Written by Rome Jorge
Photographed by Mark Jacob


We all love artists. We all want a piece of them, even if it is only canvas painting, a photograph, a sculpture or even a few moments of their time. For fellow artists, they are mentors and colleagues whose precious words serve as insight and whose works serve as inspiration and influence. So imagine what it is like to spend the rest of your life with one, for one artist to be married to another. Does a marital union lead to creative synergy or does domestic discord poison artistic passion? What is the sum of love and art?

The answer is the number eight.

Avellana Art Gallery, showcases the art of eight married couples: Allan and Ivi Avellana Cosio, Lao Lanben and Lilia Lao, Jon and Tessy Pettyjohn, Ferdinand Doctolero and Beth Parrocha-Doctolero, Dan Raralio and Edna Chan, Jojo Lofranco and Clairlynn Uy, Dei Jardiniano and Rosario Sanchez, Aaron Palileo and Joanne Catral-Palileo. The exhibit offers an intriguing insight on how art and love collide.

Allan and Ivi Cosio’s artworks could not be more different. Allan’s current collection quickly veers towards non-representational abstract expressionism where wet paints of different colors and swirled, blended and bled together before a white background within compact canvases to produce a highly textural works.