THE WIDE RANGE OF A
 PRACTICAL ARTIST:

 =========================

 CHRIS: You are one of the very few Asian
 artists who have had books published about
 their art. You have a range of genres
 conquered, eg. print-making, etchings, oils,
 sculptures and drawing. You've gone a long
 way.
 BEN: I just to do what interests me- I just do it.
 Also I guess by observing other local artists
 such as Manansala and Joya. I have this fear
 that the buyers will dictate what they want.
 So how far must the artist compromise?
 Is art done just for the material reward?
 I am only checking myself. With the
 print-making and sculptures, I guess I like
 working with my hands. The process of
 print-making is physical work: inking, moving,
 doing editions, the draftsmanship and what
 you can do with lines.

 CHRIS: Where do you find the energy for the
 range of your work?
 BEN: Well, you don't want to limit yourself.
 This is what happens when you specialize.
 Then you get pressure from buyers who tell
 you what to do.
 

Perry’s Appeal, 1975
Acrylic and collage on paper
77 x 57cm, Artist’s Collection

Portrait of Sabel, 1974
 Ink and Conte pencil on paper, 74 x 54cm,
Alexander and Doris Kennedy Collection, London

 
 It is being inquisitive. It is not getting
 bored. The main thing is to be curious
 about everything. It comes as an
 interest like bonsai growing, gardening
 and collecting. I am like a magpie, a
 collecting bird, and it is difficult to
 break yourself away from obsessively
 collecting odd things.

 In fact, you can say that I am a
 practical artist.
 Some artists are more pure. These are
 artists I admire, who don't care if they
 don't sell- they do the performance. I
 guess that since the beginning I always
 had to struggle to earn money. At a
 young age I was selling comics
 and doing other things. I was paying for
 my college through my art. Then I was
 working on a magazine which gives you
 the discipline to meet your deadline.
 So a part of the deadline discipline is
 that you challenge yourself by asking a
 gallery to schedule you, and then you
 work towards that schedule.
 As a self employed person you must have
 good time organization. 
 

  BENCAB’S WORK
  by Chris James Wee 18/11/2000

 Your art brings skill, challenge, colour and
 some feeling and in the full light’s view there’s
 something new...visions of the common people
 well overdue.
 Your postcards, etchings, canvasses, and
 drawings make the real Filipinos appear
 crouching, dancing, posing still,
 headless or with baby
 there’s so much to love about reality here.
 We love them and reach through the canvas for
 painted friends
 Who seem quite understandable.
 Art and water are heard trickling down the
 Baguio Hills near where you work.
 As the pantheon of your characters build,
 from a trickle to a stream, your visions of
 common visible people.

Kutsero, 1970
Ink and acrylic on paper, 59 x 54cm,
Glenda Jackson Collection, London
 

Mangku Ketut Kenten, 2001
 Pastel on paper, 42 x 30cm
 

Mangku Munik, Bali, 2001
 Pastel on paper, 42 x 30cm
 

I Gede, Gebung Dancer 2001
 Pastel on paper, 80 x 60cm
 

Bapak Suteja Neka, Ubud, 2001
 Pastel on paper, 80 x 60cm