Salat Nguni’t Sapat (Not Enough but Enough) is an artwork by Paul Hilario. Salat Nguni’t Sapat describes the children in rural areas. Huddled at one table are five of them. Their slippers tore in half, or the straps had detached from the slipper. One of them has a school bag that has stains on the bottom part. Looking closely, all of them are holding pencils, but pencils that are used for a long time, leaving it to be small. Unlike schools in the city, they are only wearing their housedresses; shorts, skirts, and shirts. The windows, made of bamboo sticks, are much like the table made of wood. To the side, you can see three books; these are likely to be their only references. But, they still have a smile upon their faces. This kind of artwork reflects Paul Hilario’s visualization. His genre is usually figurative expressionism depicting social issues, events, and the realities of life. His subjects are known to be personal, social, political, or historical subjects.
Education in rural areas are hard to reach. Children have to travel barefoot or in broken slippers for them to reach their schools. Most of those areas are rocky and slippery, and most of them have to go down from farms to get to the cities. Money for school necessities is not enough. They result in wearing their housedresses, and their school supplies are also offered by the government or through charities. Some children stopped studying and decided to help their parents work in the fields. They think its the only way to earn money and survive. Parents, on the other hand, worry about their kids when traveling to farther places. These children are having a hard time studying, how much more today in the time of pandemic?
Seeing through the painting, I remember all those documentary shows and series I watched on televisions or the Internet before. I see kids who work so hard in the fields or maybe even applying to construction sites to help their families instead of going to school. I also watched children who walk through rocky and thorny paths of mountains to go down and attend school. Some walk with their disabled sibling in their backs. Some even hold tight on wired or rope bridges. Some needed to ride boats every day only to study in school. Some skip school because there are times wherein transportation is not available. Whenever I see students like them, the worry and sympathy are there. I worry about their safety and health. I sympathize with their hard life. But, when I see the smiles on their faces when participating in their classes, my heart feels at ease. However, we should not ignore the hardships these kids go through in their everyday life.
Salat Nguni't Sapat does reflect the life of rural children. Life is hard, yes, but you cant avoid the feeling of positivity. The children in the painting look so happy despite the harsh reality of life. Their life was portrayed in their worn-out slippers, in their simple clothes, in their stained bags, and the table they shared. But, despite all things going around their life, they choose to smile and brush off the problems. The painting is a call to everyone who is experiencing their down moments. As these kids smile through the pain, we should try too. As painful and as hard as it may be, we always have to think positive. After all, positivity brings out a peaceful mind.
Paul Hilario showed how positivity could bring brightness out of everyone. He subtlety included the sufferings these children went through but hid it with bright colors and smiles. I realized, even how hard and sad life may be, there is still hope lingering around. What we need to do is find that hope and always have a positive mind. Other people can help you find that hope, like how the children were happy together. We need to think on the brighter side so that our minds would not drown in worry and sadness. This is what makes us Filipinos, right? Always thinking on the bright side and choosing to be positive. Through this painting, we might be happy and hopeful all together.
REFERENCES:
‘About Paul Hilario: Painter (1972-)’. Retrieved from: https://peoplepill.com/people/paul-hilario/
‘Recent Work of Paul Hilario’. Retrieved from: https://hombao.ics.uci.edu/hilario.html
Hilario, Paul. (2 February 2012). ‘Salat Nguni’t Sapat’. Retrieved from: https://paul-hilario.pixels.com/featured/salat-ngunit-sapat-paul-hilario.html
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