By Diana Uy-Chua
CRISTINA GRISAR, granddaughter of renowned painter Betsy Westendorp, considers black holes as the most fascinating cosmological mystery.
“They are doors to another universe, like Alice to the Rabbit hole, or life after death. Where they will lead us is a great mystery,” Grisar says.
And what does she think of that one-way trip to Mars? Like marriage, she says.
“I would be scared. It’s very definite, and definite things scare me a lot.” Flying into the unknown, she adds, is beyond her mind right now. Besides, why leave planet Earth when within us lives infinite cosmos. The Madrid-born artist and jeweler will be sharing more of her thoughts on that great unknown called the universe in her first solo exhibit, The Bejeweled Cosmos, which will be on view beginning February 12 at the Artist Space in Ayala Museum.
Grisar will be showcasing her latest works in cosmologic and abstract expressions through painting and photography, as well as organicist and armor-like pieces from her contemporary jewelry collections.
“For me, painting, jewelry and photography are sibling mediums that contain magic transmission powers, like doorways to other dimensions,” Grisar says. The Bejeweled Cosmos is practically one of the young artist’s forays into the unknown.
Aware of the expectations on her as Westendorp’s granddaughter, Grisar admits that unveiling her art in her first solo exhibition terrifies her.
But it’s more nerves than the pressure to be different or to amaze. “I am not a competitive person, especially with others. I am self-driven and I have always competed with myself. Yes, it weighs a lot that my lola is Betsy Westendorp. But she is more of an inspiration to me. I admire her profoundly. She has influenced me in my work, as an artist and as a human being,” she says.
Sentimental reasons made her choose the Philippines as venue for The Bejeweled Cosmos.
“When I started gaining more confidence in my career as an artist, I always imagined my solo debut to be in Manila. My mother was born and raised in Manila until the age of 12, and it is through her that I learned about the Philippines. I grew up listening to her childhood stories, all of them placed in Manila. Half of my family is also based here,” she says.
Westendorp is not the only influence in Grisar’s development as an artist. Growing up, Grisar was surrounded by art. She was practically raised by art: her mom and aunt are painters while her father is an art collector.
“Art has always been part of my daily life and so I didn’t see it as something new and I didn’t even ‘notice’ it, not in its whole sense, even though I have been painting for as long as I can remember. Art was and is part of my daily language, a communicative manner as natural as speaking,” Grisar says.
Grisar, who has spent most of her life shuttling between Chile and Madrid, has been painting and making jewelry since she can remember. She identified with her family’s vocation so much that she went through a personal crisis of sorts.
To find her own destiny, she enrolled in literature and, later, journalism for college in Chile. “Art was nowhere near my options. It was too familiar.” She eventually landed a job in a magazine, but soon realized it was not the life for her.
That was when she started to embrace what obviously she was destined to do—art.
Grisar went to a fine -arts academy in Santiago de Chile, where she honed her painting and drawing skills and learned sculpture. Afterward, she enrolled in jewelry-making classes that taught her traditional and new jewelry-making techniques.
The multifaceted artist also finished her master in advanced design at the Universidad Católica in Santiago de Chile. “I learned quite an array of important things, from photography and textile art, to the practicalities of the art business.”
Grisar has joined various group exhibitions in Chile, and has been recognized for her work, including a “Distinguished Mention” at the Third National Contemporary Jewelry Contest (“One Artist, One Jewel”). Together with Spanish painter and architect Alvaro Borobio, she is currently working on a project, called Proyecto Eolo, which is inspired by the wind.
According to Grisar, she has already reconciled with herself as a multidisciplinary artist. Asking her, for instance, whether she prefers painting or jewelry making would be like asking her the chicken-and-egg question. “I am a painter and a jeweler, one not more than the other.”
Among the paintings to be displayed at The Bejeweled Cosmos is a massive piece that Grisar named Mystic Forest. At first glance, it’s like looking at a gemstone, or the surface of one of those floating planets. The artist says it’s one of her favorite creations. “If I were a painting, this would be me—so many landscapes, so many layers.”
The Bejeweled Cosmos will be on view until February 28 at the Ayala Musuem.