Showing posts with label visual arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label visual arts. Show all posts

Monday, January 02, 2017

Gains and Losses in 2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm pretty sure, I wasn't the only one who had a wild 2016. Much as I'd hate to use an unoriginal description, it really had been a roller coaster ride. It's why this year, I won't be doing my annual goals thing. I hadn't been mindful of my goals lately (except maybe for the "finish at least 2 projects a year" thing), and just let 2016 lead me to wherever. I'm actually thankful to Instagram's #2016bestnine for showing me that there had been a lot of ups, despite all the loved ones I have lost.




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Monday, January 06, 2014

Goals for 2014

I had actually been trying to put this off because I'm in denial about the things I have to do. Haha. But ok, last year I made 10 goals and I achieved half of them. I'm simplifying them this time around instead of making them ultra specific.

Permanent Yearly Goals
8. Travel at least twice a year. Preferably 1 local and 1 international destination.

7. Participate in a nation-wide competition.

6. Maintain a healthy lifestyle. (new perma-goal!!!) Even though I never made this goal in 2013, I still strived to be hospital-free. I succeeded at it till about the 3rd quarter of 2013. But then the *ber months arrived. Anyway, I noticed that I was healthier when I was cooking my own meals so I will get back to that soon.

Yeah, I miss making sandwiches like this.





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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

My Year 2013 in Review

I'm currently reviewing the goals I had made for 2013 and seeing if I had met each of them or if there had been better alternatives. I will still make goals for 2014 but perhaps not as specific as I used to make them. Let's see...

10. YEARLY GOAL: Travel at least twice a year. Half done.
I spent most of the year being a hermit so I had to think back really hard... OK, spending a team building weekend with my College of Saint Benilde (CSB) co-faculty in Puerto Galera during the summer should fall under this. It was my first time to go to Puerto Galera anyway. Though my mom hailed from Mindoro, I had never been to this particular area. And other than that fun weekend trip to Tagaytay with my former Anino Games officemates in September, I don't think I completely fulfilled this goal.




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Saturday, November 30, 2013

Freeway presents Juan Luna

Super backlog! I wasn't able to attend the Freeway Presents Juan Luna event at the Lopez Museum and it was one that I had been looking forward to for two reasons: (1) Because it's a "Freeway National Artist Collection" event and (2) because it was held at the Lopez Museum. Reading the press kit isn't the same as actually breathing in the works of Juan Luna.

If you are Filipino and you tell me that you have never heard of Juan Luna, I will have to ask you what rock you've been living under. His art works (painting, sculpting) and political activism (and that dark part about him killing his wife and mother-in-law) had been ingrained in our consciousness since we were little kids in elementary school. He also happens to be one of the first Philippine artists to ever gain recognition.



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Sunday, August 18, 2013

J Pacena II's In My Mind I'm Done Exhibit

Last week, I was able to finally visit my colleague J Pacena II's latest art exhibit: "In My Mind I'm Done...No Need to Tell Me to Go Away." Tried to visit the week before that but it was a holiday so the gallery was closed.

Anyway, I did notice that J's choice of colors and symbolism have gotten somewhat bolder but I'm not nearly bold enough to enlarge them here, as this is a rated G blog. Haha! You can choose to click these for a larger view (you still wouldn't be able to make out the lovely details and I'm not about to censor them). Tell you what, why don't you go visit and see for yourself? But first...



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Thursday, June 13, 2013

Freeway presents National Artist Lucio San Pedro

Remember this song?



This is an all-time favorite of mine and was composed by two national artists, namely, Levi Celerio and Lucio San Perdo. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the tributes paid to each of them by Freeway. Fortunately, at least I was able to receive my copy of the press kit this time.



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Saturday, May 25, 2013

Two Paradigms Exhibit at the Picasso Boutique

Last Thursday (May 23, 2013), I had been invited to the opening night of Alab and Raphael Pagarigan's exhibit called Two Paradigms. Unfortunately, I had a 6-9PM lecture at the College of Saint Benilde so I told my good friend Luna (their eldest sister, whom I have not seen in 2 years!) that I would drop by the next day. The Pagarigan family, including Tatay, was nice enough to have come on the second day as well.

I usually attend either Raphy's or Alab's (whose exhibits I need to import into this blog soon) so witnessing this collaboration was a pleasant first experience for me. Anyway, here are the beautiful art pieces.



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Monday, April 15, 2013

Multimedia Arts Festival 2013 brought to you by College of Saint Benilde

Last Friday, April 12, I dropped by the Rockwell tent to check out the College of Saint Benilde's (CSB) Multimedia Arts Festival 2013. I hadn't attended art exhibits for the longest time (one year?) and I miss seeing students' works. Though I had not seen CSB's Multimedia Arts department in 5 years, I was very curious about how their curriculum is going.

Also, I was tickled by their poster:

This is one of the cutest posters I've ever seen Benildean students do.

Plus, when we came in, we were given some really nice souvenir booklets, which describes the works of the exhibitors.

Loooove it!

Too bad the installations weren't in here because I loved the installations most.

This is a map of some sorts, which gave us an idea about where we are and what we were looking at.

Anyhoo, I'm posting some of my favorite photos of the exhibit here.

This exhibit, from Espejismo, is made up of glass and some videos playing on it.

This is the thing about installation art. They're very hard to describe. you have to see them for yourself.



The interactive works of the Twisted Tales group.



One of the videos in Twisted Tales:





I liked this tree installation by Therese Javier...for no particular reason. I found the tree cute, perhaps. Haha.




I was particularly drawn to Pat Abutong's illustrations. She's part of the Spectrum group.

Interacting with Spectrum's...uh... white cloth?



More artworks installed in glass cubicles.



Of all the installations, this was my favorite. It kinda reminds me of the exhibits I see in Singapore. From the map, I'm guessing these are the works of the IM | POSSIBLE group.






Too bad I had only time to visit on the last day. The exhibit went live on March 18-22 and April 10-12. I hope this becomes tradition for the Multimedia Arts department.

Hm. I hope the Game Design and Development department (where I am an Associate Professorial Lecturer) would have something like this, too.



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Saturday, March 09, 2013

A great International Women's Day & Month gift

I was one of those people who donated $$ for Anita Sarkeesian's project about Tropes versus Women in video games. For those who have not heard of her, she was one of those women who have been bullied over the internet because she dared speak up about the objectification of women in video games. You can read more about Anita Sarkeesian here.

Yesterday, just in time for the International Women's Day (March is actually International Women's Month), she released the first episode of her series. The video is entitled Damsel in Distress: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games.

While very basic, the video provided a rather interesting introduction to female video game characters whose roles had been diminished to damsels in distress over the decades. My gaming geek friends -- many of whom are males -- have discussed this and we do agree that the industry is still rather new and we're stuck in the same clichés that older industries (like film) have also found themselves struggling with when they were starting out.

Anyway, here's the first installment of the series:




Personally, I don't think it's just the representation of women that's problematic. Even men complain about the stereotypes that they're stuck with. I'm more concerned about the decline of innovation in video game content. The tropes she presented are actually just a few of the things that indicate that we're stuck with rehashed themes and we definitely need new content.

But anyway, since it's International Women's Month, I'd like to give this to all of you strong, beautiful women out there. You are unique individuals that can never be encased by tropes.

Happy International Women's Month!! =)



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Tuesday, January 01, 2013

10 Goals for 2013


I don't make resolutions. I make goals (the career-oriented ones I always put in my performance appraisal form). And so far, I think I've met all of them. 2012 was such a fulfilling year for me and I'm hoping my goals for 2013 will be met.

I did not list down my goals last year because I only had two solid ones (#9 & #10) and these are goals I've personally set for myself since 2010.

10. YEARLY GOAL: Travel at least twice a year. It's usually one international and one local destination. Didn't get to go out of the country in 2012 but at least I went to two local destinations.

9. YEARLY GOAL: Participate (and most especially WIN) in a nation-wide competition. This has been a tradition for me every year, but it was in 2012 that I first entered into a team-oriented competition (Philippine Game Development Festival) for the first time. Which my teamsssss won. =^.^= Since I won't be having a team this year, looks like I'm back to personal web development competitions.

8. Hold another art exhibit before March. Though this one is 50-50, considering the budget I need to pull and the amount of concentration I need to muster.

7. Attend international conferences AND/OR have my doctoral dissertation edited for publishing and conference presentations. This one is kinda 50-50 as well because it means that I'd be spreading myself thinly again.

6. Relax from January to February so that I can get back to the game development industry by March.

5. Wrap-up all my legal stuff (expired license, NSO etc.)

4. Pay off all my credit card related debts by June.


3. Invest in a condo of my own starting June. Yeah, I have my eyes set on certain places already. I just have to figure out how to go about it.

2. Be an active blogger again with a regular schedule. And a positive vibe. For starters, I had to convert my profile into a page and will be merging that with my old page soon.

1. Be ready for a love life by June. Nyahahahahahaha! OMGWUT. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Tatawa nalang ako ng malakas. Hahahaha!

Sorry for the last image. I have no idea how this is going to turn out so yeah...it's much like that "Guess The Guardian" contest I've been holding once in a while. Could it be Charmander, Omnom or Freedom Gundam? Only time will tell if this road is for me. =^.^=



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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Solo Features Kenkoy

Hurray for vacations!! An update!

I'm actually tempted not to write anything so I can just gawk at the beautiful campaign photos Solo released for their Kenkoy feature. In fact, I've posted the press release (along with this blog's contest details) on my Facebook page.

I know that maybe a lot of people don't know Kenkoy -- I mean, my maternal grandparents had yet to meet when it first came out -- but I see this as an opportunity to reminisce about our artistic roots and culture during the American occupation. (Funny how the creative industries consider comics and animation to be such a "baby" when these forms of art had been around longer than most of our great grandparents.)

Kenkoy was the brainchild of the Father of Philippine Cartoons, Tony Velasquez, and its humor was very pop and meant to be a caricature of the Filipino. Kenkoy was probably the very first jejemon brought to life through visual art...

Which is why I was actually stunned when I saw how classy the ad campaign is.









Contest Alert!

I'm giving away a free Solo x Kenkoy shirt to the person that best answers the following question: "Have you ever read Kenkoy comics? If so, tell us about your favorite strip."

(This might take a bit of research because even my parents weren't born yet during the height of Kenkoy's heydey. Hehe. But I'd be interested to see how resourceful everyone can be. =^.^=)

Post your answers in the comment box below. You can have multiple entries as long as they're not about the same strip. You can also blog about your answer and then post the URL of your entry here. Contest ends on September 25, 2011 and I will be announcing the winner the next day. Good luck, everyone!



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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Transitions Exhibit: Review of Caterer & Venue

I don't think I've ever done this on skysenshi.com before. Review an event venue and caterer, that is. I do remember writing wedding supplier reviews before, for Weddings@Work. (Haha!) It's basically the same thing.

Exhibit Venue
Our exhibit is still ongoing and will end tomorrow at 7PM. We are holding it at LRI Design Plaza, my favorite venue for small functions. I had found out about LRI three years ago, when my APC students held their exhibit at the Ricco Renzo Galleries, which was located on the building's second floor. Many other colleagues' and students' exhibits -- both from CSB and APC -- were held there, including that of BFF Cris Dumlao's first solo show, Branded. At first, it was not an easy place to find. But once you see where it lies, going home becomes a no-brainer.

Here's a map from their official website (click to enlarge):
Anyway, LRI has always been easy to coordinate with. The reason we did not go to an art gallery is that at the time that we were writing our exhibit proposal, we had yet to begin working on our pieces. Most art galleries prefer to see the works before agreeing to the proposal.

One other reason is that we just wanted to hold an exhibit. We weren't sure if we wanted to sell our works just yet. (Although guests and passersby had been asking.) Many galleries add 50%-100% on top of your artist's price and Rebie and I weren't ready to sell at such high rates. LRI is perfect for those artists who just want to explore various artistic endeavors without the pressures of commercialism.

LRI Design Plaza is located at: 210 Nicanor Garcia Street (Formerly Reposo),
Bel-Air II, Makati City, Philippines 1209.
+63(2) 895-1772, 895-7949
+63(2) 895-5470 (TeleFax)
lri_bp@yahoo.com
www.lridesignplaza.com

Wee! Our first guest. This is Mike Santos, better known as Nib at the Otaku Fridge boards.

Catering (Cocktails)
We had canvased for different caterers and I was actually quite shocked to find out that prices have skyrocketed since 2003 (the last time I contracted a caterer). Heeh. Anyway, from all that responded, we chose La Milagrosa because their packages, though a little above our budget, seemed to be the most reasonable. After that night, we realized that they definitely offered value for money. Not only did they serve filling cocktails, their waiters are fast, courteous and reliable. Well, the guests' glasses always get refilled with fruit punch and the waiters seem to be able to anticipate your needs. I only physically went back to the buffet table to get more of these babies...

OMG. These mini tacos were addictive! More photos of the food etc. can be found at the Skysenshi's Hermitage Transitions Opening Night album.

What we served that night:
Mini tacos with dip
Roast chicken with pita bread
Cocktail lumpia ubod
Vegetable sticks with dip
Assorted canapes
Assorted fruit tarts
Fruit punch

(What did we say about value for money? Heh.)

One other thing I loved about La Milagrosa is their table arrangements. Gargantuan, expensive floral arrangements are not for us but these simple beauties sure provided a fresh burst of color to the white tables. This photo was taken after the event and though some of the leaves had already wilted, they held still throughout the opening.

La Milagrosa Catering Services details:
112-B Jose P. Rizal Street., Project 4, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1109
Tel# 9137870; 9137791
Fax# 4393210
lamilagrosa@yahoo.com

The artists: Cris Dumlao (whose artwork I'm holding), me and Rebie Ramoso. We're all standing in front of our pieces. :)

To read about the art themselves, you can visit my write-up at Sarimanok.PH: Transitions Opening Night.

Photo Galleries:
Transitions Exhibit Opening Night
Transitions Exhibit Day 2



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