From Red Bubble site

Just joined red bubble, an aussie site, similar to multiply and flickr.... Looks fun!
here's some flash stuff i got from the site... Enjoy!

(patterns: again)

….Patterns are indigenous to daily life like maps, patterns guide our habits, and movements, and inner clockwork, defining our personalities as they endlessly repeat and overlap….

-Graphic Design MFA Maryland Institute of Art

The Maryland Institute of Art basically summed up the gist of my exhibit where I tried to fuse Asian textile design to contemporary colors. One year ago, when I first decided to mount this exhibit, I was trying to look for a way to show my love for Indian and indonesian textiles, as well as Pacita Abad’s trapunta art. After much research, swatches and books, I thought to myself, I’ll just paint, and be open to be surprised. Sure enough I started with the long canvasses, and named them “pathways”, I literally felt as if I was –paving my way into myself, through every nook and cranny, and breezing through colors. I purposely studded my paintings with little patterns of traingles, circles and lines, reminiscent of the small things I do all the time, and how much I love to be a packrat. I love the texture of small details, like when you look at an ivory carving or miniatures. Soon enough, I was already finishing my pieces. Looking at the artworks, I could recount the small joys of the day, the ebb and the flow of the tide, the rise and setting of the sun as well as the fibonacci count of nature. I just wish I could share with you as much joy as I had painting my artworks.

things to be thanked about.......

I got inspired about reading comments from blindsided about “prosperity that matters”.

It’s very hard to see my life in a macrocosmic view before, when I was still so busy in my former work. Now that I left it, not only was I able to find a different perspective of life, but also my face cleared up of my acne, and then I thought before that I needed medicines and a whole lot of trouble to save my skin. Little did I know it was just the stress (fear of not doing good, late nights and sunday work) , not the food, not the boys, or my genes.

I’m painting now, as much as I hate to admit it, it’s my husband. It’s my first love. I sometimes forget to eat not like when I was still working in advertising where stress really churns up acid in your stomach. I’m, not surprised that a lot of agency, production people and post production people are fat, drink too much, or suffer from ulcers. I don’t know why even if I work longer hours in painting, I don’t get the queasiness I usually get from advertising.

Life is much more simple now, there’s more time to live the kind of life that busy people often only resolve to live, more time to relish on afternoons of manila bay, more time to talking to friends, more time to read my books that I’ve put off as long as I could remember, more time to commit on endeavors that really have meaning in my life, more time to enjoy mc do french fries and savor the calamares of the street vendors, more time to erase the bad memories and the psyche that you’re not good enough, not desirable enough, not rich enough when you’re pitted in dog eat dog world.

I thank god I haven’t been swallowed by the system just yet. Preserve some of the idealism and innocence of people I have lost while working in a culture of two-faces, stabbing backs and egocentric bosses .I thank god also, for having met under difficult circumstances, people who are truly friends. The last quarter of 2007 was truly a revelation to me.

Yesterday, I saw my ex with a brand new girlfriend, walking hand in hand in cubao. Maybe she still doesn’t know she has other girlfriends in different places, that he wheedles money through pity and coercion, or that he is prone to violence. I was tempted to warn off the girl, when gino my good friend called to pick me up at another side of shopwise. While I was reminded of my sad fate 2 years ago with my ex, I was happy that everything was over.

There’s really too much to thank about. Thank god for that.

omens

Do you believe in omens?

I was painting upstairs when i heard a loud crash emanating from the kitchens. One of our oldest plates broke into pieces from the hands of my mother. Was it a bad omen? a preview of things to come? I was never a believer of those, and shrugged off what had happened.

It was in the morning that the call came.

Lita, a household helper from one of my father's cousins, who goes to my grand aunt's house to clean during weekends discovered the demise of lola rosa. She phoned us quickly, and my dad and I quickly dropped by to survey the situation and to broadcast the news to all the relatives.

It was my first time to see a freshly dead body, and of someone I knew so well. My grand aunt was still sitting in her favorite spot in her simple dining table, still with her mouth wide open, her body hard and cold. There was remnants of her piss on the floor, which lita wiped after the funeral boys took my aunt to the funeral home. My grand aunt, lola elong was like a broken record when we found her. She had been complaining all night that she couldn't call our house, complained why lola rosa was the one taken, instead of her and how lola rosa choked, vomited before passing away. They have been together for more than 9 decades, in the same old house. Now she was all alone.

It was a common consensus that my lola elong, alone during that night, might have been rattled, with poor eyesight, could not call us though the phone and find help. Maybe there could have been something that could have been done....

Faced with death, I'm still numb from the experience. Early as now, i'm trying to think of how life will be when my parents will be older. Will they be staying with me? Is it going to be like how lola elong and lola rosa lived? The two of them having petty fights everyday and actually look forward to the arguments? Who'll go first? Mom or Dad? Or maybe me?

In the midst of all my thoughts, my mother draws me to the corner...

"Sabi ko na nga ba, baka yung basag na plato yung warning sa atin". ( I had a feeling the broken plate was an omen).

I personally don't believe it, but... what a strange coincidence.........

Happiness in a dual core format

...Finally,having spent months grueling over my limping pentium 3 computer, my brother convinced my dad to buy a new computer ( I know I'm in an age where I'm supposed to be living in my own flat and buying my own pc...hehehe)... For me, this is only temporary... And should get back on track after I land a job (or sell all my paintings).

Anyway, yesterday I bought a new pc... yay! Finally! 2 gigs of ram, a dual core processor and a nvidia graphics card to finally get my old 3d stuff up and running. We still have the old monitor, but I'm not complaining. As long as the work gets done efficiently,saves when it supposed to save and not hang while your saving... AND HAVE TO REBOOT EVERY TEN MINUTES.

I am so happy ( okay... okay... almost... If the pldt guys just deliver what they promise ...which is 1mbps rather than 40kbps of dsl bandwidth everything would have been so swell) at least I've uploaded my stuff in multiply and flickr.

Now, I'm terribly thinking about freelancing instead of getting a real job (8-5 kind). And brush upon my 3d,flash skills... *hay... choices....

the 2x2 stuff

After doing the long planks, i was excited to make artworks with a square size. I've been inspired by lin xiping's pallete (mid tones- to highlights), although, in my case, I still can't get out of needing to have full contrast in my work and a clean monotone feel. ... Still, I'm so happy for the final outcome.

Patterns : Metaphors of Life

I've always been fascinated by patterns. When i first borrowed my father's camera in college, the first thing i would shoot are the trellis, the spiked gate tops, the ebb and flow of the tide that form the tiny sand dunes in the beach. In the same way nature follows a pattern, our lives are also governed by our natural instincts. We develop habits and daily rhythms.

I was so excited to find out about artists and artworks that pertained to patterns. I used to love van gogh (well, i still do)... his rhythmic strokes became a pattern in itself. I especially loved pacita abad with her bold colors and wild imagination. I simply had to paint after i had been showed the way.

I started with long canvasses, and the design and colors just flowed... Soon, I was on the next canvas. Nothing is as satisfying as finally finding yourself in the work that you love. I hope fate will help me continue on with my craft amidst all uncertainty.