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Norberto "Lito" Carating (b. 1948) Golden Sun signed and dated 2010 (lower right) acrylic on canvas 30" x 24" (76 cm x 61 cm) Exhibiting as a professional artist for more than forty years, Norberto “Lito” Carating has been an abstractionist for most of his career, being trained by National Artist Jose Joya, one of the foremost proponents of abstract expressionism in the country. Like his mentor, Carating has explored various styles, believing that “we only stop experimenting when we expire.” A recipient of various awards, he counts being among the CCP Thirteen Artist Awards in 1990 as among the most memorable as it stands for his achievements in the field of visual arts here in the Philippines. Greatly admired here, he also exhibits regularly in other countries. “Golden Sun” is one of his works from his “metallic abstraction” series which utilizes metallic acrylic paints over textured grounds to create gradients of metallic hues which subtly change with the light. Golden Sun is a composition of four rectangles made distinct by shades of orange, bronze, and gold, but bisected with a huge number of parallel horizontal and vertical lines scraped from the ground while it was wet, which render a great number of smaller rectangular units. Recurring lines create a regularity which render the work meditative and alluding to realities beyond the visible. Repetition is a key element in this series perhaps because Carating, who used to sing professionally in opera as a baritone, is deeply familiar with how repetition affects mood and creating an overall unity in musical creations. It is by working with abstraction that Carating is able to connect with various social concerns, particularly spirituality, the environment, and time.