THE APO HIKING SOCIETY

Graphite and Charcoal on an 18"x24" (114 gsm) Paper

This piece was inspired by hearing one of their songs “When I met you” over the radio one day. Back in the day, I remembered their voices, their individual inflections, tonal contours and the mélange of sounds that was particular of that time. I knew who sang which part but it never really meant anything until I was old enough to understand.

There’s a line in the song about before he met the girl he was merely existing. That reminded me of my sister in high school, gushing like nobody’s business because a guy used it, a paraphrase of the line, on her. I remember my initial reaction was: Gross. Then I used it too in one of my wooing misadventures.

The song evoked more memories of my grade school days, in a school event. We were out in the field with a stage set up (can’t remember what for) and from my line of vision, I only noticed rows of chairs. My mom, star struck, tapped me on the shoulder and said, look that’s Bubuy of Apo Hiking Society. He was there as a parent and not a performer.

As I searched them on YouTube, I was inundated with so many more of their hits that either escaped my memory or just didn’t come across growing up, but still continued to stand the test of time.

The picture I used as reference was from one of their last string of concerts in 2010 before retiring for good.

A close up on the faces. I emblazoned their initials on their collar to further unify the trio: B for Bubuy Garovillo D for Danny Javier, J for Jim Paredes. One other thing is if you look at the mouths, you will see a transition from an open smile, to a closed one to pressed lips. They all smile differently but the transition you see signifies the swelling of emotions at that particular point in time.

A close up on the garments and the fingers. Clothes at first seem like a daunting task to do but the wrinkles make it more worth the while. The length of the sleeves, and the placement of their hands on their sides can reveal more about who they are. There wasn’t a lot of hands to do in this piece but I thoroughly enjoyed doing the fingers.

I wasn’t able to document the entire process since the camera was on loan and all. But this is where it all began.