LLOYD TRONCO
LLOYD TRONCO 2022
LLOYD TRONCO
Sunday, May 22, 2022
I was going through my old blog and came upon this gem which I wrote on Friday, September 22, 2006. I had just left corporate work at McCann-Erickson a year before and was doing things as I had wanted. The title of this piece from that old blog was : What's so important about being 36
What's so important about being 36? More specifically, 36 years and eight months old.
Let me tell you.
At the age of 36 years and eight months old, you would have only 40 months left before you turn 40.
If you were to make a list entitled "Forty things I would like to do before I turn Forty", this would mean that you'd have at least one item to do every month as you wind down the days to the big 4-0. That way, your list would be more realistic as you could rename it to "Forty things I would like to do in the Forty Months before I turn Forty".
Not unless of course you are a crammer and you would prefer to have a list entitled "Forty things I would like to do in the Forty DAYS before I turn Forty"
Retirement Strategy : What's so important about being 36
I was going through my old blog and came upon this gem which I wrote on Friday, September 22, 2006. I had just left corporate work at McCan...
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
I never really knew how my parents met until I was 17 years old. I was in the UP College of Architecture when I had a classmate who said she also grew up in Bacolod, though I could not remember seeing her in the early years, given that Bacolod was a small town and that people would usually bump into each other in church or at birthday parties.
One time, I asked my mom if she had known this family name of my classmate and she quickly said without batting an eyelash, "Yes, she's the daughter of your Tita Manon, the one who introduced me to your dad".
I was thinking to myself, "How small could the world be?".
My mom, loved to write things. But I hardly came across this note she made about meeting my dad in 1965. She wrote, "Our first meeting was at the office of Robert Borja, where Manon Campos and I were working in his furniture business as interior designers. That evening Manon and I went with Larry to see Billy Abueva's latest works in sculpture at his home in Diliman, Quezon City. Also there were Jerry and Virgie Navarro, Robert Borja and of course, the host and hostess, Mr. & Mrs. Abueva".
Billy Abueva as we know became National Artist for sculpture many years after, while Jerry Navarro became National Artist for painting.
Art was the invisible yet highly palpable bond between my mom and dad. My mom was an interior designer who went to school at the New York School of Interior Design with Tita Manon. That was after Tita Manon had studied under my dad at the University of Santo Tomas College of Fine Arts.
Mom and Tita Manon in the US
My dad, well, he was this art professor by day but ad agency creature by night. He lived and breathed art. He was a scholar of the Spanish government in the early 1950s to Spain together with two other National Artists in the making, Cesar Legaspi and Arturo Luz, to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.
My Dad worked as one of those original advertising guys of the 1950s and 1960s
Interestingly, my mom's family name, Ramos, was also my dad's middle name. Though both had come from Negros, the Ramos of my mom from Bacolod are hardly related to the Ramoses of the south (Kabankalan and Himamaylan).
I look at their courtship as an interesting one. On one side was the small town boy coming from Kabankalan, who was very practical in every sense, having seen World War II as a teenager and stood as an elder among his kin when they were orphaned at the onset of the war.
On the other side was this petite lady who grew up in a more ideal environment when compared side by side to my dad's hardships. My dad finished high school in Kabankalan, while my mom was schooled in Assumption in Herran St. Both were from Negros. Both had spent time studying abroad. But destiny had led them to meet in the melting pot of Manila.
They married in 1967 at the St. Peter and Paul Parish in Makati, lived nearby until 1975 and in that year, made a monumental move to relocate to Negros despite my dad's flourishing career in art and advertising in Manila.
Billy Abueva, Jess Aiko, and my dad, Larry Tronco
Through the time they stayed in Negros, many other artist friends came by to see them in their abode. Billy Abueva came by again, Cesar Legaspi stayed, Malang came by, and my dad's tukayo and compadre, Larry Alcala, eventually settled in Bacolod. National Artists all.
Their earthly union lasted for 18 years until 1985 when my dad contracted amyloidosis, a rare disease which to date has no cure apart from treatment options focused on relieving symptoms and prolonging life.
My mom, Joan Ramos Tronco went on to live life as a widow in Bacolod for a good 29 years, looking forward to the day she would be reunited with her love, Larry Tronco. And in the early morning of February 9, 2014, she left this earth in time for her heavenly Valentine date with Larry, eager to tell him all the stories of their children Joyce, Lloyd, and their spouses and their grandchildren.
The blogger, Lloyd Tronco, is an Artist, Writer, Entrepreneur and Designer.
He is a Negrense based in Metro Manila.
byLloyd Tronco
in
February 09, 2022
Two Negrenses Meet In Manila - A Love Story from the 1960s
I never really knew how my parents met until I was 17 years old. I was in the UP College of Architecture when I had a classmate who said sh...
Monday, December 6, 2021
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| "Alab ng Sining" at 62 feet high and 40 feet wide, stands as the Philippines' largest abstract painting. |
I am no stranger when it comes to painting large works. In my senior year in high school, just a few weeks shy from graduation, my teacher in Art Appreciation asked me to do a mural which would cover the grandstand of the Philippine Science High School. The mural served as a background to our commencement exercises weeks later.
The eye (and hand) for creating large works also came naturally because I spent my summers helping out in the backyard of our family's outdoor advertising business in Bacolod. Way back then, billboards were not printed but painted. Painters would do lettering and paint figures on Galvanized Iron panels nailed on to wood.
By watching and helping out the painters as a teenager, I was able to see how paint was properly applied and executed. Little did I know that all of these would lead up to the day wherein I could create the Philippines' largest abstract painting.
The painting I created is too big to display in an art gallery, thus I hung it on an EDSA billboard.
The artwork has already been carried in Artplus Magazine, Adobo Magazine, Manila Bulletin, Inquirer, and PeopleAsia.
Although execution for this took a week, preparation for it took months and the ideation for it, years. There was no better time to execute this but on February 2021, right in time for the celebration of the National Arts Month 2021.
Thus, here I was, a Metro Manila-based artist from Negros painting the Philippines' largest abstract painting measuring 62 feet high by 40 feet wide.
The title "Alab ng Sining" speaks about the flame of art which I have always had, even during the days when I was working in an ad agency on non-art related matters.
The work is now displayed on an EDSA billboard located in Mandaluyong City at the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenues until March 30, 2021.
The title "Alab ng Sining" speaks about the flame of art which I have always had, even during the days when I was working in an ad agency on non-art related matters.
The work is now displayed on an EDSA billboard located in Mandaluyong City at the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenues until March 30, 2021.
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| Negros Island bred but Mandaluyong-based artist, Lloyd Tronco, stands before his work which is the largest abstract artwork in the Philippines. |
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| "Alab ng Sining", 62 feet high by 40 feet wide, lloydtronco 2021 Acrylic on Vinyl |
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| The Philippines' largest abstract artwork is located in Barangay Wack-Wack/Greenhills East, Mandaluyong City. |
byLloyd Tronco
in Advertising, Art, Culture, Design, Featured, Paintings, Reflections
December 06, 2021
How I Painted The Philippines' Largest Abstract Painting
"Alab ng Sining" at 62 feet high and 40 feet wide, stands as the Philippines' largest abstract painting. I am no stranger when...
Monday, November 22, 2021
The Philippine’s largest abstract painting “Alab ng Sining” will be on display at the Visayas Art Fair in Cebu City on Nov. 25 to 28*The Philippines’ largest abstract painting will be on display during the week of the first ever Visayas Art Fair at the Montebello Hotel in Cebu City on November 25 to 28.
The fair, the first of its kind, will be participated in by visual artists from Bacolod City and Negros Occidental namely, Charlie Co, Nunelucio Alvarado, Roedil Geraldo, Darel Javier, Aeson Baldevia, among others.
“Alab ng Sining”, which measures 62 feet by 40 feet, is a grand work by advertising man turned artist, Lloyd Tronco, a Bacoleño now based in Manila. The artwork first appeared in February 2021 at the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue in Metro Manila as the artist’s way of celebrating National Arts Month.
This fair, the first of its kind
will take place on November 25 to 28
at the Montebello Hotel, Cebu.
“The world is our gallery, a place to share our God-given talents, a place to share our craft and ideas. The purpose of art is really to connect with as many people as possible,” he said.
Created during the pandemic at the time when visiting galleries or museums were not allowed, “Alab ng Sining” is also a statement on social distancing. Given the size, one has to stand afar to truly appreciate it, Tronco said.
The Visayas Art Fair 2021 is a historic undertaking by Cebu Design Week Inc. to unite three regions in the Visayas – Regions 6, 7 and 8 – to present to the world the identity of the Visayan arts and culture.*
This article first appeared in the Visayan Daily Star on 11/22/2021
Negrense artists in Visayas Art Fair
The Philippine’s largest abstract painting “Alab ng Sining” will be on display at the Visayas Art Fair in Cebu City on Nov. 25 to 28* The ...
Monday, August 16, 2021
Bacolod Chicken House...the local legend
If ever there was any reason why Bacolod chicken inasal became the legendary Bacolod delicacy it is now known to be, it can all be traced back to Architect Joe Cajili's Chicken House. Currently known as Bacolod Chicken House, the real Chicken House started as a hole-in-the-wall at San Sebastian Street, catering to everyday passers-by. Later on, it opened as a small restaurant just across Colegio de San Agustin along North Drive (B.S. Aquino Drive today).
It's humble beginnings as a restaurant included an al fresco (back in the days it was just called "open-air") section which one was able to access through the sidewalk and that small street leading to the back of the Redemptorist Church. Long before there was a Manokan country at Bacolod's reclamation area, Chicken House had already set up shop. Joe Cajili's initial patrons were also his golfing buddies at the nearby Marapara club (Negros Occ. Golf and Country Club)
Many other chicken houses or "inasalans" have followed the path led by Joe Cajili's local legend of a resto. One thing is sure though. One cannot claim to have been in Bacolod if he or she hasn't eaten at the real and only Bacolod Chicken House.
I wrote this in 2008 on the Multiply.com platform.
Chicken House ... The Bacolod Legend
Bacolod Chicken House...the local legend If ever there was any reason why Bacolod chicken inasal became the legendary Bacolod delicacy...
Sunday, August 15, 2021
Bacolod City's famous chicken dish inasal (barbecued chicken) has spread far and wide across the globe reaching not just the United States of America but also the Middle East. Unknown to many is the fact long before it reached foreign shores, inasal's humble beginnings are traced back to a small street in Bacolod known as Cuadra.
Before the legendary Manokan Country of Bacolod found its way on the culinary map, there was a series of small stalls along Cuadra Street, near Bacolod's public plaza which earned the name as Chicken Alley. This was started by the Velez sisters, Elisa Velez-Garrucho and her sister Nena, and the other Velez siblings.
Given its proximity to the public plaza and because it was near jeepney stops, people flocked to the area to buy the barbecued chicken we now know as Bacolod chicken inasal. One has to be reminded that back in the days of the 70s, the tasty dish we know of today was simply "inasal". "Bacolod chicken inasal" as used in one phrase was still a long way off.
As its popularity grew, inasal found a new home in Bacolod's reclamation area which is known today as Manokan County (translated as Chicken Country). Soon, the people of Bacolod started flocking to the stalls of Manokan Country which now offered seating to the diners. As Manokan Country got too crowded, Elisa Velez-Garrucho decided to get out of Manokan Country and put up Chicken House in San Sebastian Street, near the Garrucho residence. Eliza's sister, Nena, also followed soon.
Vincent V. Garrucho, one of Eliza's sons relates, "My brother Jomi Garrucho and myself, as well as my sisters, were trained since grade school to know the recipe by heart. Honestly, we can do the ORIGINAL INASAL with our eyes closed. Almost everyday, our packed lunch to school was... FRIED chicken inasal. People haven't tried that yet." Vincent adds, "Me and my siblings as kids were trained to make the mix every morning before going to school and cook and serve in our resto after school."
Eliza Velez Garrucho is credited to have contributed greatly to making inasal the mainstream dish it is known today after exiting Manokan Country and starting the famous Bacolod Chicken House. Eliza V. Garrucho sold Chicken House to the Cajili family in 1976 and the rest is history as the new owners have taken Chicken House and its distinct taste to inasal lovers like us.
Chicken House in Metro Manila is located in Makati along Chino Roces Ave., fronting Makati (Cinema) Square.
The writer, Lloyd Tronco, is from Bacolod, a chicken inasal lover and addict who always eats inasal with garlic rice and a stick of baticolon (chicken gizzard). 
Related Post :
This post is a long overdue piece because the idea for writing it came about late last year when an article appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, delving into how the lifestyles of Negrenses (inhabitants of Negros Island) were supposedly laid bare through the architecture and the ancestral homes seen across the island......Read More
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