Philippine Art

Reflection Paper

When I was younger, I always thought that art was just about copying beautiful scenery by painting or drawing. My point of view didn't change that much when I was in high school. For me, art class is just another period for doodling, discussion, boring lectures about unfamiliar theories, and sometimes it becomes an "outlet for our creativity". Back then, I was only interested in performing arts and I didn't pay much attention to other art forms.

I became more interested in the other art forms when I was in my first year. I took up MuL9 and it made me appreciate many things. It made me more interested in the music of the different ethnolinguistic groups of the Philippines and then I realized that if Filipinos can produce such good music, it could be the same for the other art forms because it is embedded in our culture.

I expected a lot from this course because I really wanted to learn a lot about what our country has to offer especially in the field of arts. I considered FA 28 as a continuation of MuL9 which focuses on the music of the Philippines. I learned a lot from this course and I really did get the knowledge that I want from the beginning.

In class, the definition of art was never studied and its definition for each student was never standardized for the sake of having something to study for the exams. In other courses, especially in the field of science, definitions and standardization is very important but in this course, definitions would just make the students have a narrow view of what art really is. Of course, there are some rules in classifying the different art forms and definitions are sometimes used but it is really hard to define a very broad and dynamic topic such as art.

There are a lot of foreign influences that affected our culture of producing art and some people may see this as copying. Some people say that most of our art forms are not really "Filipino" because it came from the Spaniards or Americans or Chinese or another race that traded with us.

For me, the foreign influences greatly contributed to making Philippine art more "Filipino". Those foreign influences are already a part of the story of the Filipino people; it is embedded in our blood, our culture, in our art. Art is greatly affected by the experiences of the artist who produces it. Philippine art is indeed "Filipino" and