Dr. Nanette Nacorda-Catigbe pursues artistic passion.
On an ordinary day, you’d find Dr. Nanette Nacorda-Catigbe in a white coat treating patients in a modest clinic along N. Escario Street.
But as soon as the last patient has left the office, Dr. Nanette takes a short trip to a nearby cafe for her usual tambay with friends, and that is spent mostly with brush and paint.
“I paint every day. I even do it in-between patient visits—it’s called multitasking (laughs). I try not to stress myself, and painting helps
keep me sane,” she told Cebu Daily News.
From painting portaits of kids and flowers in acrylic, making art became a growing passion for Dr. Nanette. The framed pieces are now displayed at her exhibit titled “Deviant” at the Robinsons Galleria Cebu, ongoing until Oct. 15.
“As the title suggests, I’m showing something out of the box, something unusual and different from the rest,” Dr. Nanette said.
Artworks vary from shells with images of mermaids to painted bags, wooden dolls, a cake, and even a ball gown.
“This is my first solo exhibit in Cebu, my hometown. As an artist, it’s like checking it off my bucket list. I had two solo exhibits back in Cagayan de Oro, and here in Cebu, I just showed my works at a booth in two medical-related conferences,” she narrated.
In those conventions, the hand-painted seashells served as tokens for international delegates.
HOW SHE LEARNED TO PAINT
With her house-to-school routine, Dr. Nanette admitted to growing up without close friends… well, except for her dog.
“I started painting early. It always starts there. Di ko laagan nga bata, and didn’t have playmates. And I had no toys, so I
started painting. The first potrait I made was my dog’s,” she revealed.
Dr. Nanette’s love for painting preoccupied her through high school, and she recalls how her notebooks were filled with doodles made between classes.
But art had to take a backseat when she entered college and the demands of medical school had taken its toll on her.
It was later after few years in Cagayan de Oro when she was put on a bed rest after giving birth to her daughter when Dr. Nanette rekindled her love for art. Boredom brought her back to painting.
“I started with hand painted Chuck Taylors at the height of Twilight’s popularity,” she said. “I sold them online for three years. Eventually I stopped to avoid copyright infringement.”
Being an artist, Dr. Nanette likes to explore other media and painting surfaces. This is where her edible masterpieces came about. Husband Francisco Catigbe Jr., also a practicing physician like her, bakes while she designs and paints them.
“When we moved to Cebu, we had to start our practice from scratch and that was hard. I didn’t want to go into depression so I pursued art. It’s a good thing that the cakes turned out very well,” she said.
Their signature cakes made a mark after they joined a bridal fair in Ayala Center Cebu. And everything fell into place. The masterpieces landed on the pages of Cake Central Magazine (USA) for 2014-2015 and got featured in Adore Wedding Cakes Book (USA) this year.
Dr. Nanette’s exploration has brought her to different media like watercolor, pen and ink, colored pencils, pastels, mixed media and edible colors, aside from using acrylic on most of her pieces.
“It’s nice to stick to your medium. But, as an artist, you evolve. While I get to learn a lot of techniques, I have my own style.”
So what inspires the artistic doctor? Her answer was simple. The things around her that she loves, like flowers, children’s faces, cute animals and Disney characters.
“There’s no limit to your imagination,” Dr. Nanette said. “When you travel, there are many things that will strike you.”
Some of her finds are captured using a camera phone and saved in an album that she’d scan when the mood to paint arises.
For her favorite pieces, she picked the “pretty gothic” version paintings of her daughter, the portrait of a girl playing a violin (since she and her two daughters play the instrument), and her hand painted medical bag.
But that’s not all. “If they were my children, I would love them all,” she said, bursting into laughter.
Perhaps being a doctor and an artist at the same time isn’t easy. For Dr. Nanette, time management is the key.
“I can’t imagine myself being a full-time doctor—my art has to be on the side,” she said.
