47 Orbits

01 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in anecdote

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

Yesterday marked the day I completed my 47th orbit around the sun.

First orbit without my Nanay, who used to be the first person who would greet me even as early as April 1. She has earned her wings now. And I miss her.

Still, life without her is like being a kite without a tether, without a connection to the earth. And maybe I had been drifting ever since she’d been gone, catching any stray breeze or a gust of wind to slap me heavenwards or bring me to my next mission.

I was not brought up with the value of making plans. That was something I had to consciously learn. Being OC used to be a pleasurable compulsion because it decreased the likelihood of random extraneous variables and their effect on my objectives. Yet being OC stressed me out so I swung to the opposite extreme and decided to be more spontaneous and accommodating rather than assimilative.

I was happier being aimless. Yep, that’s my confession.

And my best sketches were made from seemingly tentative marks that took a walk and somehow found their way.

This orbit without my Nanay has led me to this very challenging and exciting job, led me to the gifted and dedicated people I work with every day, led me to discovering new things.

At 47, i can still stretch myself and envision in the horizon a version of myself far more formidable and capable than at present.

I hope what I see becomes real.

I hope, despite all that had transpired, I am still guided and led.

Yesterday was spent at work supervising a photoshoot. Not really my choice on how to spend my birthday but didn’t I say untethered kites catch whatever breeze slaps them upward?

Yesterday I received an overwhelming number of birthday greetings through social media, through text, and phone calls. Thank you all.

I hope to see you all soon and give each of you a hug. And I promise not to make waste of your warm wishes and good intentions.

I love you all.

And I am still in cloud nine that Greg Louganis, one of my life heroes, greeted me on my birthday. Namaste, Greg, and thank you.

I love you all.

47 is a prime number. Here is to my prime year.

Cheers!

20120501-222541.jpg

With Aldrin during the photoshoot. Sino kamukha niya?

20120501-222708.jpg

Interesting effect with the mirrored light fixture at Nostalg Ballroom.

Lost Dog Sign Gone

13 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in anecdote

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

Even months before I transferred to this neighborhood this February, I had always noticed the sign outside the guardhouse. It was a tarpaulin printout of a gray shihtzu with a blue vest looking towards the side, its mouth open in a dogsmile with its ears pulled back.

That’s how dogs smile, you know. They look at you, open the jaws and pant, all the while pulling their ears back. It is not so much the open mouth that makes the smile but more the ears being pulled backwards.

That dog was smiling. And, according to the sign, he had been missing since September last year.

Each time I enter the gate and see the lost dog sign, I imagine the dog somewhere out there hungry if still alive. And as most purebreds like the shihtzu with special needs, had by now stopped receiving some medication or supplement that needs to be taken regularly.

So I worried for the dog everyday I drive by that gate to the neighborhood. And I worry for its human who must still have kept looking.

Until today.

The Lost Dog Sign has been removed.

They stopped looking.

Tomorrow, I will once again see the space where the sign used to hang.

And I will still think of the shihtzu, knowing that his humans have stopped looking for him.

This Poached Life

17 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in anecdote

≈ Leave a Comment

Last month marked 3 major events that followed the theme of endings and beginnings: started teaching a class, moved from one house to another, and started a new job.

The first was a return to Eden of memory. Back at the Ateneo and all its ideals of Man-for-Others and offering all for the greater Glory of God, it has reconnected me to back to a life when money was not an object but subject, wooing the Muse was the telos of my existence, and the greatest pleasure of myself as a teacher was seeing the sparks of illumination and understanding flash in my students’ eyes after weeks of beating the same principles to death.

The second, though the seventh of its occurrence in this lifetime, will never qualify for one of those practice makes perfect endeavors in one’s life. I hate moving. Choosing between what to keep or what to discard is like doing a Sophie’s Choice of memories. This particular move had its own drama, resulting in me leaving behind a cherished assemblage by reknowned artist Roberto Feleo and vowing never to set foot in the place I called home for 3 and a half years ever again. Though I love that family to death, all it took was one bad and despicably drunk man letting loose a tirade of invectives and insults on the last night that I picked up my stuff. Everytime I drive by, I vent a wicked flatulent curse that a thousand fleas infect his pubes and start a colony inside his arse.

At the new place, much of my stuff are still in boxes or bags. Books still tied up by twine. I have made myself an embarrassing inconvenience to my good friend who offered that I crash at his place until I get back on my feet.

Like the torrent movies I download and the eggs that I am not successful at poaching, much of my life is in fragments. And as I put each stray piece of my heart and soul together, struggling to remember which box I kept Stitch’s medicine in or the location of my stash of razor blades, I remember what it was like to live off a suitcase for almost a year. When I only need to carry what was essential. A few clothes, toiletries, shoes, a book to keep my mind curious, and a notebook to keep my soul searching. That was all I needed.

Because I had to leave San Juan, I had to let go of the 2 cats that I love the most. It was painful to leave them and wish that they will be loved. The blessing was that the family that took them in now loves them in ways that I didnt dream possible.

One cat was lost, though. My prodigal Crispin. I prematuredly decided to let him loose to my deep regret. I dont know where he is now.

The third, my new job as Oakwood Premier Joy~Nostalg Center Manila’s PR & Marketing Communications Manager is a great relationship in the making. It is a David and Goliath story. The giants will tremble after I am done.

Someday soon, I hope to find all my knives and put them back at the magnetic knife rack I got because Tyler Florence convinced me to get it, rearrange my books in shelves following the US Library of Congress system, start painting again, and finally be able to gather the fringes of the egg white floating in boiling water and finally make my first successfully perfectly poached egg.

And maybe Crispin will come home.

The Learning Tree School Visit

20 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in animals, cat, children's books, children's literature, drawing, elephant, illustration, photograph, pug, work in progress

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, ,

My friend, Ruby Diamante is substituting as a preschool teacher for 5 year olds at The Learning Tree.

The class is tackling the five senses so she asked me to do a reading of my 1996 picture book Boy with No Face published by Adarna Book Services. After the first printing ran out, Adarna decided not to do a second printing because of slow sales. Yet, until last year, I had been meeting people who remember my book, like the kid from the Ink exhibit who told me my book was his brother’s favorite. But then, it being a favorite by few doesn’t translate to smashing sales.

Still I am thankful and only too glad to meet someone who appreciates my work. I will be happy to give an original artwork in appreciation!

I am thinking of doing a new set of art for Boy with No Face using digital media. I am encouraged by my colleagues at the LA-based SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) who have been actively discussing and exploring the huge potential of ebooks and appbooks for children’s literature.

At present, I have finished line drawings for my next book, Look! At what the Cat Dragged in! and I felt it would be good to show the story to a test audience.

Most of the kids had fun with the story as I showed them. There was one precocious girl, though, who said, “That’s Impossible!” when the cat drove the car in after dragging one object after another into the house. I wanted to say, “So is a wardrobe that transports you to a land of ice and talking animals!” But the kid had spunk and I love her for being uncharacteristically outspoken for a Pinay kid!

20120120-181028.jpg

20120120-181036.jpg

20120120-181042.jpg

20120120-181047.jpg

20120120-181056.jpg

20120120-181101.jpg

20120120-181106.jpg

20120120-181112.jpg

20120120-181116.jpg

20120120-181121.jpg

20120120-181125.jpg

20120120-181129.jpg

20120120-181140.jpg

20120120-181145.jpg

20120120-181149.jpg

20120120-181157.jpg

20120120-181153.jpg

After the storytelling, I asked them what sort of stories do they want to read.

Dinosaurs and outer space stories… Hmmmm…. Let me think about that.

Trash bin-sighting! Throw trash at my work!

29 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Adobe Ideas for iPad, cat, illustration, Public Art, pug

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

,

They are out there! And they have my name on it!

Hide and Seek
Near the corner of 3rd Ave. and 28th Street, near Mind Museum.

PlayDate
Near the corner of 30th St. and 9th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City.
Near B8 of Bonifacio High Street

Go ahead, throw trash at my work!

Thanks to Ma. Victoria Herrera of the Bonifacio Art Foundation, Inc.

Press Statement of Fr. Jose T. Villarin, SJ – In Response to the Advertisement of the Chamber of Mines against the Ateneo School of Government

24 Thursday Nov 2011

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a Comment

Press Statement of Fr. Jose T. Villarin SJ,
President, Ateneo de Manila University

In Response to the Advertisement of the Chamber of Mines against
the Ateneo School of Government

I issue this statement in response to the half-page advertisement of
the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines in the Philippine Daily
Inquirer (B2, 22 November 2011) where the Chamber criticizes the
Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) for hosting an academic conference
today on The Future of Mining. The advertisement labels the conference
“a farce” and accuses ASoG of not including the industry in the
conference, that “all the presenters are known to be against mining”
and characterized the papers as “all expectedly expressing
anti-mining views”. The Chamber concludes by describing ASoG as having
“allowed itself to be an unabashedly biased institution in the ongoing
debate of the revitalization of the mining industry”.

I have conferred with Dr. Antonio La Viña, Dean of the Ateneo School
of Government, and have reviewed with him the assertions of the
Chamber of Mines. On this basis, as President of the Ateneo de Manila
University, I make the following points:

First, the Chamber of Mines has misunderstood the nature of the
academic conference ASoG convened. This is a peer review conference
where the purpose is to review academic papers and where there is no
intention for a shared output. This is an academic exercise where the
result is an intellectual product of the school. We welcome all
stakeholders reviewing the ASoG papers but the final product is solely
the school?s and will be published in due time.

Second, I reject the accusation that all the presenters are known to
be anti-mining: except for Dr. La Vina and one senior writer, most of
the research team (the whole team consists of 7 people) that presented
papers do not have a reputation or a public record on mining. In fact,
they were chosen precisely because of their ability to be objective
and independent.

I also reject the characterization of the papers being presented as
anti-mining. In fact, the compiled papers concludes that responsible
mining is possible but certain governance conditions must be fulfilled
to make this a reality. The ASoG report identifies these conditions
and calls on the national government to impose a moratorium on the
approval of new mining agreements and operations until such conditions
are met.

We would like to reiterate the invitation to the mining industry to
dialogue with us. Instead of attacking the school and the conference,
we ask them to come to the table and sit down with us to tell us where
ASoG did not get it right and how to improve our research.

They came in droves

23 Wednesday Nov 2011

Tags

,

I just realized that my earlier posting did not show how many people attended. Official count from the reception was 400+ (not counting those who did not sign, nor us INKies).

So here are a couple of crowd photos.  Photos courtesy of Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan members.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Yeah.

We. Are. Awe. Some

Posted by | Filed under children's books, children's literature, illustration, illustration

≈ Leave a Comment

Ang INK 20Taon

23 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by in children's books, children's literature, illustration

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

,

I joined Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (The Children’s Illustrator) two years after it was founded in 1991 by a talented group of artists who were drawn (pun intended) to pour their creativity onto celebrating and educating the younger generation of Filipinos.

It was a creative group unlike others I had joined. Most studio artists are morose, bore loads of angst, and tend to be temperamental. While most creative writers I knew were serious 24/7 and guarded their ideas with an insecurity that rivals the local Central Bank. Must I mention the way they critique, my God! It was like you did a crime and ought to be shot. But INKies (that’s how we called ourselves) were a happy, cozy bunch. Generous with ideas and techniques, we love to show off what marvelous things we can do… and we don’t mind if the other INKie might do it better. In the end, what was most important is that we communicate to children.

I served as past President once, almost 3 years. That was a blast.

This year, Ang INK celebrates its 20th year with a retrospective exhibition at Ayala Museum, one of the country’s prestigious cultural institutions. Only near-death artists, dead artists, or artifacts are exhibited there. And yet there we are!

The most precious thing about the opening night 2 nights ago (Nov. 21) was that a boy came up to me after people started viewing the works and asked, “Are you the one who made Boy with No Face?” I said, “Yes, I am. Why?”

“Because that is my brother’s favorite book.”

God bless you. I needed to hear that.

Photos from the exhibit opening below. Exterior shots are by Liza Flores, one of the few gifted people I know who carries a smile while all of her one hundred arms are busy doing separate things.

20111123-124202.jpg
The concourse toward the Ayala Museum front door.

20111123-124223.jpg

20111123-124232.jpg
We have street banners!
20111123-092346.jpg
At the exhibit area entry.


20111123-092353.jpg
With young illustrator Victoria Laguindanum. She is funny, quirky, with her own sense of style (both fashion-wise and illustration-wise).

20111123-092403.jpg
Watch out, world, for Pergylene Acuna. She is re-defining what needles and threads could do. Same goes for narrative illustration.

20111123-092413.jpg
With James Abalos, seemingly quiet but his works sing symphonies! His illustrations for Tsinelas ni Inoy published by Lampara Books are on his left.

Continue reading »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 752 other followers