Side A co-founder Rodel Gonzalez is 1st Asian, only Filipino licensed Disney painter
July 14, 2023 | 12:37pm
Artist-singer Rodel Gonzalez and several of his artworks
Photo release; Philstar.com / Kristofer Purnell
PALAWAN, Philippines — “Bumalik sa first love.”
That’s how multi-talented artist Rodel Gonzalez described his journey going back to painting after spending so many years in music.
Rodel and his brother Naldy were among the co-founders of pop band Side A along with Joey Benin, Kelly Badon, Mar Dizon, and Pido Lalimarmo back in 1985.
In his five years with the group, Rodel was the lead vocalist, played the saxophone, and occasional songwriter penning early hits “Eva Marie” and “Di Pa Huli” – arguably Side A’s most popular song “Forevermore” was written by Joey.
Naldy is the only original member left in the group, now consisting of members who’ve joined over the years, though the other five including Rodel did return for several reunions.
An even more personal reunion for Rodel was a return to painting, having taken up painting at the University of Santo Tomas as well as earn an Interior Design degree from the Philippines School of Interior Design.
Rodel went back to painting in 2002, around the time his family migrated to Hawaii, and just six years later he became the first Asian and sole Filipino to date to become a licensed Disney artist of paintings involving the company’s properties.
During his recent one-man show “The Fine Art of Rodel Gonzalez” at the Sheraton Manila Hotel last June 3, Rodel shared to select members of the media, including Philstar.com, about his induction and ongoing journey as a Disney artist.
Rodel attributed his Disney artist origins to James Coleman, an animation background painter who had worked on films like “The Rescuers,” “The Fox and the Hound,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “The Beauty and the Beast.”
“Since nagkakaroon kami ng shows together - kasi gumagawa rin siya ng sariling art - in Hawaii or Los Angeles, nakilala ko siya, nakita niya trabaho ko,” Rodel recalled.
When Rodel moved from Hawaii to Los Angeles, he met up with James who asked him out of the blue if he would consider becoming a Disney artist since the head of Disney Fine Art was looking for a new individual to join the elite group.
Rodel’s initial reaction was “Bakit ako?,” as most artists who joined the roster had a rich resume when it came to Disney history, whereas Rodel’s Disney encounters were by simply watching the studio’s movies.
“Parang left field ang dating ko sa kanila, to the point I had to ‘prove’ [myself]. Ang maganda doon fan na ako,” Rodel continued, adding that he was told to watch other Disney artists’ painting styles and find his own niche.
The former singer officially became a licensed Disney artist in 2008, just before the company slowly grew its already huge empire with the acquisitions of Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Fox in the following years.
In fact when Disney bought Lucasfilm, out of the 35 Disney Fine Arts members, only three were given licenses for “Star Wars” paintings, and Rodel was one of them.
“I guess [napili] ako dahil sa trabaho ko, kasi realism talaga ang eksperto ko - seascapes and landscapes,” Rodel said, pointing out the other artists were often animators. "’Star Wars’ is live-action, ang makakagawa ng justice sa sceneries nila ay mga realists.”
Rodel added that another advantage of his artworks are how they’re not gendered but can be placed in any kind of room, “Hindi lang siya parang cartoon, hybrid siya na may background,” and cites one of his “Alice in Wonderland” works with different colors as an example.
The artist said there are certain parameters to making Disney art, “If you just take a screenshot of a movie, you're not creating any art there. You got to create your own spin, provided you're consistent to a movie's plot, the characters' integrity, tama ang haba ng kamay at mata.”
Disney does not want any of their properties to be misrepresented, even with creative well intentions. Rodel even used Winnie the Pooh as an example where the “bear of very little brain” can’t be seen in Hawaii or the Philippines.
The studio, however, isn’t entirely dismissive of ideas, Rodel noted, as they would work with artists through changes until artworks are fully approved. Artists just can’t create things on a whim or even mesh characters from different movies.
Other examples he used were Disney’s icon Mickey Mouse looking like an alcoholic or even just holding a wine glass or the titular dwarves in the studio’s first-ever feature film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” being in the city would be immediately turned down.
Rodel, however, reiterated to Philstar.com that Disney artists still had some creative liberty, “May mga parameters 'yan which I understand kasi nga may mga sariling mundo sila.”
He circled back to “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” particularly the dwarves’ “Heigh Ho!” segment where after leaving the mine and crossing a log, their next scene is arriving at their home to discover Snow White.
After pausing and rewinding the scene, Rodel noticed the film never shows the dwarves’ journey through the forest, and so he created a painting – which he had already sold – depicting just that, “Ang ginawa ko parang nag-zoom out ako, pinakita ko ang forest and waterfall, at sila maliit lang.”
The artist cited another work “Soup for Seven,” also inspired by “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” and was on display at the limited-time exhibit, which was based on a deleted scene on the movie.
As a member of Disney Fine Arts, Rodel gets access to such scenes left on the cutting room floor as well as storyboards and early sketches and is allowed to turn it into paintings of his own vision.
“Gusto naman nila na bigyan mo rin ng sarili mong interpretasyon, your own spin to it. Basta ako parang minove ko ang camera, sa isang scene what if sa side ako pumunta?” Rodel explained.
There are also some limitations to characters in Disney’s live-action properties, like Rodel saying Angelina Jolie didn’t want her image in “Maleficent” be largely commercialized whereas Emma Watson from the “Beauty and the Beast” remake was much more open to being painted.
He also cited the recent case of Disney parting ways with Johnny Depp following his publicized defamation trial with ex-wife Amber Heard. Rodel could make paintings inspired by the “Pirates of the Caribbean,” just not images or the likeness of a certain Captain Jack Sparrow.
Such things have not held Rodel back because Disney has such a rich treasure trove to work with. He’s done different iterations of Mickey Mouse and company and iconic scenes like Geppetto sending Pinocchio off to school, Mufasa and Simba bonding under the night sky, and Carl Fredericksen’s house flying to Paradise Falls.
Outside of Disney, Rodel has even done paintings of famous basketball stars, and particularly emotional was “Gone Too Soon,” which sees Michael Jordan in his prime and LeBron James in a Los Angeles Lakers kit – both #23 jerseys – looking up at the blue-hued figure of the late Kobe Bryant donning the #24.
“Parang full circle, bumalik sa first love,” Rodel reflected again on his return to painting, noting that his father Rick and grandfather Felix were both painters as well.
Rodel and his cousins represent a third generation of artists, it just so happened that he and Naldy were the only ones who broke the chain to step into music. Rodel was more than eager to share that Naldy, too, dabbled in painting.
“Marunong din 'yan!” Rodel ended with a smile.
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