RSSChino Corrales: A budding Pinoy artist in New York
Oct 06
Arts and Entertainment, Global Pinoys, GMA News, Proud to be Pinoy Arts, Chino Corrales No Comments
There was always a glint of admiration in the eyes of Chino Corrales every time he marvels at his college department’s display case at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.
Chino would ogle at the works of his schoolmates who won the annual Fishs Eddy design contest, a city-wide competition where the winners’ artwork are embossed in the dinnerware company’s products: plates, tea cups, mugs, and even bags, and sold throughout the United States.
So it came as a surprise to this 22-year-old advertising student to find out that his plate design on the New York cityscape would soon occupy a space in the same shelf he once admired, after winning this year’s contest.
Now, Chino’s creation will not only be showcased all over the US but across the world through the company’s online store.
Fishs Eddy became so impressed with Chino’s work that the company wanted to also use the design in the mugs, glasses and vases it produces.
Chino’s talent did not also escape Kraftworks LTD that has invited him for an internship and a first bite at a promising career in advertising.
However, more than taking personal glory, he actually prides himself in being able to contribute something for the Philippines.
“I’ve always wanted to give back to the Philippines,” Chino said.
“Perhaps it will be in the form of advertising or graphic design which has the ability to change the landscape of visual culture and aesthetics,” he added.
Reluctant participant
Although Chino frequently saw flyers advertising the competition on campus, he did not have interest in participating. After all, he was entering his senior year in Pratt, and he needed to spend more time for schoolwork and left with little time for extras.
But last March, he was left with no choice when his professor required the entire class to join the contest.
“When I entered [the contest] they wanted a design that revolved around the theme, “Urban Landscapes” which may feature a particular US city such as New York, Miami, San Francisco, et cetera.” Chino said.
Having a long time fascination with maps, Chino then decided to create a design that would best describe the “city that never sleeps.”
“They say the city is a conglomeration of squares, rectangles and polygons> I pretty much simplified the city into shapes that look like an aerial view of streets and buildings,” Chino explained. “So I decided to implement the grid-like formations that New York City has the tendency to look like.”
Weeks later, Chino found out that he won the contest in a comical circumstance.
“I was having a conversation with one of the department heads about my choices of senior courses for the next year when the Dean walked in to listen on the conversation,” he recalled.
“During the middle of the conversation my name came up. She then asked me, ‘Do you know who you are?’ At that point, I became a little nervous,” Chino admitted.
Then, the dean announced: “You’re the winner of the Fishs Eddy competition!”
News quickly spread around the campus and Chino was overwhelmed by the response from his professors and classmates.
“I remember walking out of class that same day and someone who I never talked to or even met came up to me to say her congratulations,” he said.
While it may be easy for some to claim the glory for their own, Chino wants to share his victory to the rest of his kababayans, saying that he has always wanted to make his country proud.
“I have no doubt that in the future I will look back at winning this competition and realize this was the first time I proved to myself I have what it takes to do that,” he added.
Far away home
Chino was only four when he first experienced being uprooted from the family home in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur. His father, who has since been in the US Army, decided to take his family to a military installation in Germany where he was assigned.
“It was straight from the probinsya to foreign soil for me,” he recalled. “It was a huge shift in culture and lifestyle, something that I had to get used to over the years.”
Often, Chino would find himself feeling isolated especially when homesickness would begin to crawl into his system. To ease the feeling, his family decided to join a Filipino community in Germany that met every week to catch up on news back home. Chino’s parents also made sure a dependable Filipino store was just around the corner.
“Being a Filipino abroad is very different from being a Filipino in the Philippines,” said Chino, “Sometimes you can feel a little isolated from the rest so that’s why it really helps to find people you can relate with.”
Three years later, his father decided to take them back home where they stayed in a house in Cavite near his other relatives. However, in 1995, Chino found himself moving out again and this time, to permanently stay in the US where his father eventually secured green cards for them.
“I was 10 years old when my parents decided to move the family out of the country again. My mother had family staying in the New York area and we chose to live there,” Chino said.
Unlike in Germany however, their new home did not have the inviting presence of a Filipino community. In the absence of a strong Filipino community, Chino’s family reconnected with the rest of their kababayans back in the Philippines through satellite TV.
“It seems like in my household, my family spends more time watching Filipino TV than the shows here in the US,” Chino reveals.
Meanwhile, Chino cures his homesickness by always being online and sending e-mails or chatting with his friends. “It helps to live in a world where everybody is connected electronically.”
Proudly Pinoy
While most descendants of Filipino immigrants would quickly have their nationality spliced into half after staying in a foreign country even for only a short period, Chino begs to differ.
Perhaps, a notable thing about him is that he refuses to be called a New Yorker, much more referred to as a Filipino-American. For him, he is proudly Filipino and nothing else.
“No matter how far we go from the Philippines we always have the need to go back there. It’ll always be our home. It’ll always be my home,” Chino said.
Now in his last year in art school, Chino’s eyes are fixed on going home. Finally, after years of living in the city that never sleeps, the budding art director plans to return to the country that he has always called home.
“I strongly believe that there will be a homecoming and it’s only a matter of time that the Philippines will see a cultural shift. I want to take what I learned here and shape it for the Filipino culture, for the Filipino people, and perhaps help out anyway I can,” Chino vows.
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