Two faces are expected to emanate from the Baguio athletic bowl Heroes Legends walls in a few days.
Former two time world taekwondo champion Jeordan Dominguez and former World Wushu Championship winner Divine Wally will be the fifth and sixth faces at the seven by 14 feet walls inside the dugouts of the long stage.
“I will be doing their faces next,” said artist Gladys Ann Labsan who was at the Baguio athletic bowl Tuesday afternoon to start with the two face mural.
While the four walls have a single face each – Hector Begeo, Rey Tam, Jerry Dino and Erlinda Lavandia – this time each wall will have two faces each as more faces are projected to be painted on the 11 wall structure.
“Mamayang 2 na lang,” she told this writer Tuesday morning after days of contemplating on going to the sports complex to pick up from where she left before the long holiday season.
Two of the seven remaining walls are ready to be painted on, but one has been damaged recently due to the water leaking from the water reservoir at the back of the walls.
Paul Rillorta of the city sports office said earlier that they will soon put sealant on the walls of the drainage at the back of the walls as water seep to the dugout. Due to some mineral deposits, small stalactite like formations have invaded the ceiling. The water seeping also damage the walls, its paints chipping off and even the finishing that were applied on it.
Five walls need yet to be repaired, some requiring concrete putty to fill up the holes.
“That will require extra costs again. So I finish the fifth wall with Divine and Jeordan on it, then move to the sixth, the middle portion for two more. But then that needs a slight a repair as the recently repainted walls have some chipping off.
The middle wall will soon have the likeness of two karate greats – Robert Kapawen and Julian Chees. Both are now sixth dan black belts with the latter becoming the first Filipino and Asian outside of Japan attaining that degree of mastery of the traditional Japanese martial arts.
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It will be the second time that Gladys will be painting the recent Southeast Asian Games gold medal winners.
In 2017, Gladys painted Divine for the Portrait of the Cordillera athletes exhibit, one of the 17 athletes she did for the Heroes project.
During the October 2019 showing at the Porta Vaga Mall, Gladys included Jeordan and right before they joined the biennial sports event where the Philippines emerged the over-all champion.
Wally, who gave birth last January 10, has won what could be the cornerstone of wushu competitions including the World championship in 2015, along with Arnel Mandal, the Asian Wushu Championship and the World Cup of Sanda.
In 2018, she won a bronze medal in the Asian Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia.
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Earlier, Harold Banario finished the Heroes Team Lakay mural at the wall below the giant agoho tree. Eight figures particularly Team Lakay champions are featured in the 12 by 24 feet mural done by the Brave CF fighter and the third of the Banario brothers.
Team Lakay founder and head coach Mark Sangiao rides atop the wall, with former ONE champions Eduard Folayang (lightweight) and Kevin Belingon (bantamweight) below. On the right middle portion is reigning ONE straw weight king Joshua Pacio, and from right below is inaugural ONE featherweight titlist Honorio Banario, former flyweight czar Geje Eustaquio, former PXC bantamweight king Crisanto Pitpitunge and reigning Brave CF bantamweight belt holder Stephen Loman.
Sangiao and the seven other Team Lakay stalwarts are expected to join the inauguration of the murals (including the finished Heroes Legends murals) on January 28.
