Art after the storm: 100 memorable art works of resilience and hope from Typhoon Haiyan

By Lottie Salarda

TACLOBAN CITY — Each one has a story to tell. A story of hope and resilience. Days before the people of Tacloban celebrate its resiliency through celebrating the 2^nd fiesta after this City was literally wiped out by storm surge, the first biggest solo 3-day art exhibit was held to immortalize the events on what happened to the people of Tacloban after Typhoon Haiyan.

 

The 100 sketches made by a former cartoonist of the Daily Tribune and now a renowned visual artist of Tacloban City, Ed Rompal.

His artworks were placed in 100 frames that could be seen in his 3-day exhibit starting June 26-27,Saturday at Robinsons Tacloban activity area.

 

The 64-year old artist was also one of the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan last 2013. After his stay in Canada for how many months he decided to go back to Tacloban bringing with him all the images that had instilled in his mind before he left the dead City.

 

In his stay in Canada, his brother advised him to have his own art shop in case he will not able to obtain a job due to his age. His brother’s gym was converted into an art shop and he was given art materials to start his living abroad.

 

This decision was prompted on the fact that he can’t have his livelihood and his life back in Tacloban due to the massive destruction brought by the typhoon.

 

After the storm, Rompal closed his art shop and left Tacloban few days after he stayed in different places in the City just to survive. But later months after, he decided to go back to Tacloban and start a new life again until he was encouraged by his friend Jeff Manibay to come up with a solo exhibit featuring the resiliency of the survivors.

 

Using his pen, he immortalized the different scenarios on how each survivor did their best to bring their life into normalcy and on how resilient the people of Tacloban are.

 

The images showed the different powerful emotions that reflect the bad memories brought by the storm. One of the most emotional and powerful images that Rompal had made was the image of a father carrying the dead body of his daughter.

 

“It’s been a long time na nanatili ang mga imaheng ito sa isip ko,” he said.

 

While other images also showed the bayanihan spirit of the survivors in picking the pieces of their lives together. He drew all those 100 images for more than 3 months. The Tacloban artist shared his talent to his fellow survivors by agreeing to make the exhibit happen.

 

“ I want to show to the world, to all our donors, that their big assistance to us is not wasted. In fact, it made a big hope to us,” Rompal said.

 

The biggest solo art exhibit has been materialized through the help of One Tacloban. The civic initiative aimed to harness the capacity of an individual specially those who are living in Tacloban City.

 

The One Tacloban had organized the candle light memorial during the 1^st year anniversary of Typhoon

Haiyan last November 2014.

 

Jeff Manibay, the head of the Civic Initiative One Tacloban envisions that there will be more than 100 frames that can be made when Ed Rompal would help the younger generations showcase their talents in arts.

 

story and photos by Lottie Salarda