Wayne Lacson Forte: A Filipino American Artist Finds His Roots
Wayne Lacson Forte (Source: wayneforte.com)
At first glance, Wayne Forte doesn’t seem to be your ordinary image of an artist, let alone a Filipino American one. If you met him on the street, you might think he was a Latin-American with his mestizo looks and tall, six-foot, rangy frame.
Yet Filipino he is, whose middle name, Lacson, is a famed one, which reminds one of the Visayan south and of politicians big and small.
His biography states that he grew up in Southern California, in Santa Barbara specifically, born of a Filipino mother and an Irish American father. Furthermore, one learns that his father served in the US military, which brought him to Philippine shores where he met and married a lady from a prominent Negrense family, the Lacsons. With Filipino family opposition to such a union, one might think that this Romeo-and-Juliet story would have ended unhappily. To the contrary, their marriage turned out to be successful. His father’s post-military career as a real estate developer enabled him to raise his family very comfortably.
JOHN, MARCH 28, 1996 50x31 inches, charcoal on rag paper
One of several “from-life” portraits I did of my father shortly before he died.
Born in 1950, Wayne was the first of five children and the only one to have shown artistic talent at an early age. His siblings Dennis, Gary, Deborah, and Susan were more into the California lifestyle of the ‘50s and ‘60s while growing up. Only Wayne seemed interested in their Filipino background. Their mother, Delia Lacson, and father, John Elliott Forte, were determined to raise their children as true-blue Americans and any Filipino influence the kids acquired was by periodic visits from their maternal grandmother, Balbinita Tionko Lacson, or “Lola Binit.”
BALBINITA LACSON AND DAUGHTERS, 1952 by Amorsolo 12.5x18 inches, oil on board.
This small “sign-off sketch” was done before the life-size group portrait could begin.
In Wayne’s home now hangs a small Amorsolo painting, a study for a life-size group portrait which forms part of the Ayala Museum collection. It depicts Dona Balbinita Lacson and her three daughters Nelly Lacson Gonzalez, Wayne’s mother, Delia, and the youngest, Inday Lacson Gabaldon, in the splendor of their gilded youth. Widowed when her husband died at age 68, Lola Binit cultivated a cosmopolitan lifestyle with residences in Madrid, Manila, and New York. She took particular interest in Wayne’s development as an artist.
Growing up in this milieu was sometimes confusing for a Filipino American child. He recounts: “We didn’t socialize within the Filipino community of our town. My parents were reluctant to discuss anything from the past—I got the message that they wanted a fresh start in a new place and as they said, ‘Don’t look back.’ I just tried to fit in as best I could but always knew in the back of my mind that I was a stranger from another place.”
He has held several exhibits in Bacolod, Cebu/Mandaue and Manila. The titles of his exhibits show his deep connection to the hallmarks that mark the country and its people.
His father urged him to prove to his high school Caucasian schoolmates who labeled him a “Chink” or a “Jap” that he was 100-percent “American.” This confused him even more since he knew he was Asian in a different way. From his mother and his yaya (nanny) he grew up with the syllables of a different language and the scents and tastes of another kind of cuisine. He was to recognize this later as distinctly Filipino and part of his heritage.
His coming-of-age at 21 was marked by a trip to the Philippines with an aunt and uncle. He remembers thinking, “Finally, I will understand who I am.” This direct immersion in Filipino culture brought him closer to the roots that he had been seeking all these years. On the one hand, he came to know the distinct shapes and flavors of Metro Manila—Divisoria, Roxas Boulevard, Quiapo, and Makati. On the other hand, he was called “Hey, Joe” by street urchins, who made him feel more American than he had felt back in the US; once again he felt himself an outsider.
His artistic and political education continued in 1974 with a year’s stint in Paris gifted to him by Lola Binit. This brought him into contact with Filipinos, including a close cousin, who had sought refuge in Europe during the early years of martial law. “We were all strangers in a foreign land and therefore equally displaced. As these new friends accepted me, talked to me about their own emigration experiences and provided me with a long sought-after fellowship, I finally learned to accept myself even though I was doubly an outsider in Paris.”
This European sojourn included a semester of study at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne, where he learned to sketch and cut patterns in the fashion capital of the world. Like Juan Luna and other Filipino artists in the 19th century, he also marveled at the treasures in the Louvre and the myriad galleries in the City of Lights. Of the artwork that he saw in Paris, the ones that impressed him most were by the Italians Giotto, Fra Angelico, and Masaccio; German Expressionists Emil Nolde and Max Beckman; and the Dutch Post-Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh.
HOLY FAMILY IMMIGRATION, 2017 30x40 inches, charcoal on rag paper
A timely rendition of a new holy family at the border.
JACOB AND THE ANGEL (after Salvatore Rosa), 1996 96x72 inches oil and acrylic on canvas. A deconstructed version of Rosa”s masterpiece.
MADONNA (STARTLED) AND CHILD WITH CROSS, 2010 30x24 inches, charcoal on rag paper. Here Mary, who had previously received an ominous prophecy (Luke 2:22-35), and the infant Jesus both confront a toy in the shape of a cross.
Returning to the U.S. in 1973, he finished his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California in Irvine and rented a studio in downtown LA to further pursue his artistic future. His fruitful career also included a three-month stint in Orvieto, Italy, where he taught studio art for Gordon College’s Euro-campus.
It was at age 28 that he had a revelation of sorts that some might liken to the experience of such Christian saints as Paul or Augustine: “Throughout my school years, the images that touched me most deeply were the more ecstatic biblical narratives of Gruenwald, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio. I was later educated to paint in the self-referential Modernist tradition, but longed for the passion of an earlier age, a passion for the spiritual and the transcendent. This longing came closer to becoming reality when in 1978, I received the gift of faith in Christ and began to seriously consider the possibility of becoming a religious painter.” This is the path that he has followed and the influence that has marked his mature work.
Another country that has influenced him is Brazil, from where his wife, Valeria, comes and which some of his art references. He recounts: “I first visited Brazil in 1970 while I was studying art in college. Little did I know then that ten years later I would meet and fall in love with a Brazilian woman in Los Angeles. Months after meeting, Valeria and I would travel back to her homeland to join our lives together in marriage. I have returned to Brazil many times since then. There, in the different cities and locales where we lived, first Campinas and years later Campos do Jordão with our four children in tow, I attempted to capture my impressions of the state of São Paulo."
Wayne has also gone back regularly to the Philippines, 20 times and counting, interrupted only by the COVID- 19 pandemic. He has held several exhibits in Bacolod, Cebu/Mandaue and Manila. The titles of his exhibits show his deep connection to the hallmarks that mark the country and its people. These include: “May Reklamo ka?”; “rEvolution”; “Parables and Prophecies” and a Retrospective Show at the Negros Museum in 2023.
MGA GAMOT, 2013 57x61 inches, oil and acrylic on canvas. Mga Gamot means roots in my family's mother tongue, Ilonggo. This painting is a composite of images that remind me of home.
GOOD SAMARITAN (WITH BENIGNO), 2010 24x30 inches, oil and acrylic on canvas. This is a retelling of the Good Samaritan story in Luke 10: 25-37 in terms of Benigno Aquino's murder on the tarmac.
MALACAÑANG PALACE WITH BODIES, 2019 24x36 inches, oil on linen. This is an imaginary view across the Pasig River during the OplanTokang war on drugs in the Philippines.
On his self-identification as a religious painter, he comments: “To be a religious painter in a secular age may seem, to many, anachronistic and narrow. Paradoxically, I have found that it satisfies my desire to communicate by telling stories which resonate widely thus transcending Modernism’s self-centeredness.”
It doesn’t seem farfetched to link this religious orientation with his consistent reassertion of his Filipino roots since Christianity is deeply embedded in Filipino identity and culture. He states that ever since his mother’s passing in 1996, he felt all the more the need to reconnect himself, his family, and his art with this precious part of his heritage.
To answer the question, what is the most important lesson you have learned about being Filipino in America, he answered, “Unlike a tree, a person can grow cut off from his roots, but it is often a painful and disorienting experience. When the pests and storms come, there is nothing like a strong, deep set of roots to support and nurture a tree. I have finally found my roots in the Philippines, and they are deep and wide.”
Lacson-Forte is not content to rest on his laurels as he looks forward to continued trips to the Philippines, including projected ones in 2025 with possible shows in Iloilo, Bacolod and Manila. Bravo!
Here is a documentary film you can watch on Wayne Forte's life and work, produced by his son Tiago Forte:
A career diplomat of 35 years, Ambassador Virgilio A. Reyes, Jr. served as Philippine Ambassador to South Africa (2003-2009) and Italy (2011-2014), his last posting before he retired. He has written and edited six books, including Gloria: Roman Leoncio’s Kapampangan Translation of Huseng Batute’s Poem-Novel (Center for Kapampangan Studies, 2003) given the National Book award in 2004; In the National Interest: The Philippines and the UN: Issues of Disarmament, Peace and Security, 1986-1991(NY and Manila, 1991); La Revolucion Filipina, 1896-1898, El Nacimiento de Una Idea (Santiago de Chile, 1998); Nuestro Perdido Eden: A Novella on Manila (Ateneo de Naga Press, 2019); A Memory of Time collection of essays (Quezon City, 2020); and We Remember Rex@100 (Quezon City, 2022).
More articles by Ambassador Virgilio Reyes, Jr.
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