Search Results for: relevance

Pausing for relevance

Doodles May 2014 (2)

In light of what is happening around the world these days — wars, disasters, privacy breaches, dying economies, corrupted morals, misplaced values in business and education — I sometimes wonder if my self-indulgent essays are worth anything. To me they are a necessary purging, and I can sleep at night thinking all this is necessary so I can be a better person to others in the long run. But of what value are they to others right now? This is the relevance question all over again, and it’s the same with my art (or this process of learning art). Every time I spend 12 hours making tedious, careful lines for my school plate or slave over getting a smooth baseboard for my canvas, I wonder if it’s making a difference, really.

It may be vain to think that my life is worth a stranger’s time and attention, but modesty aside, it’s also a lie to think otherwise.

Someone once told me that I should just paint and write what is true for me when it is true, because there will be people out there who will be able to relate to it. And for this alone — even if the resonance is just with one person — I should keep doing what I do. There is value in doing things truthfully.

I go back to one of the few insights I retained from college philosophy: Paul Ricouer’s “personal”. He said that by doing what we do — our job — with love and gusto, we already engage the other — the stranger. What is objective, non-specific and non-directed, becomes personal and intimate.

And so we march on.

relevance take two?

Ric with her mini-montalut
My friend Ericka with her mini-montalut
Pastel on paper, 1999

I gave paintings away to friends on my birthday as a thank you, but also as a social experiment: I wanted to see which works would most appeal to the people closest to me (and which wouldn’t), and who among my friends would actually do as I asked and send me a pic with their take-home goodie.

To date, I only have four pictures of friends with mini-montaluts, including the one above, which I took myself. Most of the paintings left behind I didn’t expect to be left behind. And it’s slightly disconcerting that some of my friends and family–people I’d expect to care about my art–couldn’t even be bothered to claim their freebie.

Do I hear the relevance question all over again now?

relevance

passing through
“Passing through”, Gouache and pen on paper, August 2010

passing through (unfinished)
“Passing through”, Acrylic on canvas, July 2010, abandoned for now

I haven’t been painting for a while.

The question of relevance has been hounding me– what good will my paintings give to the world?

I read this letter by Robert Genn about the bigger questions that artists are faced with, and I was hoping to find an inkling of an answer from him, but like any teacher, he just throws the questions back at us:

…while there are a million directions you can take your art, there’s the old tug between relatively neutral subject matter and the possibility of meaningful social comment… Art can indeed say something, and when you combine your craft with your better mind, great and lasting images are likely to arise. This, in a way, is our job description, and it’s a tough one, especially these days when the visual arts are in competition with newer creative technologies like film and video. For those who take the challenge, there’s a tangible reward that’s right up there with science and religion.

He follows it up with this: “A painting doesn’t have to have a profound meaning. It doesn’t have to ‘say’ a word. We fall in love for simpler reasons.” (Harley Brown)

But also this: “A painting without a message is wallpaper.” (Sam Adoquei)

Hay.

Painting murals on my new canvas

I’ve been wearing a new hat for the past month and a half, and one that has always been close to my heart: that of a teacher.

My family now runs a preschool, with me at the helm.  We’ve been elated at the wide possibilities ahead and also overwhelmed by the new responsibilities that come with them.

I’ve taught on a number of occasions before, and those close to me know that I am a frustrated Waldorf mom (only because I have yet to be a mom!).  This new development on my personal path is resonating quite loudly.  I feel the volume of work ahead, but it is strangely comforting in its demands.  Is this what it means to be on my Christ year at age 33?

One of the main tasks I gave myself the past two weeks was to clear the space (physical, psychic, intellectual) for the school and lay down my mark in some tangible way, much like how I’ve blessed and dedicated other places sacred to me: my first home and my working studio.

I took out my brushes for the first time since art school ended in March, and went for the blank walls in the preschool lobby and bathrooms.

Been working on murals for a preschool for the past 3 days. Apart from my aching feet and arms (12 hours of standing, bending and reaching up each day!), my struggle is the same: I take too long to decide on what to paint. It doesn't help that I haven't d

I wrote on May 25:

Been working on murals for a preschool for the past 3 days. Apart from my aching feet and arms (12 hours of standing, bending and reaching up each day!), my struggle is the same: I take too long to decide on what to paint. It doesn’t help that I haven’t drawn/painted since summer break 2 months ago — but wow what a project to reignite the creative rhythm. I think a mural is much like an installation piece — the canvas or ground for the work is a physical space, and there are so many visual elements with which the mural interacts within this space. There are existing murals at the school, and I needed to think of pieces that would be synergistic.

#mural #preschool #children #creativeplanning

Giraffe Mural

It was difficult to compose a painting around a very prominent and immovable fence. I went over 30 children’s books for inspiration and decided to go with animals. The school uses a giraffe in its logo so I thought it would be nice to give it more visual presence in the welcome area/playground.

#giraffe #mural #school

Mice on the wall

Mural#2 on the adjacent wall: inspired by Leo Lionni’s mice. I finished the giraffe wall in a day so I got ambitious with this next one. There were many lessons learned yesterday.

Lesson#1: Murals need to be planned! No room for intuitive painting here, if only to save paint and effort. I got carried away in the morning and slathered yellow paint on the background, which actually took longer than expected [to cover]. The mice were the first elements I drew in, and the rooster I added later. Bad idea. The image got too crowded and I felt stuck.

Lesson#2: Don’t eat up negative space. I relented and decided the only way forward was to “erase” the rooster and sun. Doing a reset on a big wall is no joke.

Still needs finishing touches…maybe mountains or a house for perspective. My brother suggested a hot air balloon on the right corner. What do you think? 🙂

Mural#3: Fishes in the bathroom. I just found them cute. Inspired by Eric Carle's Rooster's Off to See the World.   #mural #preschool #bathroom #fish

Mural#3: Fishes in the bathroom. I just found them cute. Inspired by Eric Carle’s Rooster’s Off to See the World.

#mural #preschool #bathroom #fish

The chicken that was an alligator!

My favorite so far: Mural#4 on the kinder bathroom walls, showing scenes from Leo Lionni’s An Extraordinary Egg. I loved this book when I first read it and really wanted to use elements from it. Since the bathroom had 4 walls I could actually paint a mural narrative. Took me 6 hours to finish– I wanted to get the character design right. I hope the kids enjoy their bathroom visits more from now on! As for me, it’s time to rest. :p Good night everyone!

#mural #preschool #children#bathroom #frog #alligator #leolionni

* * *

There are many aspects to learn in educating young children, but I put a premium on approaching it with the same loving intensity I give to art-making. I’ve been talking about process in my art for a good while, and how it is just as important as outcome or result, and I hope to sustain this mindfulness in delivering both, in equal measure, to our school’s kids, their parents and families, our teachers and staff. I’ve been asking for a community — here is a thriving, immediate and open one that has already started wrapping me around its fingers.

Is this an uh-oh for my art? We shall see.  The optimist in me says I can wear both hats simultaneously.  And that simultaneously nurturing an educator’s heart will inform and strengthen my art.

A good friend once told me never to back down from work because I feel scared to leave it when the call comes to move on.  Someone will pick up the work.  Always.

Is it too early in the game to be talking about moving on?  I think it’s more truthful to work under no assumption of forever — everything flows, whether good or bad.  It takes courage (and humility) to commit to new things this way: wholly present, todo bigay, now na.

If any of you wish to collaborate on early childhood education (anything from teaching and parenting, children’s health and fitness, to toys, field trips and outreach, etc.), let me know! One of the possibilities I intend to explore is to engage people in conversation about education today (emphasis on today — relevance, context, responsiveness, effectiveness).

🙂

no birthday blues this year

“He who waits for us is just like us.”
Acrylic on Paper, December 2010

Happy to say there are no birthday blues this year, I’ve crossed out about 22 items on my 30 before 30 list, and am really in a good place now. The sadness in the heart, so poignant a year ago, has passed:

Written on December 10, 2009, and sent into the future (now the present) through FutureMe.org.

Dear FutureMe,

bday blues again, this time the blues are more glaring, the cut is deeper..
been texting friends how this kind of sadness is new to me–i feel fear again, or for the first time..a lonely, emptying fear..
is this what love lost does to you?

i have bold plans to be in new york by may.. wonder where that yellow brick road will lead me.. openness, a healthy sense of self-identity, and a decisiveness to say no to things that have less relevance… am i ready for battle? i feel so sensitive, bagong skin, baby skin..tender to the touch and even to light…
what am i shying away from? love? pain? they go together right?

happy birthday jo, be well, be happy. you’ll be 30 soon. check your 30 before 30 list… !

hugs,
oh some sadness in the heart!

New York went by and well, went by.  Palawan also went by, and is still lingering.  Maybe for a much longer time.  Who’s to say?  Possibilities are endless. 🙂

All in all, such a blessing 2010 has been, for all its joys and pains.

Holding a BIG THANK YOU show on my birthday, and the work above is one of the few that have come out since Palawan.  Deep breaths and maybe chugs of beer as my works go on their first ever public display in 3 days…!

Will post pics of the rest after. 🙂