HIS LOVE for the arts and the loss of an adopted child have molded Louie Sevilla?s unique art gallery in Sta. Cruz, the capital town of Laguna.

Inspired by a garage-turned-gallery in Angono town in Rizal, Sevilla transformed his own parking space into Nineveh Artspace six years ago and opened it when an art venue was closing in Manila.

Nineveh Artspace, located at 1st Avenue, Villa Silangan Subdivision in Barangay San Pablo Sur, displays the works of starting, struggling and recognized artists. It also has a fund-raising project for a local seminary.

Sevilla, 60, a playwright and director, first turned his garage into a house of prayer after Jonas, his adopted 6-year-old son, died from an illness in 1993. A year before, Jonas had drawn a house with a cross, which he called ?Papa?s House,? and had told his father to keep the piece.

Since the child passed away, Sevilla has become more religious. In 1995, he resigned from a teaching job at the University of the Philippines-Los Baños for a similar work at the St. Peter?s College Seminary in San Pablo City. His house has been used as venue for retreats.

From Sevilla?s passion for the arts and desire to contribute to visual arts (he had already contributed to his field of theater arts) emerged the house-based art gallery, but the religious character of the place has stayed.

Marvin de Leon, Sevilla?s assistant, said the gallery was named after the biblical place Nineveh. ?God asked the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh to save its people.?

Artists are given canvasses measuring, 18 by 12 inches, to paint their subjects, and the gallery donates 30-40 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the artworks to the seminary. Currently, 80 pieces are still on display, priced at P2,500 up to to P19,000 each.

Sevilla said some of the artists had donated their works for free and the entire proceeds would go to the seminary.

Many of the frequent buyers are other galleries that do not have access to the artists.

?It?s hard for artists to have an art show in Manila because most galleries only give them 10 days, and if the artworks are not sold, they have to be pulled out right after because they have no room for storage,? Sevilla said.

Nineveh Artspace has six gallery spaces with a combined floor area of 300 sq.m. One room serves as storage for artworks unsold after exhibits for viewing by prospective buyers.

Usually, exhibits are held every other month, featuring up to more than 60 artists in one instance. The latest show, which ran until Dec. 8, had four solo shows and one general show with 10 other artists.

Celia Correa, a Filipino artist based in Toronto, said she was thankful for having been given the opportunity to have her first show of eight paintings about Filipino women workers in the Canadian city, at Nineveh Airspace.

OFWs in Toronto

?I try to portray Filipino women in a different way. Others portray them as sensuous and beautiful. I portray them as women with dignity and respect,? said Correa, who has been employed in Canada since 1988 and is now an administrative staff member at the University of Toronto.

Three of her paintings were inspired by Jocelyn Dulnuan, an Ifugao OFW in Canada who was killed in 2007 when robbers broke into the home she was working in. The paintings showed people who attended the memorial service.

Correa, 59, said the Igorot people in Canada had banded together to raise funds to help Jocelyn?s family.

Another painting showed an OFW waiting at a subway station. It was titled ?Paghihintay.?

?It is a metaphor. OFWs are endlessly waiting?waiting for a good employer, to become a good resident of the foreign country, to be able to bring her family with her, and finally waiting to be able to go back home,? Correa said.

The artist would take photographs of her subjects, on which she would base her painting. She paints after work and on weekends and encourages others who are already working but love the arts to pursue it, also as a means to unwind.

Hardworking

Another artist, Bernard Vista, 41, who is from Pakil town in Laguna, had six wood sculptures on exhibit titled ?Papuri.?

A fine arts graduate from the University of Santo Tomas, he began to work full-time as an oil artist in 2000 and to delve in sculpture in December last year.

Vista developed his own style in four years. He painted ordinary people?fishermen, farmers and vendors?with heads bowed and with large feet and hands.

His big break came in 2005 when he was invited to exhibit at a gallery in Singapore. It was a success.

Now, Vista is in Pakil with his family doing commissioned works. Among those on exhibit was a 52-inch by 42-inch by 10-inch sculpture of ?bitukling? and narra wood with a fishnet, titled ?Fish Harvest.?

Vista uses driftwood or any other kind of wood, except those that are illegally logged.

His oil on molave, measuring 36.5 inches by 21 inches titled ?Papuri? was actually painted on an old table given to him.