ART AND SUN By Ramil Mendoza I wish I had a dog like Dennis Sun’s. This one had on a four-pointed court jester’s hat, with stars and bells. He also looks like he had a pirate’s eyepatch, only it is not a patch. His left blue eye shines brightly through the patch in a mischievous smile as his black-spotted white body seems to float through a heart-shaped hole in a tree, as two mystical peacocks watch. Pink butterflies flutter above sunflowers, as snail-shaped clouds float in a painted background, framed by velvet curtains. This dog is pulling off a trick, and he is enjoying it. In another painting, this dog is laughing as he watches the fairy princess float with her snake wand between checkerboard worlds filled with castles and minarets, smiling flowers, sun and moon, stars, rainbows, cacti, banderitas and a grinning cat. In Dennis Sun’s paintings, I can feel my early childhood visions and wishes come to life worlds filled with color, smiling giraffes, trees, kings and queens, flowers, and a dog with a four pointed, star-studded jester’s hat. In his new exhibition “Pieces of Dream”, which opened on June 27, 2021 at the Koyama Gardens in Nerima, Tokyo, Dennis Sun showcases his work during a difficult period of his life, when he just moved to Japan from the Philippines, alone, without family and friends. No one knew him, and he found life difficult, as he did not speak the language. The culture was entirely different from what he knew. The challenges he faced were daunting and frightening to say the least. Dennis said ‘I painted a lot during these times. And what resulted in my paintings were perhaps what my “inner-self” was trying to tell me. I wasn’t in a happy place and time then.
06
July - August 2021
