CORAZON GAUFO PATARATA is a self-taught artist aspiring to achieve excellence in her craft. Cora started doing pencil and watercolor sketches at age five, in a stimulating environment of cultivated gardens, pine forest, animal menageries, oil paintings, books on renaissance art, and Gerrman magazines on flora and fauna, generously provided by her father’s German employer, Carl Gustav Hammes. Born in Manila in 1957, Cora grew up in Baguio City, and has lived and worked in both places, and in Washington, D.C., Beijing, Bonn and Berlin, Stockholm, and Vancouver. She earned her degree, Bachelor of Science in Biology, magna cum laude, from Saint Louis University in 1977, and qualified for her long career in the Philippine Diplomatic Service by placing second in the 1983 Foreign Service Examination and passing the 1999 Career Minister Examination for advancement to the rank of Minister Counsellor. In earlier years, Cora was a teacher of natural sciences, and a technical writer for financial and administrative management of construction projects in the Ministry of Public Works and Highways.

Cora resigned from the Foreign service in 2006.

At her home in Antipolo City, in very modest circumstances, Cora is a gardener, artist and creative writer, true to her aspirations from childhood, looking at life and the world through windows of many extraordinary experiences, with some depth of understanding and a measure of wisdom of advance years. The colors of Corazon “Cora” Gaufo Patarata’s artworks speak of glee. Cora was born in Manila in 1957; she grew up in Baguio City and had lived and worked in Washington D.C., Beijing, Bonn, Berlin, Stockholm, and Vancouver. These places influenced her color palette and themes. She sees the inner glow of nature as her artworks remind us of our responsibility to take care of our beautiful planet. Cora knows this all too well for she, herself, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, magna cum laude, from Saint Louis University in 1977. In earlier years, Cora was a teacher of natural sciences, and a technical writer for financial and administrative management of construction projects in the Ministry of Public Works and Highways. Her flora and fauna works truly lighten up any space.