Carlo Victor
Samonte
Carlo
Victor A. Samonte is a graphic artist
and was a nursing home cook in
Schaumburg. One year and 4 months ago he
built and sold an internet cafe in the
Philippines. He was also an assistant
school principal previous to that. He
completed his University of the
Philippines Broadcast Communication
degree in 1995.
Caloy is
guilty of stoning frogs at quite a young
age. At the onset of puberty, his family
moved to a nice house standing amid a
tributary (also, kangkungan) in the
early ‘80s. There frogs chorused
incessantly from shrill to low in
harmony with the rainy mating season.
A poignant
and punny take on dyed in the wool, Died
in the Wood is his first and only
abstract work in acrylic on wood. It
appeals as a ghost in the dark to his
son, River. He discovered the frog-like
‘ghost’ image on a kitchen cabinet
panel. Now their kitchen is one cabinet
panel less.
With his
son and wife to be, Rose Lee, both in
the Philippines, he took to painting
Died to combat loneliness. Died alludes
to an immigrant sentiment immortalized
in the grains of the wood. The artist
animated the outline already present in
the wood’s grain creating an abstraction
of a frog caught in a sea of despair.
Hands tightly clasp as a last passionate
twitch for a heart disemboweled,
bleeding for its loved ones; close to
memory but far in reality. The
dissection, where the heart once was,
shows the original and unblemished
character of the wood. His sister who is
due in November said she sees a baby’s
face in the frog’s heart area.
Selected for the 2008 Beyond The Barrelman
Exhibition
Died In The
Wood
acrylic in wood
24 x 15
2008
$750
To purchase any of
the jury-selected or non-selected artworks listed for sale, please contact Ray
In, exhibition sales coordinator, at (773)
419-4117 or
Sales@BeyondTheBarrelman.com. Items
marked "nfs' are not for sale.
non-selected
entries
Superficial
Barrelman A
spray paint on
laminate with glass
14.5 x 22.75
2008
$300
Superficial
Barrelman B
spray paint on
laminate with glass
14.5 x 22.75
2008
$300
Return to
the FEATURED ARTISTS page
for a full list of artists included in the 2008
exhibition.
Return to
the GALLERY
for a catalog of artworks selected for the
2008 exhibition.
