’s 80th birth anniversary on September 12, a series of 40 watercolor paintings collectively titled “Leap of Faith” will be dedicated to a fund raising exhibit for the benefit of the Bahay Nakpil Museo and Café Inday.
The exhibit is part of a campaign to prom ote and help in the upkeep of the museum, which used to serve as the house of Andres Bonifacio’s widow Gregoria de Jesus and her second husband Julio Nakpil. Today, the museum showcases the artifacts of the Katipunan.
The exhibit also aims to improve Inday’s home gallery-café, which serves as a student center on Fridays, being part of the church outreach program. It likewise serves as an art activity center for the creative.
“I’m overjoyed with the legacy my mother left and I wanted to pay it forward to her favorite charity works. Though it is also a puzzle to seek creative solutions, my instinct says I’d go on her generous intent in colorful ways,” said Inday’s daughter Magel Cadapan.
“Si Inday Cadapan Sa Bahay Nakpil” exhibit will run from September 6 to 30 at Bahay Nakpil Museo located at 432 A. Bautista St. in Quiapo, Manila. An Artist Day is scheduled on September 14, Saturday, from 4-6 p.m.