Tessie Dichupa’s class: Learning from an art educator’s vibrant brushstrokes painted on her life’s canvas

Entering an art room filled with students working on their artwork is like allowing one’s self to witness chaos. Not the one that brings fear, paranoia, or anxiety but the type of chaos that’s crazy-messy yet beautiful.

It is messy in a sense that scattered art materials, scrapped drafts, and paint splashes can be seen everywhere. It may be really chaotic with so many things going on inside the room, but looking around it once again, one would realize that it isn’t a total mess after all. With the room being filled with a rainbow of colors, one would realize that the crazy mess they are staring at is actually where the real beauty emerges.

That messy yet indeed an eye-catchy art room is a haven of tranquility that allows art students to express themselves in the most creative way they can. Every day in their lives, their hands produce wonderful masterpieces that undergo delicate artistic processes. These are witnessed by the one in charge of bringing out the inner artist in the youngsters and helping them build skills and self-confidence: the art teacher. As the person responsible for guiding the students in making their vision a reality, the art educator knows the story of every student’s mistakes, hard work, and dedication that are kept behind each brushstroke in their artworks.

This is what Tessie Dichupa has seen for years of becoming an art educator. Witnessing these almost every day in her life, she probably is reminded of the days that she was the one sitting at the easel with brushes in her hand, letting her imagination run wild as she worked on her project that is due in a week or two. Of course, prior to becoming that person rookies can look up to, Tessie was also once a beginner who was enthusiastic to learn about art.

Achieving the childhood dream

Becoming an artist was actually Tessie’s dream as a child. Thanks to her neighbour back in Manila who became her teacher for helping the nine-year-old  Tessie to squeeze out her creative juices and show off her artistic side.

Her childhood dream was supported by her parents, Fermin and Teodora Francisco, who have always encouraged her to make art. Nothing was blocking Tessie’s pursuit of her dream — she loves what is doing and has a strong pillar of support and guiding light around her.

Equipped by these, Tessie went on to walk on the creative and colorful path of being an artist, taking up a Fine Arts degree at the University of the Philippines. After obtaining her college diploma, she applied in an advertising agency called Philprom, and was placed under the supervision of the late Cesar Legaspi who was then the head of the art department.

Known by many as “Mang Cesar,” Cesar was considered as the Philippines’ pioneer “Neo-Realist.” For his significant contributions to the development of Philippine art, he was named a National Artist for Visual Arts in 1990, four years before his death from prostate cancer. Mang Cesar mentored Tessie during her stay at the agency until they had to end their superior-subordinate relationship, as Tessie refocused her attention on her daughter and three sons with her late husband, Gregorio Dichupa.

Putting her children at the top of her priorities did not end her career life, instead, it was an opportunity in disguise to take her profession to the next level.

Rookie to mentor

Tessie is one of the many parents who, as much as possible, wanted to keep an eye on their kids and never leave their side. So for her to be near her sons who, at that time, were grade school students at De La Salle University (DLSU) in Taft, Manila, she decided to become a parent volunteer, which eventually led to an offer to teach art in the grade school.

Tessie believes that it was not her that chose teaching as a profession, rather, she said, “It chose me. Opportunities presented themselves.”

As an art educator, Tessie was not only in charge of sharing her passion for art to the grade-schoolers, as she also taught art appreciation in the university level of the DLSU for several years. Tessie was already promoted as the Art Department Head from grades 1 to 7 when she had to bid goodbye to her students in DLSU.

She then transferred to an international school where she was assigned to teach art to Grades 6, 7, and 8. During these years she was with the international school, Tessie got involved with the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CPP) in Roxas Boulevard.

One day, Tessie attended the opening of an art show where she unexpectedly met Mang Cesar. Her former boss was no longer part of Philprom when they met each other some years later; by that time, Mang Cesar, as far as Tessie could remember, was already making his name known to many. “[He is] becoming an icon of Philippine Art.”

Tessie said their meeting led to the renewal of the friendship they had back at the advertising agency. Since their encounter at the art show, Mang Cesar had been inviting Tessie to join the Saturday Group Sessions at his residence every Wednesday and the “more popular Saturday Group” every Saturday at the Finale Art Gallery.

“My husband would bring me to the gallery on Saturdays and Mang Cesar would bring me home after the sessions and dinner. By this time our friendship extended to our families.”

As a fellow artist, Tessie said she was encouraged by Mang Cesar to develop her own style and do solo shows. With her former boss’s support, Tessie managed to do six solo shows and be part of numerous group shows in Manila.

“Although we had very different art styles, he [Mang Cesar] became part of my art life until I left for Vancouver.”

After 10 years of teaching in the international school, Tessie resigned as the Department Head for Grades 1 to 8 to start a new life in Canada with her family.

Continuing life in Canada

Migrating to Canada nor to any other country was never part of the Dichupa family’s plan. They were not really thinking of trying their luck outside the Philippines until her son, Martin, became an exchange student at the University of Concordia in Montreal, Quebec. When Martin was offered the opportunity to study abroad, Tessie recalled how their situation in the Philippines was also not getting any better.

“Our friends and relatives living in Canada encouraged us when we visited there. Before long, we found ourselves landing in Vancouver in 1992.”

Tessie did not exactly recall what they first did when they arrived in Canada, but she remembers feeling tired, uneasy, and excited. It was not even a year since they migrated, but Tessie’s family had to deal with one of the hardest pains a person can ever feel: that’s losing someone very dear to them.

“My husband, Greg, suddenly died from an aortic aneurysm, 11 months after we landed. Each of us was gradually getting settled in jobs. All of us were lost, we lost our leader.”

Although it was a whirlwind of emotions for the bereaved loved ones, realizing that the world will never feel the same after the head of their family passed away, Tessie and her kids slowly learned to pick themselves up and carry on with their lives.

Living in Canada has made Tessie to become more independent compared to her friends and siblings in Manila, given that they do not have any household helper who will clean, cook, and do little errands for them. Despite doing all those things on their own, Tessie believes that they made the right decision to move to Vancouver as the city provides them peace and order and more opportunities to pursue their dreams.

Tessie said she was hoping to continue her teaching career in Canada, but unfortunately, her experience of being the Art Department Head in the Philippines was not given credit as employers look for Canadian work experience in an applicant. To earn that Canadian experience that is required for many of thousands of newcomers, Tessie took a job despite it not being in line with her previous profession.

“My first job was being a telemarketer. Thankfully I did not have to pressure sell. My account had to do with reminders of payments due.”

After earning that Canadian experience, Tessie went on to teach Art 1 and Art 2 subjects in an after school program held inside public school buildings. In one class, Tessie handled eight students, who, she said, “challenged me to teach them more” after their classes.

“We ended [up] using the board room of one of the participants. We also went to out of town locations [or] wherever any participant had a property. These were wonderful years.”

Through the years of choosing to be an art teacher as a profession, Tessie spent her entire time sharing her love for art with her students, watching them grow as reflective and creative thinkers, supporting their uniqueness just like how she received huge support from people around her, and painting the sometimes very gray world in colors along with her students. Tessie had happily and wholeheartedly done all these things until she retired.

Keeping creativity flowing

Now a retired art educator, Tessie dedicates her full time as a homemaker. No longer having to fulfill duties and responsibilities at work, she has more time in her hands to focus on painting and developing different styles. For the past years, Tessie has painted using watercolours, pastels, oils, acrylics, and has done mixed media painting and some printmaking. Nowadays, she said she is into using acrylics with a limited palette.

Tessie shared that what inspires her to paint are all the things related to “nature” — her children, flowers, landscapes, shells, fruits, plants, and seascapes to name a few. But even though she just has to look at her surroundings to get motivated, starting an artwork will still be a challenge for her. She said her struggles whenever she will begin to work on a project are unpredictable.

There are times she will have to deal with making a good composition, sometimes it is the shape, and sometimes it is the medium she will be using. Despite these difficulties, she said the fun part in her artistic process is always there.

“I really enjoy myself when I paint, especially when something suddenly appears in the canvas due to the brush or thumb.”

As a painter, Tessie hopes to give joy to the people who view her works. She proved this purpose during the “How Green Is Your Muse (HGIYM)” Art Exhibit, where she was one of the 12 outstanding Filipino-Canadian artists who participated in the event. In the exhibit, Tessie highlighted the beauty of Haida Gwaii, making the audience feel how her heart was captured by it.

“I was in Haida Gwaii in April of 2019. I fell in love with the place – nature spread its extraordinary qualities all over the place.”

After the HGIYM Art Exhibit, Tessie’s artworks were featured in the first-ever virtual comprehensive exhibit of artworks called “Tatlumpu’t Isang Araw ng Sining Pilipino (Thirty One Days of Filipino Arts)” held in July 2020. This followed the “Tatlumpung Araw ng Himig Pilipino: Isang Pagbubunyi! (Thirty Days of Filipino Music: A Celebration!)” in June which coincided with the celebration of the 122nd Philippine Independence Day and the Filipino Heritage Month in Canada.

The virtual showcase highlighted the works of Filipino-Canadian visual artists like painters, sculptures, photographers, illustrators and printmakers who are based in British Columbia, Yukon, and Northwest Territories.

Each day in July, one visual artist was featured on the Facebook page of the Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver, and on its 27th day, the spotlight shone at Tessie’s masterpieces. Her artworks shown in a slideshow video included “Tree on Golden Sky,” “Lone Tree,” “Gnarled Stump,” “Lush Growth,” “Golden Branch,” and “Grove of Trees.”

No matter what she does or wherever she goes, for Tessie, art and teaching, perhaps, have always been constant in her life and will always be a part of her because even if she already retired, Tessie continues to guide a “stray student” at times.

Aside from making art, she also let her creative juices flow through writing. Taking interest in writing started when she was influenced and encouraged by people she met in her writing classes at Simon Fraser University (SFU) at Harbour Center.

A few years ago, Tessie self-published a book titled “Pamana,” a Filipino word which means heritage. The book is a collection of essays that talk about Filipino life in the context of her family.

“I wrote the book for my grandsons who were born and are being raised here in Canada. I want them to know about their family.”

Tessie hopes that the book she wrote will acquaint her grandchildren with their Filipino heritage, as she continues to add more essays to the book while working on probably more than one painting at a time and attending to her family’s needs as a homemaker.

Just like art, it seems like teaching has found a special place in her heart because even though she has long retired from her profession, Tessie continues to inspire and pass on her knowledge to the younger generation, with or without having to stand in front of a whole class and even with or without her canvas, paint, and brush.