A physical gathering place for innovative, positive, and active dialogue by way of art, green tech, and wealth creation.  Think art salons of the olden times, but Pinoy version (with abundant food! and laughter! and doers! Bawal all-talk), and with lots of playful spirit.  An open and friendly place for ideas to germinate and get implemented.

This is step one.

This is the closest I have to an artist’s statement.

It was my college application essay, written in early 2013.  Because I’m a lola and initially missed the essay requirement on the checklist,  I barely had an hour to put my big “WHY” into words.  No fluff.  Work-in-progress. Thankful for the knife of time pressure .

Why I’m Choosing to Study Painting

I am happiest when I am in front of a canvas, using color to bring images to life.

As someone who has been painting, drawing, and doodling since childhood, I have always dreamt of just creating everyday. It is my prayer and my presencing in the world – how I tell stories and communicate what needs and wants to be let out.

A painting for me is an intimate encounter between strangers – the subject, the painter, the audience. There is an exchange that may be fleeting or lasting, but given the proper intent and space, it is an exchange of truths, and can be transforming or healing.

Over the years, I’ve worked in businesses and pursued painting on the side, but especially now that I am in my 30s, I am finding deeper joy in coming back to the canvas. More and more, I wish to paint and create to let others play and quiet their heads, for clarity and understanding, and the courage to pay it forward. It is a renewing activity for myself and also hopefully for those who interact with my works.

Now with equal intent and ferocity, I commit to developing my skills as a painter, within a living, breathing community of teacher-student artists. I hope to learn not only the technical aspect of the arts, but also the dynamics and discipline of what it means and takes to be a professional artist today, in the Philippines and also in the wider global context.

Painting for me is a journeying back, sometimes slowly, at times at full speed, towards my core curiosities: the arts, the Philippines, God, spirit, and people, and inviting others to journey with me.

Johanna Carla B. Pilar
Montalut.com

February 6, 2013

 

I’m climbing a mountain tomorrow, and amidst the flurry of packing and preparing, I am here, writing and space clearing.

Why do we climb mountains?

A quote from the baul of 2005:

You cannot stay at the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place?

Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below doesn’t know what is above.

One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen.

– Rene Daumal

 

Most of us climb the mountains of practical things on a day-to-day basis. We trek the worries of money, time, health and appetites.  But I think the mountains that we are ultimately faced with — and those we should be bothering with– are the mountains of relationships.   People. The most inexhaustible anything in this world.

In the course of painting and drawing everyday, I’ve been moving consciously towards finding beauty in everything– and it’s wonderful — but I find the beauty in people most inexhaustible.

People as our daily mountains.  Who are the mountains that haunt you, that give you peace, that leave you inspired and humbled?

I’ve heard the word assault used to refer to climbing a mountain, and I feel it’s misplaced.  As opposed to carrying out this task in violence, I say do it with love.  Hike it, prepare for it, do a pitstop, then ascend again, but gently, and lovingly.  To climb is automatically thought of as difficult, and beautifully so, don’t you think?

And to have this lovingliness in approaching people everyday…wow.

 

If we truly ask and seek, though, we will know as true that the highest and most overbearing mountain is the one inside us… and maybe this is the one that needs our love most of all.

Spent last Tuesday at the beach, on my second plein air painting session. Was a hot and humid day but I was just happy to finally understand (or begin to understand) why so many artists brave the elements of painting outdoors.

Standing on a hill facing this cliff gave me a surge of energy that one only feels in the open sea… wind blowing from all directions, waves flapping on the distant shore, and me, from my little gazebo — thankful for the midday shade– imagining the splishsplash music on those rocks across, with the white foam dancing on top and the fishes underneath joining in the merrymaking. Imagined there was a happy midday party going on, and I was a quiet observer, maybe out of place and imposing…but then again, maybe not.

Painting brings me so much joy, and on days like this, I remember why I have so much to be thankful for.

Scene 1 was down by the beach itself, with sand and saltwater all over me. Was a raw enough experience to paint on the sand, with my legs as my easel, and with passing clouds as shade.

Can’t wait to have more of these.

Thank you to my painting group, L’arc en Ciel, for the warm welcome and friendship.