When hard times strike and traditional resources are out of reach, the most creative of us can find ingenious ways to make one-of-a-kind works of art.
This is especially true for Filipinos–and no one proves our resourcefulness and creativity more than Grade 12 student, Vincent Dwight Paulo from Nueva Ecija who uses banana catsup to draw portraits of famous personalities while staying at home during the community quarantine.
While he first started with a catsup portrait back in 2018, it was during the quarantine when he really started honing this unique art skill. “I really engaged myself in doing catsup art since school and art supplies shops were closed,” said Vincent. “I was running out of materials, so I used catsup instead.”
Catsup was not the first medium he had used to create art, but it was the one within reach at home–which is how he ended up creating portraits of celebrities like Liza Soberano, Kathryn Bernardo, Daniel Padilla, Taylor Swift, and One Direction.
“I really loved catsup because it is readily available inside the house,” Vincent shared. “I really love exploring and trying other mediums just to try something new. I don’t like to stick to the conventional and typical artworks that we see.”
Vincent primarily uses UFC Banana Catsup as it is the family’s favorite catsup brand at home. “It’s always what’s in our kitchen, and we really like fried foods dipped in UFC Banana Catsup because of its tamis-anghang taste,” he said. “I don’t want to try other brands for my art because I’m already used to UFC.”
While Vincent wows admirers online with his amazing catsup art, his plans are a little more different, as he dreams of taking up architecture in college. He realizes that such a course could be expensive, hindering others from pursuing their passion, but with his work he wants to inspire fellow artists and creatives to be resourceful.
