h o u n d s i n h e a v e n

The Four Elements

2012-02-01T23:48:00.000-08:00

A fun exercise to capture and merge the four elements (fire, air, water, earth) into a cohesive plate. This session is a free-wheeling drawing exercise relying on verbal instructions.

Divide your drawing into the four elements (Personally, I draw a circle and divide the circle into 4!) and draw your interpretation/representation of fire, air, water, earth (some do it literally) The flowing lines for the water or air can merge the elements and unify the visual play into fun interactive plate.

The application of colors can also be taken literally (red for fire, blue for water, etc.) or be given new interpretation (Personally, I use orange for fire, emerald to deep blue for water, gold for earth, and lilac for air!) and the use of secondary colors to blend or add depth makes the lines stand out! At this point, the coloring process becomes meditative and spontaneous.

And as the four elements take shape and the colors fuse on paper, so did the students own element, taking shape and meaning as they captured the fire, the air, the water and the earth in their physical selves.

Conference: Locus Redux

2012-01-20T20:05:00.000-08:00

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 we 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.

The Circle Matrix

2012-01-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

The concept of the circle as the starting point of a creative session works just as effectively for adults (including teens). By working on the familiar and restful round lines, an individual can easily fill in the gaps, work on flowing lines to create a design, and freely let their imagination roam akin to a visual monologue or a soliloquy.

The circle allows one to unleash the magic and power of the imagination into physical form!

. . . allows one the stillness to resolve certain issues that cloud the mind.

Art, in its powerful form, is a catharsis. The healing energy swirls within and outward as the artist release and express what is inside the mind.

Medium: Oil pastels on felt paper

Geometric Exercises

2012-01-12T19:46:00.000-08:00

A fun and simple exercise for students with learning disabilities is to create spirals and circular movements. A meditative and calming exercise, it release stress. It may be surprising to know that a learning environment can be stressful for some people. Learning new things with strangers can be stressful: the pressure, the inability to execute or learn things and the terror of the consequence, etc. can be relieved by doodling or by simply rolling the arms in the air or shaking the hands.

Instead of drawing, images can be captured by forming shapes using other geometric shapes. In the session below for a child with autism, I cut out shapes like circles and squares to form a tree using colored glossy brochures (I do not throw them but keep and recycle them for this purpose!)

Autistic kids can easily grasp the exercise although they may appear distracted. I check this by making him segregate the squares and circles (90% accuracy) or to choose colors (50% accuracy rate) to select and paste on paper. Note: green color (paper used) lowers the serotonin and makes us calm and relax.

And to go a step further, why not a blue flower:

I prepared four cut flower shapes which can be assembled by pasting the circular core (a good exercise for coordination) and for 3D effects, to fold the first layer of petals to make the flower stand out! A lot of people (with autism) can clearly visualize the circle in the pattern even without lines which some normal adults can not.

And bright pink Desert Rose flower:

Someday, my student will learn to draw this flower just by looking at it. But it does not matter. What matters is that he can differentiate and construct the scenes around him using basic shapes. A very valuable lesson for children with special needs.

Jose Tence Ruiz @Duemila

2012-01-07T21:02:00.000-08:00

Dessicated Proxy
paintings, installations, and 3D works
7 January - 29 February 2012
Galleria Duemila, Pasay

"art may never capture the divine. art may never come any closer than it has for the last 15,000 years towards palpably rendering the transcendent. art may always remain a finite, perishable frustration, clawed upon by possessed beings, never fully satisfied, yet never fully giving up on the window to a higher frame of seeing. as a reward, the dessicated proxies we cherish, treasure, castigate, condemn or at least listen to and observe offer a pained hope that we might know above ourselves . . ."

www.galleriaduemila.com

Girl Boutique

2012-01-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

A fun project for kids especially for little girls who love fashion. This session was done with several girls ages 3 to 9 to draw and create their own Girl Boutique and design the things to sell in their shop. A fun and challenging way for girls to unleash their creativity. Below is their amazing design of their shopping bags! Merchandisers and designers watch out! I can surely find several items to buy from these creative girls stores and stash my loot in such gorgeous bags!

So what do you think girls love to sell and buy in stores?

Trinkets, t-shirts with cool designs, colorful jeans, cool handbags, letters (yes, some of them laughed when I asked about it but hey, I will buy a letter L anytime!), mosquito patch with cool designs, butterfly clip, fun rings, more fun earrings, a cat (well, I would buy a cat lounging in a shop as well ;-)), a crown, and many more cool items which you don't really find in a regular 'cool' store!

Sweepy's Holiday Card

2011-12-20T00:11:00.000-08:00

Holiday Cards!

2011-12-12T01:36:00.000-08:00

These are fun holiday cards which is also a stimulating creative exercise: create wreath (round object) using squares, decorating the holiday tree using geometric shapes, gifts using basic shapes drawings, colored or painted, cut and pasted as assembled on bright colored paper.

Sweepy's Portrait

2011-12-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

by Sandhya, age 8

Needless to say, Sweepy approves!

Art Box Project

2011-12-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

A fun exercise for kids and even adults for mental stimulation, dexterity and creative expression. Instruction: wrap and recycle any used box and decorate using cut shapes, glitters and colored letters!

Samir gets to practice spelling his name, draw and color images he wanted to decorate his box (flowers, circles, cat, butterfly, etc.) and assemble them around the box!

EDADES @ CCP

2011-11-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

December 2, 2011 - January 7, 2012
CCP, Manila

Interactive Healing and Play

2011-11-26T19:21:00.000-08:00

For the past 10 years, I have been working with and creating modules for people labeled as "special" or those with mental and physical disabilities as a study. I look to art workshops as a cultural study and the best platform to encourage art appreciation and crafts-making.

Today I am featuring my student Samir, age 11 and diagnosed with Autism. Samir now makes eye contacts, greets me and bid me goodbye after, holds my hand when he wanted to say something, and in between the numerous breaks and seeming inattentiveness, I noticed that he displays quick learning abilities, knack for multiple activities (we sing, tell stories, count numbers, write his name, make fluid movements like a dance all while working on a project!)

For special students, the art medium goes beyond aesthetics and artistry. The session is about expressing what and how one perceives the world around him and how art can be used as a medium to understand the confusion of daily life and events and hopefully resolve it.

The Garden in the Afternoon

The Flowers in Bloom

My Pool and Whirlpool

This early I imagine Samir to go through the demands of his school, create better relationships, learn things for his survival, and find the medium where he can express his talents and abilities better and in more meaningful ways.

Starry Starry Night!

2011-11-15T01:07:00.000-08:00

Another fun session using oil pastels on felt paper. A good alternative to oil or acrylic painting especially for children. It is easier for children to follow the drawing, coloring, and shading techniques.

Dali's Melting Clock

2011-11-14T00:56:00.000-08:00

A fun session as an alternative to painting. This one was inspired by Salvador Dali's painting "Melting Clock" which is a good medium to introduce and get to know the master artist Dali, surrealism, color tone blending and technique using oil pastels on felt paper. Normally it takes an hour to make kids as young as age 8 follow the step-by-step drawing, coloring, shading and blending but since it is always a fun session to be discussing art with kids the session may extend a bit longer ;-)

MOVIEMOV: Italian Cinema Now!

2011-11-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

MOVIEMOV is a concept and collaboration between Italian film festival organizers Asiatica (Festival of Asian Movies) and Playtown (Rome Film Festival), the embassy of Italy, the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) and the Philippine Italian Association (PIA). The event is also part of the 11th Edition of the Week of the Italian language "Buon Compleanno Italia" (Happy Birthday Italy) and the year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.

The festival will open on November 9 with the premiere screenings of Italian films Habemus Papam by Nanni Moretti and Dracula 3D by Dario Argento. The Filipino director Brillante Mendoza will be honored with the screening of his film Serbis.

The film festival will run for FREE from November 10 to 13 at the Greenbelt theaters in Makati. Fourteen Italian films (7 contemporary films, 4 retrospective films by Bernardo Bertolucci, and 3 films by dario Argento, a master of horror/thriller films) with English subtitles will be shown!

www.italiancinemanow.com

Cat Painting

2011-11-10T00:14:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Pierre Auguste Renoir's Sleeping Cat painting. This session with siblings Josh (age 11) and Yani (age 9) facilitated at the CreativeKids studio for less than 2 hours utilized acrylic paints and canvas sheets and made lively with stories from cats to cat movies to Renoir to cat jokes. Workshop sessions are always fun and educational!

Renoir (1841-1919), of the leading artists of the Impressionist style, painted The Sleeping Cat in 1862, capturing the cat in oil long before the advent of digital cameras. Children laughed about this because now I try to capture my dogs in their fun candid moments using my small compact camera!

It is fun to revisit works of master artists and to get to understand their world through their art!

Robles @Duemila

2011-11-08T01:07:00.000-08:00

Roberto M. A. Robles
November 5 - 26, 2011
Galleria Duemila

Halloween Delights

2011-11-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

Specially baked and decorated by my former student Gurmeet! Very creative and the taste is truly yummy. Note the tiny bones, the foot, the eye, and the fingers of course. Thanks Meety!

Blog Blast for Peace 2011

2011-11-04T02:26:00.000-07:00

Peace = Respect + Understanding
Co-existence = Peace

A few years back I was invited to join a group of teens in my community on an international conference and the topic given to our group to discuss and present was Peace. It was both adventurous and ironic because the adult members of the group were in disagreement and some of the members seem unqualified to be part of the group and the rest were affected and confused and afraid to lose the chance to travel and participate in the conference.

This kind of situation is common when people come together and try to make their individual presence count and be meaningful to the group and its cause. In the conference above, one of the teens asked me why I seem insistent and uncompromising and how he viewed it as a negative trait. And I found the opportunity to explain the essence of peace by saying that peace is not the absence of disagreements but the absence of respect. People must learn the beauty of a dialogue which is an exchange of opinions which may run contrary to ours. To be able to distill and listen to the many voices around us and view them with respect. To my surprise, the teenage boy incorporated this very essence of peace in his speech at the conference.

All of us have differing opinions and the exchange of ideas, no matter how passionate, must always be allowed the freedom to be expressed in a climate of a healthy dialogue.

For me, peace is a simple word that equates to respect.
Only within that sphere can a compromise be possible.

For Mimi Lenox Blog Blast for Peace 2011.

Witchita Dolls

2011-10-30T07:10:00.001-07:00

A fun and easy way to make dolls using old newspapers and twigs that fell from trees. A good recycle project for kids to form their own dolls into any shape they wanted, paint, decorate and perfect to hang or display for Halloween!

Chinese Shoes!

2011-10-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

Sophie, age 6

Josh, age 12

Yani, age 9

A workshop session I facilitated at the CreativeKids studio using watercolor pencils on paper.

Cosmetic Order @ Mo-space

2011-10-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

22 October – 20 November
Mo-Space Gallery
3rd Floor, Mo's Design Building
Bonifacio High Street, Taguig
GalleryHours: 11 AM - 8 PM, daily
http://mo-space.net/

Cosmetic order hints at a lurking unease, one that is deliberately glossed over or veiled by trumpeting a sense of détente. In referencing this surface tension, Zamuco, Ramirez, and Floirendo take off from various directions - superficial postures of knowing, politics of representation, downplayed as well as hyped hierarchies, and so on. Coupling photography, video, assemblage, and installation, among a mix of other ways of dealing with materials, these three artists takes converge to suggest the possibilities of agitation through modes ranging from earnest grasping of core spirituality, countervailing image-making, and assertions of positionality and agency.

About the Artists: Oscar Floirendo, Claro Ramirez, and Eric Zamuco are all gradutes of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts with several citations between them, regroup after having first shown together in the 90s.

The Pop-Up Book Project

2011-10-17T14:23:00.002-07:00

This is a fun activity for kids ages 3 and up. The materials: used folders and paper (back side can be used for drawing objects), jumbo crayons (for toddlers), oil pastels, colored pencils, scissors (use child friendly ones or better yet leave cutting chores to adults) tape and glitter glue. Time: 1 1/2 hours (because of the cutting and pasting!)

If you have enough preparation time it would be nice to get children to write their own stories and make their own illustrations. Most of the kids I worked with have made their own storybooks printed and animated on disks! I love exploring themes like heroes, nature, animals and things that they love and fear and how to conquer it using art as a medium. Art is the best medium (art therapy) for anybody (including adults) to express their fear and anxiety and help them overcome it.

For this activity, I demonstrated how to make pop-up books using black cartolina (cut and assembled as pages) and pasted on an old folder. The cartolina pages were glued together and cut and folded to make their drawings 'pop up'. The kids made their own drawings which I cut and they paste on their pages. Everybody collaborated on the book cover and had fun decorating it!

Isa, age 3

Caitlin, age 5

Chiara, age 5

Caryn, age 7

Paper Crown Project

2011-10-09T15:16:00.002-07:00

This was an afterthought activity. Trixie, a five-year-old smart girl from one of my art workshops, was tinkering with her Galaxy tablet to show me her collection of games and Pokemon. We just finished painting and Trixie, still hyperactive, got busy surfing the net. Although I handled several events involving youth and their involvement in technology, I often encourage them to challenge their minds with whole brain activities.

The paper crown was done using the discarded board cover of Trixie's sketchpad, cut and decorated. While in the process of painting and decorating, I took time to explain to Trixie in simple terms big issues connected to crowns like power, royalty, the need of some people to rule, and know her opinions about subjugation, manipulation, and sublimation.

The creative world is a constant pool of ideas in written, visual and 'viewed' mode. Children as young as Trixie must be engaged by opening communication channels with her instead of simply supplying her with gadgets to better guide her in assimilating the world around her. Much like adults. ;-)

Claro Ramirez @ FinaleArtFile

2011-10-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

A prequel to Claro Ramirez’s offering for the upcoming 2011 Jakarta Biennale, Wanted: Tubero features an initially minimal installation of television monitors connected with PVC pipes. During the exhibition opening and throughout the show’s run, visitors will be invited to adjoin to the installation through available pipes which may be connected to the existing work. Wanted: Tubero, particularly within the arts, emphasizes the importance of engagement, participation and community. Ideas that are reflected as well in the monitors' content, the televisions play videos of other artists’ work as well as Ramirez’s own. The process of audience involvement in the installation will also be documented to eventually become a part of the evolving work.

Wanted: Tubero is the 10^th solo exhibition of Claro “Chitz” Ramirez, who practices both as an artist and curator. A recipient of the Thirteen Artists Award in 2000, Ramirez’s works are often site-specific installations, attached to the exhibition space, context and audience. With the latter, he gives particular value to reception, connection and interactivity. Having studied Commercial Arts in the University of Santo Tomas and Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines, Ramirez held his first solo show in 1996 and has been exhibiting his video installations since 2002. From 2005, he has also been acting as consultant for Lopez Memorial Museum in artistic direction and in multimedia exhibitions.

Ramirez’s Wanted: Tubero is the third offering of End Frame Video Art Project 3, a project of the non-profit organization Visual Pond. Throughout the Philippine video art festival, artists stage a solo show presenting new video work in various venues from 2011 to 2012. Curated by Clarissa Chikiamco, the theme of the third edition, Present, refers to the current project’s focus on the video art practices of selected Philippine contemporary artists. Ramirez’s exhibition follows the End Frame 3 shows of Tad Ermitaño and Manny Montelibano and will be followed by the exhibitions of Kiri Dalena, Yason Banal, Kaloy Olavides and Maria Taniguchi.

Sorbetes!

2011-10-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Art workshops are not just fun informal sessions on learning a craft but it is also one of the great opportunities to impart important lessons on culture. I always advocate the importance of understanding cultural traditions and the many layers that people and communities add to these traditions like fiestas (feast of saints) which may be mistaken as some as fanatical and idolatrous but, for those who observe it, a fiesta is some form of communal celebration and thanksgiving.

The terminologies used for anything local as 'inferior' like the local ice cream as 'dirty ice cream' perpetuates this mistaken belief. In a workshop with kids this week I again introduced the yummy sorbetes, the locally made ice cream that uses fruits in season and coconut milk and peddled in a colorful cart is now almost a thing of the past. The ice cream cart vendors I see are big commercial players now plying the streets with built-in commercial jingle on a loop:

Kids can recreate their own version of that local colorful sorbetes cart using the basic geometric guide: make a circle for a wheel, draw rectangle behind it, draw wooden legs and handle, and from there they can now design their very own ice cream on wheels!

Chiara, age 5

Caryn, age 7

And from the CreativeKids studio in Alabang:

. . . my student Sophie, age 6, going through the process with such powerful lines and colors!

Lesson: The local ice cream is not dirty. It is clean and affordable and possibly made by the vendor himself we affectionately call Manong who will not hesitate to share with you how he made that yummy delight only if you'd care to listen . . .

October is Museums and Galleries month. GO and take the time to visit one!

Mideo Cruz @Duemila

2011-10-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

After the controversial exhibit at the CCP last August, Cruz is back with a body of works that again looks at the representation of power and how the public assigns reverence to those who have it. To explore this idea, he chose portraiture with reference to those commissioned works from the Renaissance Europe to the newly industrialized America.

Mideo Cruz
PHASES OF RA
October 8 - 29, 2011
www.galleriaduemila.com

About the artist: Mideo Cruz (b. 1973, Philippines) is a multidisciplinary artist who has initiated many art initiatives here and overseas. He has participated in numerous group and solo shows in the Philippines, Utterly Art Gallery in Singapore and Mondejar Gallery in Zurich. He is also a recipient of several residency grantsin Canada, the USA, and numerous travel grants. His awards include the CCP's Thirteen Artists Award and the Ateneo Art Awards.

RePainting An Old Mirror

2011-09-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

This was the late dog Bogart's 'scare' mirror. He had a love-hate affair with it. Dogs bark at their own image in mirrors but when you put the mirror away the dogs look for it. All that 'doggy' attention might require repainting. ;-)

What else can be repainted or repaired to look like new and reused again? A lot! Chairs, lamps, bags, belts, tables, your old sneakers (perfect canvas to paint and decorate!), old socks can be made into great puppets for kids to play and decorate or made into dolls, bottles made perfect dolls too and into lamps, old newspapers can be used for papier-mache projects (think sculpture) and repainted to create faux finishes.

This week is about sorting the things that clutter your home and the challenge is to expand that creativity to make something out of old discarded things. See the recycled mirror above? One of these days I will repaint and convert it into a decorative tray!

Draw, Color, Paint, Cut, Paste, Decorate!

2011-09-21T14:46:00.002-07:00

Time: One Hour
Materials: Paper, watercolor pencils, glitter glue, scissors (Note: Adults Must do the cutting or be on hand to supervise it for older children!), paintbrush, water, rags.

A fun workshop for kids. Teach a child to mentally divide her paper into two. Drawing is one of the best exercises for mathematics and aesthetics.

1. Draw a circle on one half of paper for the clock face and clock designs on the other half.
2. Finalize details and color the different shapes.
3. Then teach kids to use a darker color (instead of black) to create dimension (tonal values). Example: red for orange, blue for green, orange for yellow, etc.
4. Use a paintbrush and water to blend the colors.
And while the adults are cutting the shapes the kids can take a break (drink their juice, etc.) My students playfully sing and dance while "T'Lui" cut the shapes.

After the break, make the kids assemble their clock on dark colored board and paste them. Decorate as they wish!

Moving Planet & Peace Globes

2011-09-17T22:07:00.001-07:00

Superdog Sweepy is barking reminders for:

Blog Blast for Peace 2011
Due: November 4
Design and Post on Blog
Note: Please eMail us early if you need help in making your own globes.

Moving Planet
Date: September 24
A worldwide call for action to address climate change!
www.moving-planet.org/

Art Box Project

2011-09-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Don't just think out or in the box. Think of a box too! Create your own art box from discards like cartons, newspapers, plywood, cardboard, plastics, etc.

Box recycled from old and used folder.
A prototype for the ArtBox Project.

Climate Reality Project

2011-09-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

24 Presenters.
24 Time Zones.
13 Languages.
1 Message.

Ongoing: September 14 to 15:

http://climaterealityproject.org

24 Hours of Reality is a worldwide event to broadcast the reality of the climate crisis. It will consist of a new multimedia presentation created by Al Gore and delivered once per hour for 24 hours, representing every time zone around the globe. Each hour people living with the reality of climate change will connect the dots between recent extreme weather events — including floods, droughts and storms — and the man made pollution that is changing our climate. We will offer a round-the-clock, round-the-globe snapshot of the climate crisis in real time. The deniers may have millions of dollars to spend, but we have a powerful advantage. We have reality.

Landscape of My Dreams!

2011-09-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

A fun session with kids as young as five! In this one-on-one session with a seven year old Crickett who did this modern landscape by instructions using watercolor pencils on watercolor paper.

Instructions: Draw lines across the paper to divide them into several plains that divide water, land, air and incorporating rocks on earth and objects flown by the wind. The lines and drawing need not have to be exact and perfect. Draw and color using watercolor pencils. Use brush to paint and spread the color. When dry (around 5 minutes) embellish using glitter glue. And done in an hour! This can be used as a lamp (use canvas sheet and roll to made a shade for a hanging lamp) or printed as a textile design to be made into a bag, or printed on shirt or card for that personalized look. The objective is to expand a concept and meaning into visual forms.

Mr. Wormsy in Heaven

2011-09-04T15:05:00.001-07:00

Photograph by Lui for A Creepy Tale

"Cerebration is the enemy of originality in art." - Martin Ritt

CHABET's Head Series

2011-09-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

In a series of collages, Roberto Chabet used an iconic headshot of 1970s supermodel Lauren Hutton by renowned photographer Irving Penn as the base layer for each composition. Although her face and characteristic gap-toothed smile never becomes visible. Only her mud-drenched hair and the page number, “89”, are discernible on the perimeter areas. These collages were produced in the late 1980s (between 1986 to 1988) and were first shown in 1995 as part of a group exhibition titled Unglued held at the West Gallery (West Avenue) and curated by Nilo Ilarde. Unframed and mounted in a grid, the works were then identified as 52 Untitled Collages. Over thirty works from this group now form the Head Series collages but this time pinned neatly on board and boxed in a simple wooden frame.

The exhibit of Chabet’s Head Series is a joint project of the Galleria Duemila and King Kong Art Projects Unlimited as part of the yearlong Roberto Chabet: Fifty Years project. The exhibit will run from September 3 - 27, Galleria Duemila, Manila. www.galleriaduemila.com

UPDATES! EXTENDED UNTIL OCTOBER 1!

Liberate Your Art!

2011-08-29T01:19:00.002-07:00

1020 pieces of art
170 participants
37 US states
13 countries
2 homes
1 swap

And we were part of it!

And we received postcards from Juju of The2Buds, April Marie Nicole, Suzie Puetz, Margie Wachter and Kate Daniel. Thank you all for such fun and creative works! You can find the whole story at Lui's blog and where you can post your comments too.

Our huge thanks to Kat Sloma of kateyeview for hosting this event and making us a part of it! Thanks also to Sunshine Asuncion for her generous assistance. Until the next swap, go ahead liberate your art!

UPDATED: August 31, 2PM. Kat, the organizer of the postcard swap sent us her own postcard (below between Sweepy's paws!) and thanking us for participating. Thanks again Kat as we look forward to the next swap next year!

4th MOV International Film, Music, Literature Festival

2011-08-28T15:58:00.001-07:00

Under The Storm
An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry
Edited by Khavn De La Cruz & Joel M. Toledo
Book Design: Piya Constantino
Cover Art: w Don Flores

.MOV International Film, Music & Literature Festival
September 1 to 6, 2011
The Podium, Ayala Museum, Greenbelt 3 Park and UP Film Center

www.movfest.org

Solar Panel designed by a Kid!

2011-08-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the leaf pattern in a tree in his home, 13-year old Aidan Dwyer designed an award winning solar panel arrangement that is 50% more efficient than the traditional roof top panels. In Aidan's winning essay "The Secret of the Fibonacci Sequence in Trees" he wrote:

“I built a test tool to measure the spiral pattern of different species of trees. I took a clear plastic tube and attached two circle protractors that could be rotated up and down the tube. When I put a test branch in the tube, I aligned the zero degree mark on one compass to match up with the first offshoot branch. I then moved and rotated the second compass up to the next branch spot. The second compass measured the angle between the two spots. I recorded the measurement and then moved up the branch step-by-step.”

Aidan won the 2011 Young Naturalist Award from the American Museum of Natural History where you can read his remarkable essay. Aidan already applied for a patent of his invention.

Photo Above: Snake plant taken from Lui's home Heaven.

MANILART 2011

2011-08-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

August 24 to 27
NBC Tent, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig

Presented by the Bonafide Art Galleries Organization (BAGO)
and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)

www.manilart.com

Maxine Syjuco @Now Gallery

2011-08-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

Ongoing until September 7, 2011!
Now Gallery, Makati City

Album Launch: Fando & Lis "Found and Lost"

2011-08-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

Featuring:
HANNAH & GABI
DRIP
BOOGIE ROMERO (Kjwan)
NIÑO AVENIDO (Greyhoundz, OBS)
MANUEL NICOLAS ALVERO
DIEGO MAPA
JESSE GRINTER (Gaijin)
ROBERTO NICOLAS
ARVIE BARTOLOME
KAT LOPEZ

& the launch of music videos directed by
LAWRENCE S. ANG, ALLAN BALBERONA, HAROLD BUARON, DODO DAYAO, JET LEYCO, GYM LUMBERA, ROBERT LYREN, BUTCH MADDUL, PAM MIRAS, DANTE PEREZ, EMERSON REYES, & JOHN TORRES

August 18, Thursday, 8pm
B-Side, The Collective
7274 Malugay Street, Makati City

Photo by Gym Lumbera

Manny Montelibano: Sorry for the Inconvenience

2011-08-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

Visual Pond’s End Frame Video Art Project 3: Present, together with Gallery NOVA, presents Manny Montelibano’s Sorry for the Inconvenience, the latest exhibition of the 2011-2012 Philippine video art festival. The solo exhibition of Montelibano opens at Gallery NOVA on 13 August 2011, Saturday, at 6:30 pm with an artist talk on 16 August, Tuesday, at 6 pm.

Examining the idea of aggravating disturbances amidst the thrust for the public good, Sorry for the Inconvenience stages an audio-visual affront on the rhetoric of the politically powerful. In a gathering, manipulation and collision of declamations, the exhibition suggests of the all-consuming nature of dominance, which comes at both the impact and expense of others.

The show forms the fourth solo exhibition of the Bacolod-based Montelibano, who has been practicing as an artist and showing at various venues in Manila and the Visayas since 2002. Montelibano received his training through his experience as technical director at University of St. La Salle in Bacolod and through a 2004 director’s apprenticeship under filmmaker Peque Gallaga. Crossing fields, Montelibano is a member of the Black Artists in Asia Association Inc. and founded Bacollywood: The Visayan Film Festival. He also cofounded the production collective Produksyon Tramontina Inc. An active member of his community, he often shows in group exhibitions in his region. His other solo shows include Greater than or Equal to Infinity (Gallery NOVA, 2010), Escabeche: Filipino Sweet and Sour(Galleria Duemila, 2009) and PO Asa (Gallery Orange, 2008).

Montelibano’s Sorry for the Inconvenience is the second offering of End Frame Video Art Project 3, following Tad Ermitaño’s exhibition last January. Curated by Clarissa Chikiamco, the theme of the third edition, Present, refers to the current project’s focus on selected Philippine contemporary artists’ practices in video art. Throughout the festival, each artist stages a show presenting new video work in various venues from 2011 to 2012. Other artists presenting for End Frame 3 include Claro Ramirez, Kiri Dalena, Yason Banal, Kaloy Olavides and Maria Taniguchi.

Sorry for the Inconvenience runs until 9 September 2011. Gallery NOVA, located at Warehouse 12A, La Fuerza Compound 2241 Don Chino Roces Avenue, Makati Metro Manila, is open Monday to Saturday from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. RSVP for the artist talk at tel. no. (632) 392-7797 or +63922-8006925. For inquiries on Visual Pond projects and End Frame 3, call Rica Estrada at +63917-8170198 or email visualpond@gmail.com.

Kite Paintings!

2011-08-08T14:36:00.000-07:00

The frame for this kite was made by Erwin, one of the kids in my community who does odd jobs for me from carpentry work (he made some of my birdhouses), painting, repair works and help with my dogs ;-) on his spare time from school. Erwin made the frame using strips of bamboo. I wrapped the frame with the available materials I had which is black thin cotton cloth which I sew around the frame for added security! Acrylic paints were used for decorations. Time frame: all morning! And the afternoon was used for flying the kite! ;-)

This one uses acrylic paints on canvas sheets. This was one of the projects for the painting workshop I conducted for the CreativeKids last summer. The challenge was to make their own designs of a bird kite with the initial/s of their names on it. And some o the kids works on exhibit last May:

Wilwayco @ Duemila

2011-08-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

'Second Nature' by Edwin Wilwayco
August 6 - 29, 2011
Galleria Duemila, Philippines

"Much like an old photograph, I wanted to work on tonal values"

Edwin Wilwayco will also be part of a three-man show organized by the Philippine embassy in Sweden this autumn. His works will be on view at Estonian National Library in Tallinn from 20 - 26 September, the Lithuanian Art Museum in Vilnius from 6 - 9 October, the Foreign Art Museum in Riga, Latvia from 10 - 14 October and the Ersta Sköndal University College in Stockholm from October 14 - 18.

A Sudden Rush of Genius!

2011-07-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

Hibiscus!

2011-07-13T14:03:00.002-07:00

I call it the Gumamela flower. It was one of my favorite flowers as a kid and I remembered fun moments when I would pick some of these flowers, crush and mix them with water to make a soapy mixture for my blowing bubbles game! Of course now I prefer to capture them on my small digital camera and share with the world!

And yes, it is also a fun and exciting subject for teaching macro drawings and paintings (think Georgia O' Keeffe) for kids and adults.

Children's Art

2011-07-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

Lex, age 6, was one of my students at CreativeKids last summer. Lex spent his vacation in Manila and saw the CreativeKids hands-on session on TV and decided to spend the remaining week of his vacation learning to draw and paint!

Lex made a macro Hibiscus (painting a detail of an actual flower), fruits in a bowl (one of the best and basic ways of teaching colors), an imagined scenery outside of a window, and capturing the image of an actual bird! Lex's father expressed his initial reservation about Lex's capability to draw and paint and this type of apprehension is shared by many parents and adults. An art workshop would quickly dispel such notions because everybody has the capability to express his world in the art medium that he wanted and is most comfortable with: visual, literary or the performing arts, including arts and crafts (creative projects like toy boxes, bedroom lamp, clocks, painted shirts, etc.)

I promised Lex and his father, who observed the sessions, that I will feature Lex in my blog so here it is, Lex. I am sorry if this came late though. And I hope and wish that you are now doing more fun and artistic renderings of your world and keep us posted about it ;-)

How Green Is Your World?

2011-07-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

There are so many exciting green news in the mail this week.

The Green Awards finalists and winners can now be viewed at their site. Bea Johnson from California gained national recognition for her choice to live a Zero Waste lifestyle with her family and documented on her blog. Check out her simple doable system to keeping her household's trash to a minimum: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle And Rot!

www.thegreenawards.com

And for those who are interested in Permaculture there are now online classes at CommonCircle which offers "a unique expedition to the heart and soul of sustainability. Our unconventional programs are experiential and intensely educational, building a community of inspired, awake, engaged citizens working to regenerate the living systems of our planet. "