A HEAD FOR MUSIC

Friday (the cool rocker former gallery chic of 1/OF Gallery) once called me "uber-tacky" for listening and actually enjoying the songs of Sound Garden. I'd play it in the gallery over and over again, and I particularly love the Animal Song. She once said, "Dan, I have this vision of banging my head on the wall every time I hear you play Sound Gareden." I'd reply, "I also like Pearl Jam and the other cool bands. It's just that Sound Garden is... melodious, happy and cute."

What Friday doesn't know, and I am not sure if I ever revealed this, but I absolutely enjoy Radiohead. Their music and videos have this edgy-designer feel to it that when I listen (and literally see their songs in video) I feel like I am warping my brain to another "experience".

I am putting this video "House of Cards" here where they've innovated (again) on the way music is "seen".

Frankly, I feel like I am watching an MRI scan coming to life. Way cool!

BRAGGING AGAIN!!

PENSAR NO ES MALO...
acrylic on canvas
size: unknown

I am so bragging about this.

I checked my Deviant Art account today and saw that there were like... 260 million views of my works in just a period of two hours! (Hehehe, I am joking. I just saw 260 unique views - each view is equivalent to one person viewing the site.)

Anyhow... someone wrote these words about my images, and I don't know how, but my site got featured on the front page. Perhaps those 260 views in a short period already qualifies me getting bumped up into the front page of "daily deviants" for August 28, 2008.

Bongga di ba?

This is what she wrote: "I am surprised the lack of notice that deviant palmatayona1 is getting... He's got a great unique style here on deviantART, somewhere between Kahlo and Botero." PENSAR NO ES MALO by ~palmatayona1 A distinctly Latinamerican style, both his paintings and drawings are remarkable indeed.

OO nah! I admit. I love fat people and I adore a half-crazed woman who had a lesbian affair and fell in love with a "pason" (fat pig).

Hmmm, I wonder if I'll ever end up as robust as my images?

LET ME BRAG...

Auspicious Pigs
(subtitled: Bacons in a Blanket)
14" x 20"
pen and ink on paper

I drew these pigs thinking it is going to be an auspicious year.

I guess it is.

I've had two exhibits and that gave me the drive to come up with another next year. I've been fueled to produce more paintings (which I still have to take pictures of). I recently found out that slowly people - total strangers and not amongst those within my circle of friends - are recognizing my works. I have my health back and my sanity. My mom's doing alright with my dad whose sickness has fairly advanced. My brother's looking towards a better future with his family. My nephews and nieces they're all growing strong, smart, handsome and pretty.

I'd say thing are going well. (Except money. Lol. I've always thought the lack of money makes people strive more. I don't want a lot, but a little more won't do harm.)

Well, anyway... I woke up today and I got this from Gigo (my crazy boss) - an email. Someone wrote about our group at the Inquirer Blog. (See link here)

It feels good to know that what we've been doing for the past few years is slowly being picked up by others.

Okay, who am I kidding? Am writing about it so I can boast about it. There. Just read the dang article and find out - aside from painting - what I've been busy with. Hehehehe... and oh yeah, buy our books.


p.s.

A revelation.

I recently posted many of my works at this site called deviant art. (See link here) Already, only after a few days, I have been getting so many inquiries about my works, people are writing, a lot have been linking my images to theirs etc.

There's this one particular lady - a pinay living in Canada - who wrote me how she "couldn't get enough" of my images, asking me if the ones she liked were still available. Unfortunately, somebody else already owns them. I instead directed her to the email of the gallery that might still have some of my works.

In one of my replies to her, I wrote to her how much I appreciate the notice she gave and told her that I would prefer (but not exclusively) that my works hang on the walls of a Pinoy - regardless wherever they are. It makes me feel, being the artist, that my work will be at home with a "kapwa pinoy" or someone who can understand. They're like my children. I'd rather have them "adopted" in the home of someone who can take care of them. If I had the choice, I'd rather give my works to friends who I know can take care of them. But then again, I still have to earn.

Just a thought.

LOVE STORY

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.


I found this from my blog hopping. It is one of those "I just couldn't resist" moments.

This is for the sentimental in all of us. :-)

I just love the stop-motion and traditional animation rolled into one.

PROJECT: CARDS

"Ang dami mo na palang gawa dito sa bahay mo eh bakit di mo pini-piktyuran at ilagay sa blog mo?" asked Eric when he dropped by my place to select from the mound of dvd's I've collected through the years.

"Simple. I don't have a digicam. I can only take pictures of those small enough I can put on a scanner, and the smaller ones are those I did on paper," I answered.

"Eh di bumili ka para mas maraming makakakita ng gawa mo kahit online man lang," he said.

He's right.

So, I thought of launching what I call Project: Digicam. I've embarked on a small project to produce on a limited print run of only 100 sets of these six images of my works.

The size of the cards is 5.25" x 7.5" (with nice envelopes) and printed on clay coated matte paper, 180 gms. That's really nice paper that you can have if you chose to keep the cards instead and put them in a nice frame as a keepsake. The set of six cards would also come in a neat personalized box I'd personally be wrapping.

The cost: PhP 1,500.00

Just send me an email and I'll be accepting pre-order. The cards will be coming out at the end of the month. By the way, if outside Metro Manila, cost of shipping will be added.

...and hopefully, I can buy a digicam before christmas-time so I can shoot the paintings I've finished.

(...or pay rent.)

HINDI MATATAWARANG TALINO

DONATO HOUSE
VIGAN, ILOCOS SUR
(FINAL STUDY)
charcoal on paper
8" x 10"

ANIBONG ALCARAZ DRY DOCK
TACLOBAN CITY, LEYTE
(FINAL STUDY)
March 4, 1977
charcoal on paper
8" x 10"

OLD WOMAN
September 24, 1974
charcoal on paper 8" x 10"

TWO GIRLS AND A BILAO

(FINAL STUDY)
March 5, 1974
charcoal on paper 8" x 10"

I remember in a conversation with Beaulah Taguiwalo, more than ten years ago in a coffee shop, where she said, "Real artistic draftsmanship can be seen even at the simplest of strokes in a sketch. A true artist can convey precise meanings in one movement of the pen or brush." Those words rang true again when I got hold of these drawings from one of the greatest artists our country has produced - that of Jose Joya.

My friend Budi told me excitedly on my mobile, "Pare, better take a look at what I have for you! Drawings of Joya. They're eight of them. Am sending 4 over for you to sell!"

"You sure about that?", I asked him with an doubting tone.

________


"I've been staring at these drawings for the past half hour and I do say they are beautiful and you can obviously see these are the strokes of a master. Pag master talaga ang gumawa, hindi mo maatawaran ang talento no", I told Budi the next day through text.

"Sinabi mo pa!" came his reply.

________

Am attaching here a couple of the sketches I've been going goo-goo-gah-gah over for the past few days.


Note:

I placed the sketches online on ebay. They were snapped up in less than a week. And as a reward, I got another sketch sent to me a few days ago - a male nude done by the maestro in 1975. I'm keeping that one, hehehehe...

Oh, and here's a bit of a story behind the sketches. The original owner of these works was one of the maestro's former "models" (I suspect one of his lovers. He's been known to sketch his male paramours in the buff.) When the former owner of the sketches was a young man, he did the scene - drugs, parties, rock and roll, and was also the artist's companion for several months. It was also during these months that the maestro was doing the drafts for his Book of Sketches - a published tome of the artist's works.

The former owner of these sketches has had a series of bad luck forcing him to sell these works through my friend and eventually through me. Some of the drawings that I eventually sold through ebay, he claims to be drafts of the actual pieces in the book. I still have to see the book though and check if what he said is true.

Oh, and the sketch of the male nude that I'm keeping for myself, it's the former owner of these sketches. (Now why do I feel like a peeping tom? Hmm...)

MALE NUDE
graphite on paper
32. 5 cm. x 21.5 cm.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

I have been subscribed to SAATCHI GALLERY ONLINE for quite some time now. I have been silently lurking in the shadows amongst all of those European and American artists. Only recently did I have the guts to actually place my works there.

Now I am trying to see if I can elbow my way through the hodgepodge of images I see in that site by putting it in a "showdown" they have online. I chose "IT TAKES A VILLAGE" to see how it'd fare amongst the numerous other great works I've seen there.

It's really just a pissing contest and good for the artistic ego and I won't take it seriously. BUT OF COURSE it wouldn't hurt if you'd vote for me.

So, here's the link>>> http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=156893

Just click any of the stars on that page.

Vote for me!!

(Ako lang yata ang pinoy na nakita ko dun.)

Oh, and voting starts on AUGUST 11, 2008 at exactly 9 am gmt time (parang American Idol. hehehe... yung nga lang, I don't sing.)

A DROP AT A TIME

A few weeks ago I was invited to give a short talk at a Rotary Club meeting and say a bit about what I do. I figured, what can an artist like myself talk about? I don't see myself an expert in painting, I never even took it up in college. I took up design. I never paid attention to my art history classes, having gone through it and still figuring out the difference between a Manet from a Monet, aside from the change in vowels. I never even had a single unit in anatomical drawing. I learned it from a book on how to draw the human body that I bought ten years after college.

So I figured, it's best I talk of something (aside from painting) that I have been doing for the past four years - being part of Canvas and designing children's books.

The talk went smoothly. It was fun and enlightening (I hope) for those who did listen, but most of all, it showed me how much we've done so far with our small group.

We've done books, exhibits, have set up a gallery, promoted contemporary visual art in one small step after another and, best of all, it made me aware as an artist, that we as a culture have so much to give to this place we call our country.

And I suppose, what we've done can be best summarized in this short eco-fable that can also be found in www.canvas.ph. (click here for our site)

All it takes is one drop at a time to realize the fulfillment of a dream.

_________


THE HUMMINGBIRD

A big fire was destroying the forest, and all the animals were fleeing for their lives.

Only one small hummingbird stayed. It flew to the river, picked up one tiny drop of water in its small beak, flew back, and poured that drop on the fire.

Again and again it returned to the river, each time scooping up a single drop and pouring it on the fire.

The other animals watched from the far shore, laughing at and mocking the hummingbird. But, the harder they laughed, the harder the hummingbird worked.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" the animals finally asked.

Without stopping her work, the hummingbird answered calmly, "I'm doing what I can."

T-SHIRTS! T-SHIRTS!

A dear friend of mine used an image of one of my works on shirts he's selling. For every shirt he sells, I get a share.

So, I am shamelessly promoting it here too.

Each shirt costs 380 Pesos (cheap no?) You can email him at rodgibbs1@yahoo.com.au
He'd take your order and there's an applicable shipping charge.

So... buy na!

It comes in brown and white. I like it. It fits like a Bench cotton t-shirt and doesn't make one look like an undersized banana.

VOLARE, CANTARE

I never thought Marimar could be this hilarious...



Spice it up boys!



Although it's a painful thought to think that 4 decades of my life have already passed, I would like to thank all those who sent their greetings to mark my natality a couple of days ago. (lalim no?) Well, you know who you are.

To get myself out of the doldrums of getting old, I chance upon the video of these two guys. I guffawed that the woman in the background (their mother perhaps) can't help but jiggy a bit to the music.