It is Graham Nash’s song “Our House,” inspired by his life with fellow singer-composer Joni Mitchell, that comes to mind each time one finds oneself at Arko ni Apo, the gallery-home of sculptor Bumbo Villanueva, wife Arleen, their children Baguio and Anoushka, and Bumbo’s widowed mother.

Some of the precious lyrics go: “I’ll light the fire, you place the flowers/ In the vase that you bought today/ Staring at the fire for hours and hours/ While I listen to you play your love songs…/ Such a cozy room, the windows are illuminated/ By the evening sunshine through them/ Fiery gems for you, only for you/ Our house, is a very, very, very fine house/ With two cats in the yard/ Life used to be so hard/ Now everything is easy ’cause of you.”

The family relocated to Baguio in 1998. Bumbo’s father, Ben-Hur Villanueva, a legendary art educator, sculptor and painter, retired from the Ateneo after working there for 30 years. At first, they got a property in Tagaytay for a planned studio-gallery, “but hindi gusto ng universe.”

In the same year, BenCab, now National Artist for Visual Arts, was setting up Tam-awan Village and invited Bumbo and family to set up residence nearby. At the time, the roads leading there were rough ones meant for horses.

Bumbo said, “I thought of acquiring land and a hut, but I realized that it wasn’t that easy. And then an Igorot neighbor told me that a lot across the Village was for sale. So binigay ng universe.”

What’s more, the land on Tacay Road, Pinsao Proper in Tam-awan was properly titled. Bumbo by then was already “turned on by Baguio. It was natural because I associated it with my uncle, (the artist) Roberto Villanueva. It was the formative years of the Baguio Arts Guild. I fell in love with the organic flow. It was a happy time.”

The Tagaytay land, which became home to informal settlers, was sold. Proceeds from the sale went to the building of Arko ni Apo.

Mission

“This was where we poured all our plans,” Bumbo said, crediting his namesake father for telling him that they need not show or consign their works in galleries anymore because of the steep 60-40 percent consignment fee, 60 being the gallery’s share.

Old man Ben-Hur told his son, “If we own the space, we are liberated from that dilemma.”

The mission extends to fellow artists. When Bumbo was once invited to talk at the University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB), he challenged the fine arts students to showcase their works outside the comfort of school. Since then, artists like Vince Navarro, Liz Rañola and Fara Manuel-Nolasco (a teacher on leave from UPB) have exhibited at Arko.

But the pandemic came and put a halt to Arko’s activities. Bumbo, who never went online before COVID-19 struck, learned to post his works on Facebook and Instagram. Inquiries came and along with these were visitors who’d knock at their red gate despite Bumbo’s comorbidity (a heart problem).

The frail heart was a result of driving himself hard in the past. He would finish a workload that could be stretched to two months in two weeks. He designed and made the trophies for the Cinema One contest for six years.

One morning he was going about his routine—he brought the two children to school, bought organic vegetables near the Baguio Cathedral, then went home. Before he knew it, he couldn’t get up anymore. His blood pressure was down to 60/0. He kept on throwing up until only bile was coming out.

Despite these signs, he was reluctant to go to the hospital where the cardiologist later advised an open-heart surgery for his aortic valve stenonis, a condition when the aortic valve narrows and blood cannot flow normally.

Bumbo survived the operation with his humor and wit very much intact. He doesn’t tire of repeating the story of his health crisis as a cautionary tale to hard-living artists.

Second chance

Bumbo was about to take the entrance test to UP Diliman, but a delay prevented him from doing that. His father advised him to go to the Philippine Women’s University instead, where even Ben-Hur Sr. himself was mentored by Araceli “Cheloy” Dans. Bumbo’s other teachers were a prominent roster: Roberto Feleo, Virgilio “Pandy” Aviado, Ibarra de la Rosa, Manuel “Boy” Rodriguez Jr.

Of those years, Bumbo said, “I came close to finishing school. I even attended the personality development classes.”

He also told Lifestyle that his family with Arleen is his second one, like a second chance in life. He has two adult children (a photographer and a nurse) from a previous relationship. The two live in Los Angeles, California.

Because of Arleen, a former marketing person at Duty Free Philippines and Tatler Magazine, now an avid cosplayer and Totoro fan, who has given him much hope, he has used the sun as a motif in his art. He had a “May Araw Ka Rin” series, interpretations of the sun with different titles “until naubusan ako.”

He has also conducted workshops for patients with Stage 4 cancer, the kind whose illness was so severe that they were expected to die the next day. Bumbo would encourage them to visualize the sun which touches every living thing. He said, “If I had my day, you’ll have yours, too.” In the workshop, there would be a homily by a priest, then Bumbo would give away T-shirts whose message read: “I Am You, You Are I.”

Inspiration

In all these undertakings, it is his father who continues to inspire him. “I got along with Daddy so well, although I didn’t show it to him that he was my idol. That was trying to conceal the obvious.” As a way of paying homage, Bumbo’s Facebook account is named Ben-Hur the Younger.

The other artists among the Villanuevas are brother Angelico, also a sculptor, and sister Joyette who took up fine arts at UP Diliman. Now married to an animator, Joyette the homemaker continues to be artistic in presenting her baked products and in growing peaches and champagne grapes.

As for furnishing Arko ni Apo, Bumbo said even when it was new, “our mindset focused even on the smallest details of art from the door handles and the key holders to the incense holders and the mirrors. We hardly buy furniture from the stores. We design the furniture and build it. That way the energy is beautiful.”

He discovered that if he applied the heat of his acetylene torch on terracotta items bought along the roadside in Bacnotan, La Union, they responded to the heat, “and you get the instant effect of a glazed pot.” In Baguio or the Cordillera, Bumbo knows of no other person using the acetylene torch for art.

‘Plantita’

Meanwhile, Arleen, who is “in charge of taking care of the children,” worked briefly also as an English teacher. The pandemic found her turning into a plantita. It was good that she had the gift for growing things. The sundeck that once served as Bumbo’s work space until it became too hot is now an oasis. In this lush garden Arleen plays music for the plants. She also meditates there.

She is sister to filmmaker Auraeus Solito and traces her roots on her mother’s side to the Palaw’an tribe in southern Palawan. If her brother became known for studying tribal dancing, magic and spells, it was because they were brought up on stories not just of the Disney kind but also where fish grew ribbons for tails, tortoises turned golden, rocks came alive at night.

She also collects stickers, throw pillows, films, and similar memorabilia that show “I’m a child at heart,” she said.

Bumbo supports her by providing the props for her cosplay. It’s one of their ways of bonding with the kids. She said Baguio has a welcoming cosplay community, and the other youth are delighted to see a mother like her join the role-playing. Baguio Cosplay Day is set for Oct. 27 this year.

Indeed, the Villanueva couple, who found a second love that could last within this lifetime, has applied and put in place what Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young could only dream of. —CONTRIBUTED INQ