 |  David and I were kind of done with things we could do in the house the previous night so the next morning we decided to do something different. Some weeks back I received a call from the art teacher, Nicole Huber, of the European International School regarding a possible art lecture I may conduct for her art class. This was made possible by a BF tennis-mate friend, Philip Durant, a Belgian executive from that school.
A few weeks earlier, Philip contacted me regarding the need for an art teacher at the International School at the Fort. The art teacher was to have her maternity leave and would be gone for some months, thus the need for a substitute. I made contact with her and agreed to teach but not immediately for I had other matters to attend to. Not too long then, I contacted them again only to learn that they already found one to take her place. Anyway, to cut the story short, because of the circumstances, I recently got an invite from the European International School where Philip is directly connected.
So, David and I decided to visit the school that morning to make sure that we get there without getting lost for the lecture date was already set for next Thursday. The photo on the right was what greeted us when we entered the "La Cabane" resto, the place where we were supposed to meet with Nicole Huber come Thursday.
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| David knew that he was to shoot with the Canon G3 that coming Thursday so got the G3 from me and started to practice shooting starting with this resto, "La Cabane". He liked the resto's interior and shot just about every nook and corner of the place. Shortly after David's shooting exercises, a German looking woman came in and entered the ladies room. I had a hunch that it was Nicole, the art teacher so I asked the staff of "La Cabane" and got a confirmation. So the unscheduled meeting meant for Thursday took place that late morning. Over some beers, German fries and Banana Shake, we were able to set the lecture day for next Thursday.
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| We walked to the hallway through the Olympic size pool towards the basketball court and football field to get to the lecture hall. There we rested a bit and David asked for a drink for he was really thirsty. Nicole asked one of her pretty German girl students to accompany David where he could get his cola drink and gave her P50.
Soon, David and I were introduced to the school staff and started to prepare for the lecture by tuning in both the laptop and the projector. I found the school laptop to be a bit slow so I tried using my own laptop that didn't quite work well with their projector. So I had to content myself with what I thought was a slow pc only to realize that it could perform to my heart's content.
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| glenlorn2 wrote on Jun 22, '08, edited on Jun 22, '08 Nicole Huber's art class getting ready for the Art Lecture. These students document or take notes of the lecture using pen and notebook or with their digital camera. I was asked by Sylvia, the girl in green, to slow down a bit for I was going to fast for them to take notes of what I was saying and showing. |
| While waiting for the rest of the students to come, I auto-configured the laptop and projector to get them an idea of the scope of my lecture which not only dealt with artworks but culture and life as well. As a result, during the open forum, a lot of questions were raised as to the essence of the visual artist and the creative process he is involved in. In this particular image, the students, in passing, learned a bit about Dick Baldovino, one of our best Filipino photographers. Many other Filipino artists were featured in my lecture to give the students an idea of some of the young and old masters we have. Some of the EIS students are half Filipino, and others, a mixture of other nationalities.
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| Yet without the rest of the art class, I started to talk to the students about their present projects. I learned that they are really free to choose as to what they want to express choosing their theme and medium and can choose to work individually or with a group. Most of them, except Michael work in groups for they tend to encourage and learn from each other through art interaction.Showing my early UP school plates proved to be very interesting for the EIS students, particularly for Michael, for they were able to help me trace back the early influences I had even to my more recent artworks since I started doing school assignments.They were amazed to see how disciplined we were during the '70's complying with those art requirements. I can see what they mean myself, looking back at what I did.
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| Earlier photos David and I have taken of EIS, the restaurant, their art teacher Nicole and the school were projected on to the screen to get their attention. Stories as to how we met and how the art lecture came to be, got them into talking which went on for the next three hours through practicum. Michael, the more serious type amongst Nicole's art class raised the question "how do you get started doing an artwork and where does the idea come from?" My guess answer was. . ."I do not really know for sure but somehow it all happened when I started using my hand to learn how to draw, so art lessons in school may have initiated the many possibilities that I had explored since I was a student until the present time."
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| Jessica, the girl on my left asked why my artworks in general looked different from the artworks old masters normally painted, be it a portrait, a landscape or even an abstraction. I then explained that it had something to do with the light source the artist imagines when he paints. In my artwork’s case, unlike the works of the old masters and most artists, I paint imagining the light coming from within as one may behold from glowing embers.
Michael then continued with the question, “ Can you, then, easily tell when an artwork is done by a none-artist or an artist?” . . although it took a little longer for me to explain the question’s intricacies, in gist, I said, the law of cause and effect may just apply to your question. Whatever training or skill is present in that artist or none artist is what will be expressed in the particular medium of expression he chooses, meaning, it can also go the other way.
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|  Then, as the students continued to ask questions, the topic excitingly shifted to technique. “How do you start working on a sketch, a pastel, or an oil painting?, asked Michael. Well, I said . . ” I always start with the background starting with middle tones so after I would have outlined a landscape or figures on paper or canvas, the next thing I have to do is apply the highlights and the dark touches which is quite different from having started with a white background where one has to deal with the problem of highlights, middle-tones and shadow.
Michael then continued with the question, “ Can you, then, easily tell when an artwork is done by a none-artist or an artist?” . . although it took a little longer for me to explain the question’s intricacies, in gist I said, "the law of cause and effect may just apply to your question". Whatever skills are present in that artist or none artist are what will be expressed in the particular medium of expression he chooses, meaning. . it can also go the other way.
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| Michael noticed from the projected screen the name of Imelda Marcos and got a bit worried about an artwork on Imelda’s shoes he is presently working on. He added “ How offensive may an artwork be?” . . The smile on their faces indicates what my answer was? I cannot write down the few stories I had told them here but I can only share them with you verbally.
Sylvia, the German girl who accompanied David for his cola drink got the chance to shoot the photographer David. On her right is Birk, the art student who when asked which he would paint, when suddenly asked, answered . .” a woman committing suicide. I never got to find out why for I got busy answering other questions.
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| There were students with a German teacher before we got in the lecture room who were on their way out but when they learned that a presentation on my art would soon take over their class they asked permission to sit-in, literally sit-in, and listen to the art lecture and view the artworks projection.
They didn't raise any questions but seemed to have enjoyed the presentation from their facial expressions. There they are on the far left corner of the room shortly before the other students came in to fill in the seats in the room. I found much time conversing with them while waiting for the slow pc to upload the slides for projection.
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| One of the earlier artworks projected here for the art class was "Inscape", a take-off from the cross-section of a tree trunk cut into half. Earlier sketches that led to this particular artwork were projected for the students to see the development of a simple visual idea taking shape as a major oil painting.
Here Jessica was commenting on the concentric rings manifested in the "Innerscape" oil painting as a proof of the tree's life span . . concentric rings of different width. The concentric ring icon manifested also at the latter works presented as real city-scapes like that of the Hongkong harbor with tall buildings around or that of Taal Volcano in Tagaytay.
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| A 10' x 15' ft. mural commissioned work I did for the UP Law Center when I was yet a student made the students realize how important it was to copyright one's artwork, or better yet learn how to protect one's artwork from getting reproduced without the artist's knowledge.
For this particular mural was reproduced into a stamp without my permission. I was in the US, an art student in Santa Barbara, California , where I received a letter from my mother who didn't also realize that she had sent me a letter that contained my artwork printed as a stamp.
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| This was the end part of first half of the lecture. After an hour and a half of lecture and artwork presentation, the students had to rest their strained eyes and had a brief break. Others stayed and extracted more answers from me from their curious minds.
Here's a nude composition projected showing the different levels of the human plight. The physical body eventually comes to pass and goes to another level to rejoin our creator. Also achievable, as I explained was to experience both the physical and a hint of the spiritual depending on one's level of consciousness.
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| The second part was more of a open forum where more specific questions regarding the artist’s essence and the creative process he is involved in were raised. Here I dealt with the definition of art and how expressions may differ from each other but share the same elements the artist deal with, immaterial of the medium he uses and the ideal he expresses.
Basically most art expressions deal with the same aesthetics. . form, color, texture, light source, modeling, lines, proportion, etc. But it is the ideal the artist wishes to express that differentiates his art expression from others such as the modern, traditional, religious, pop, kinetic, surreal, classical, gothic, byzantine, christian, buddhist, and many others.
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