Yasmin & Lirio @ Liongoren Gallery

Yasmin departs from her figurative works in the past to dwell on her early works "And Then I Smiled . . .", a reference to her successful battle in 2010 with an extremely rare cancer (stage 3 sarcoma) that removed a large part of her jaw. The exhibit will help fund her reconstructive surgery and maintenance repair. Feeling "half full, and half empty," after a procedure that left her cancer-free but missing a large part of her jaw and struggling to "make sense of the senselessness of missing my students, my work, my colleagues, but only too glad to be alive," Yasmin surrounded herself with bits of paper, paint, and other materials she randomly put together much like healing the pieces of her broken life.

To coincide with the opening exhibit of Yasmin on March 12, also at Liongoren Gallery, is the fundraising show for the recovery of another artist, Lirio Salvador, who is in a coma at the Lasalle hospital following a motorcycle accident last December 2011. The works of Lirio and his friends will be exhibited until March 24 where all the works will be auctioned off. For more details about the auction please call the gallery at 9124319, 4393962, 9346494 (look for Fatima) or eMail liongorengallery@yahoo.com

Dreamy Landscapes

If you can create your own landscape how do you want it to look? My students said: green fields, mountains, water (sea), blue skies, trees,and a barn house. So I designed a landscape in my mind incorporating everything they said and made them draw this through simple instructions:

Create a diagonal line on your paper to construct your landscape. On one half of the line draw triangles for mountains and the other half (left side) draw a line to create the sea. Then draw a road using two diagonal lines that get smaller as it goes in the distance. Draw a square for a barn with triangle roof, circle and two lines for the tree, and then apply color! And we got their dream landscape! Hmmm, I think I can live in that place too!


Chiara, age 6


Caryn, age 8


And this by adult student Ignacio with disabilities (mental retardation)

Recycling A Cake Box!

I do not really throw good paper and boxes because I knew I can recycle it to make another box or in this instance to create an exercise module for somebody with autism. I cut the box and made a smaller box. I cut the circle designs on the original box and I used it as a visual exercise (arrange according to sizes, etc.):


And also to decorate the recycled box to create your own design:

Robles @ Vargas Museum

Visuals and Connections

I designed this fun and simple module for students with mental disabilities using the basic shapes like square and circles above.

Square Exercise


Circles and Squares


Triangles with Circles and Squares


Create a Scene


Symmetry and Asymmetry


And simple color fun using poster colors and fingers!


The objective is to keep it short, simple, and fun. Precision is not important but mental exercises keep them alert and interested with the things they see around them by providing them the tools to assimilate objects and scenes.

When my student Samir (with autism) stop his singing/monologues and start concentrating on the shapes even for a minute is already a huge success. When Samir manipulates space, sequence, visuals and give the signal that he is done, I give him a thumb up sign, we clap our hands, and give each other high fives!

Reposted: Locus Redux

The Pananaw ng Sining Bayan, with its partners Japan Foundation Manila Office, Lopez Memorial Museum, and Yuchengco Museum, will hold the conference Locus Redux: Speaking Across Contexts, Learnings and Negotiations in Writing and Teaching on Art on May 19-21, 2012 to which they would like to invite art educators, critics, media practitioners, cultural workers including artists, and graduate students in allied art fields.

A need for productive exchanges across disciplines and practices having to do with the making of culture has been brought to the fore by recent events such as that of the CCP ‘s controversial exhibition and the public discussions which ensued. The conference hopes to jumpstart interactions that focus on the teaching and writing about contemporary art in this highly mediatized age.

Locus Redux will touch on themes such as new pedagogy, deschooling, mobile learning, migrating art academies, web 2.0 among others in the teaching of art and design. The three-day conference will have parallel sessions per day with participants having the opportunity to engage with local and international resource persons such as Raiji Kuroda (Fukuoka Asian Art Museum), Yukie Kamiya (Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima), Brenda Fajardo (Philippine Art Educators Association/Philippine Educational Theater Association), Patrick Flores (UP Diliman/Vargas Museum), Nancy Adajania (Sarai/Art India), Jang Un Kim (Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima), Farah Wardani (Indonesian Visual Art Archive/Cemeti Art House), Claire Tancons (Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans), Carol Lu (Flash Art/Contemporary Art), Abdellah Karroum (L’appartement 22), Ellen Pau (Videotage, Hong Kong), Michael Vasquez (Bidoun/W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard), and Abe Garcia Jr. (Philippine Women’s College of Davao), among others. Apart from the conference sessions, participants will be treated to museum visits and visits to artist’s spaces where they are encouraged to continue their engagements with each other in this potential network of colleagues.

The seminar will be held at the Yuchengco Museum. Participants will be charged a registration fee of Php 2,000.00 which covers the conference kit, meals (3 lunches, 3 morning and 3 afternoon snacks) and a certificate of participation/attendance. For participants based outside of Metro Manila who would be needing lodging, the organizers could provide upon request, a list of lodgings near the conference site.

For more information, please call the secretariat at 6312417 and look for Ms. Fanny San Pedro/Ms. Mary Ann Pernia, from Monday-Saturday, 8am-5pm.