Brise La Mer Mental Flatuscence Creative Gestalter (Imagination ReImagined) Mythopoeia Filipiniana

Briselamer: It's Time for A Cool Change Revamp!

2011-02-14T16:47:00.001+08:00

An Allegory: It is the People's Divine Right

2011-02-14T04:44:00.002+08:00

Hoary Vladentines Day!

2011-02-13T22:28:00.002+08:00

[Deleted Scene] From Volkswagen Darth Vader SuperBowl Commercial

2011-02-12T20:22:00.002+08:00

Valentines, Vah! Humvug!

2011-02-11T21:39:00.002+08:00

#Egypt May The Force Be With You

2011-02-02T02:13:00.002+08:00

#meme #powertoEgyptianpeoples Mubarak ever-clings to ancient spirits of evil

2011-01-30T23:22:00.002+08:00

Hosni Mubarak ever-clings to ancient spirits of evil, Mumm'brak

Image Source: http://twitpic.com/3uvty1

#meme Facebook Avatars and Archetypes: SNL : Mark Zuckerberg appears alongside Jesse Eisenberg

2011-01-30T21:56:00.003+08:00

The Fool, The Chariot, The Magician

Image Source: http://twitpic.com/3uutzf

#meme Darth Sothis' Dog Star Days are Over! #powertothepeople

2011-01-30T15:02:00.002+08:00

Tut-CPO: Lord Vader, reports are in that Darth Sothis is losing his iron grip over the Aegyptian peoples.

Lord Vader: His Dog Star days are over, now we must leave...

Image Source: http://twitpic.com/3ursj2

#meme #Cairo Internaten the Heretic Sun Disk threatens Egypt

2011-01-29T09:58:00.003+08:00

Internaten also known as Facebookhenaten the Heretic Sun Disk rises across the Nile devastating Lower and Upper Egypt! Power to the People!

Image Source: http://twitpic.com/3ubv74

1611-2011 400 Years of Unending Grace of University of Santo Tomas and the Royal/Pontifical Degrees of Separation

2011-01-28T23:04:00.007+08:00

My dear old alma mater celebrates its 400th Foundation Day today, though sadly I have no participation in this momentous occasion. But apart from being a very proud alumnus, please indulge me, and let me stretch my graphic arts connection with the sublime history that is the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas.

The University of Santo Tomas was given the title "Royal" by King Charles III of Spain on 1785; his descendant His Royal Majesty King Juan Carlos I receives the Order of Lakandula Grand Collar with the Rank of Supremo.

The title "Pontifical" was given by Pope Leo XIII on 1902 in his constitution, Quae Mari Sinico. The Seal of the University carries the Spanish Sea Lion symbol of the Philippines as ultramar. The same Sea Lion that now constitutes the Seal of the President of the Philippines.

Happy 400th Anniversary to University of Santo Tomas!

#meme #Davos 2011 For many it's still a galaxy far far away

2011-01-28T21:36:00.003+08:00

Image Source: http://twitpic.com/3u5qo8

GLOSSARY French-Corsican or Of random things one find on the Net

2011-01-25T01:18:00.006+08:00

As I was monitoring my Page subscription list on Facebook and clicking on links that interest me from Ars Technica to National Geographic, then a frightful medusa reared its gnarly head in the random hypertextual scheme of things, I stopped dead in my tracks to read:

GEOGRAPHIE (2)

LINGUA È TECNICA

LEXIQUE Français-Corse

ADECEC 1983 CERVIONI

or as processed by Google Translate's French to English Translation

GEOGRAPHY (2)
LINGUA E TECNICA
GLOSSARY French-Corsican
ADECEC 1983 CERVIONE
http://www.adecec.net/adecec-net/lexiques/amcarbuccia/GEOGRAPHIE2.pdf

brise : trattu, scioru, ventulellu. Brise de mer : ambata, marinu. Brise de terre : muntese /

breeze, sea-breeze, land-breeze

Interesting! :-)

Baybayin (Ancient Pre-Hispanic Native Philippine Script and Syllabary) and the Order of Lakandula

2011-01-19T16:19:00.013+08:00

I got a new comment this morning on my old blog post about the Order of Lakandula (Wednesday, June 18, 2008) from an apparent fellow blogger named "Kiwehtin":

The Order of Lakandula and its Manunggul journey

http://briselamer.blogspot.com/2008/06/order-of-lakandula-and-its-manunggul.html

Kiwehtin said...

Interesting story! I just came across it from reading that the medal appears on the new series 1000 piso note:
http://www.baybayin.com/1000-piso-medal-of-honor/

JANUARY 19, 2011 12:28 PM

I followed her link and came across this wonderful Baybayin website but with this surprising post:

http://www.baybayin.com/1000-piso-medal-of-honor/

But the first commenter explained it well but still I had to introduce myself to clarify the matter. As always my grammar flew when I have not taken my morning coffee yet.

So I think it clarified the confusion about the La-Ka-Na-Du-La as opposed to the erroneous Do-La-Pa-Ka-Na.

When I worked on that design I harnessed the wealth of the Lopez Memorial Museum and Library's Filipiniana archives and some invaluable materials from the Malacanan Presidential Museum.

For transparency: Am I a historian? Not exactly. But a part of my professional expertise lies in World Art History and Filipino Art History for that was my academic background and training as a Fine Arts graduate of the University of Santo Tomas College of Architecture and Fine Arts where I graduated with distinction in 1995.

This Baybayin script of Lakandula for the medallion carried no artistic license, I copied from the syllabary of nationalist Trinidad Pardo de Tavera who adopted it from the works of Father Pedro Chirino.

The following images are from the archives of Lopez Memorial Museum and Library.

Alfabeto Tagalog del Padre Pedro Chirino (T.H. Pardo de Tavera)

For Lopez Memorial Museum and Library

Lopez Memorial Museum and Library: http://www.lopez-museum.org

Lopez Museum and Library Blog: http://www.pezseum.blogspot.com

For Online Baybayin Resource: http://www.baybayin.com/

Mentis Flatus: Un-Holiday Meme: Santa Saturn, Holiday Saturnalia and Snowy Gaia's Little Elves

2010-12-13T00:10:00.002+08:00

Mentis Flatus: Un-Holiday Meme:

Santa Saturn, Holiday Saturnalia and Snowy Gaia's Little Elves

Mentis Flatus: "Little Dharma Boy and His Kooky Koans"

2010-12-12T22:33:00.002+08:00

Mentis Flatus: "Little Dharma Boy and His Kooky Koans"

MyGestalt: Genii of Mental Flatuscence

2010-12-11T00:23:00.006+08:00

The Genius (Genii) of Mental Flatuscence was born when I was in a dark place. My beloved sister was diagnosed with cancer and a few months before that I lost my job. It was a time to steer the wheel of fate, dithering between faithlessness and picking the mustard seed while holding the torch of hope. It was by traversing the darkest caverns of the soul that I found my sanity, the echoes spoke back, it was child-like, it was a zen stream tsunami, it was cherubic and bodhisattvic, it heckled while speaking truth, it was gas, a nebula that birthed stars. It was crazy personal parousia. I died. The avatar lived.

TWITTER: @Mentis_Flatus

MyGestalt: Mentis Flatus Genii Bodhisattva

2010-12-10T22:30:00.004+08:00

MyGestalt: Mentis Flatus Genii Bodhisattva (Genii of Mental Flatuscense)

Twitter: @Mentis_Flatus

Mentis_Flatus, Mentis Flatuscence, Mental Flatuscence

copyright Briselamer Designs

creator: Eric Agoncillo Ambata Twitter: @Aericangelo

Confusedcious!

2010-10-06T10:39:00.002+08:00

"You will never have to work a day in your life if your job does not love you back, no wok no payn no gain" #mentisflatusfromchinesefood

www.twitter.com/Mentis_Flatus

STINK UND HYPE

2010-10-05T12:13:00.002+08:00

Mentis_Flatus on Twitter

#mentisflatus uh oh there's Sturm und Drang, Rock and Roll, Blood and Thunder and now I profess: STINK und HYPE! #stinkundhype #foetor

But what is STINK und HYPE? Is it a polterzeitgeistian social media meme? an art literary movement? rumour mill? an art period?

STINK UND HYPE!

Mental Flatus is now Mentis Flatus

2010-05-24T19:27:00.001+08:00

Twitter: Mentis_Flatus

#mentisflatus

In worlds Mental, Floss is greatest,

I'm but sublimate inert gas of

unstable innocuous molecules,

set me aflame to enlighten

I'm the Master Mental Flatus...don't call me Brain Fart! Or I'll gas your ass!

2010-05-12T16:16:00.003+08:00

I live.

I will myself into being from wisps and misty matter of

the universe's exploding red giant chakras.

I know.

I acknowledge that what I know emanates from

sources humbling and unknown.

Gravitas and Gravity.

I help.

I am but a servant to my psycho chemicals

and electrical impulses. And I traverse

the spaces between neurons.

I'm here to help you clean its clog and cobwebs.

But before I do that, I will kill my artist first for showing my

in-flux close-up pic below without De Mille's permission

XoXo

Whoever wins the Presidential Election and gets to ride the Sea Lion is My President

2010-05-09T16:47:00.007+08:00

Whoever wins the Presidential Election and

gets to ride the Sea Lion is My President

By now, everyone has probably read Ms. Patricia Evangelista's Philippine Daily Inquirer column, Method To Madness: The rise and fall of the Yellow King. It was a fun spectator sport watching Mr. Manolo Quezon, a respected columnist and pundit, and well-known supporter of presidential candidate, Noynoy Aquino (who is subject of the aforementioned column) and Ms. Evangelista trade polite but fervent tweets over the latter's article.

As an ordinary citizen, I am low-key and below-radar in my choice of and campaign for my presidential candidate, only family and intimate friends know. Until the tail-end of the campaign period, where I would leave the house confidently sporting a green baller band and sometimes a light green polo shirt. Though Mr. Manolo Quezon is a personal friend, he does not campaign for his candidate whenever he goes out with our intimate group. He is a self-effacing gentleman, through and through but his private quips are always one for the books but only for the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

I would also be vague in my Tweets and Facebook posts which had spawned the meme, Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars, Star Trek and RuPaul's Drag Race.

My favorites being:

On Gilbert "G1BO" Teodoro

(though I'm his supporter, I cannot pass up this one Star Wars joke)

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars:

"Into the garbage chute, flyboy!"

On Noynoy Aquino:

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars:

Noynoy to Gibo (who's looking at his baldness),

"That’s no moon, it’s a space station."

On Madame President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo:

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars:

"I suggest a new strategy, R2VIL-AR-OIO. Let the wookiee win."

On Comission on Election's PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines:

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Trek: (Spock the PCOS)

The term "half-assed" is somewhat applicable, but "computerized" is inaccurate.

On Eddie Villanueva, the pastor candidate:

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars: "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

When Noynoy declared his candidacy months ago I was an ardent supporter of his vision but as it is the only constant thing in the world is change. I also joined his contest for an AVATAR and I made the image below but lost.

But I have faith in my present candidate. Win or Lose I know I exercised my right to vote and did the best I can do for my country and for myself.

So whoever is destined to be rider of the Philippine Sea Lion is MY PRESIDENT.

Mental Flatus is not Brain Fart

2010-05-09T14:26:00.008+08:00

Mental Flatus is not Brain Fart

Mental Flatus is not Brain Fart, whereby the latter is scientifically and medically recognized and proven as "maladaptive brain activity change", the former is my personal coinage which means "unconscious/conscious brain cleaning activity" where one expels dead neurons through "koan conversations" or "wabi sabi" aesthetics that is "impermanent, imperfect, and incomplete" and is as physically invisible and inert as gas!

This unfortunate practice was brought about by my out-of-this-world, late-night, non-alcohol fueled, non-viagra'd conversations with my boyfriend, His Turgidity the Great Turgon the Wise. To paraphrase Yoda,

"Unfierceness is the path to mediocrity, unfierceness leads to frustration and procrastination, frustration and procrastination lead to fearfulness and dread, fearfulness and dread lead to shallowness, shallowness leads to mediocrity."

If that makes sense to you then you are far from experiencing the rarefied and gaseous beatific visions of the state of mental flatulence.

But if you smellst something crappy whilst contemplating on the Yodaic verses, then you are on your skid-marked path to exhaling mental flatus! OM.

NOTE: Mental Flatus is a comic-strip in the works, wish me luck ;-)

Etiquette for the Coffeeshopoi Internetoi Hoi Polloi

2010-05-09T03:00:00.003+08:00

Compiled from my Tweets:

Etiquette for the Coffeeshopoi Internetoi Hoi Polloi

(or Etiquette in Internet Coffee Shops)

1. coffeeshopoi internetoi hoi polloi #advice the music must be karaoke-friendly, like now, Karyn White's Superwoman. Pls serve beer now! please ;-D

2. coffeeshopoi internetoi hoi polloi #advice bring extra pens or pencils, ask nicely if you want borrow from a seatmate, don't hum the song please

3. coffeeshopoi internetoi hoi polloi #advice a USB drive is not for borrowing, seatmate. It may contain nsfw hazmats like pr0n and such!

Mental Flatus: Koan Conversations of Dharma Boy and Zen Kabuki Master

2010-05-09T02:09:00.020+08:00

Compiled from my Tweets

Mental Flatus: Koan Conversations of Dharma Boy and Zen Kabuki Master

(in-the-works comic strip)

Updates:

#mentalflatus a smart clean is when you are floating in eureka bubbles! (TM) (R)

this @johnmaeda is a Damn Yoda! Daimyo? RT @johnmaeda "Your *job* as an artist, is to explain the world to other people." -Mary Lambert#art

#mentalflatus On mercury retrograding: do not shoot the messenger.

#mentalflatus gravity made Newton's apple fall for science, gravitas lifted Adam's apple up for wisdom

#mentalflatus what can it bring to twitterverse? oscillate the cosmic strings from flatline to harmonia mundi in axis with primum mobile

#mentalflatus spectral flotsam and jetsam are but disconnected synaptic neural debris excreting away as etheric halitus or phlegmatic sputum

#mentalflatus dark dreams may be of the many-angled ones but in all psycho dimensions, romance and satire are found only in Flatland

#mental flatus its sincerest purest form is flattery where gray matter detritus transform into beauty that could get you everywhere.

#mentalflatus "When one takes a sith, jedi is cast"

#election2010

Dharma Boy: master, they blackened eggs to vote?

Zen Kabuki Master: how apropos, microcosmologic eggs, they hatch their own future

================

Dharma Student: was it deus ex counting machina?

Zen Kabuki Master:

G1B000101N0YN0Y0010100100010G1B001000100N0YN0YG1B0

================

Dharma Student: master, the man in yellow won!

Zen Kabuki Master: hex #FFFF00....fortune favors fearless followers zero zero

================

Mental Flatus 05.11.10 "Apples who fell not far from same tree yet cores apart."

===============

Dharma Student: master, why do people spam?
Zen Kabuki Master: it is either that or they get canned or fried in a pan. OM.

Dharma Student: master, what makes an election zeitgeist?

Zen Kabuki Master: when even ghosts of the dead take time to vote. OM.

===============

1. Dharma Student: of mothers, Kuan-Yin or dark Kali?

Zen Kabuki Master: violent childbirth is an act merciful creation. OM.

Happy Mother's Day :-)

2. Dharma Student: master, who painted the lovely colors of music?

Zen Kabuki Master: cole him porter, de-lovely red, hot and blue. OM.

3. Dharma Student: master, pole position in the polls?

Zen Kabuki Master: all salmon go upstream to spawn, there are bubbles and eggs, follow. OM.

4. Dharma Student: master, is twitter life online and offline?

Zen Kabuki Master: even twitter birds carry fail whales. Do so in life. OM.

5. Dharma Student: but is it art?

Zen Master: but I star it! OM.

6. Dharma Student: how do I make it work?

Zen Master: make do, how I work it. OM.

7. Dharma Student: butterflies in my stomach?

Zen Master: good, it spun out of your cocoon, now barf the hairball & dance for joy. OM.

8. Dharma Student: jejemon, what gives?

Zen Master: anthropomorphize your fears and pet them. OM.

9. Dharma Student: is there an app for that?

Zen Master: for within, access, from without, sorry. OM.

10. Dharma Student: a campaign has a filioque bent to it?

Zen Master: man can't create, he can just illusion his own religion.

11. DharmaStudent: thinking & plugged-in or thinking & unplugged?

ZenMaster: the wiki brown firefox jumps over the lazy dog. OM.

12. Dharma Student: what about dissenting opinions on facebook?

Zen Master: scroll up/down above/below fold go to funny pages. OM.

13. Dharma Student: master, what is the sound if one is lip syncing for his life?

Zen Kabuki Master: hide the candy and chew. OM.

14. Dharma Student: I profess to create my assignation and destination.

Zen Master: acrostic is the bane of the brand. Just do. OM.

Reposting my Tweets here: Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars, Star Trek and Temptation Island

2010-05-08T17:22:00.004+08:00

Just Fill In the Characters:

Twitter: Philippine Presidential Election by way of

Star Wars, Star Trek and RuPaul's Drag Race

Philippine Presidential Election by way of RuPaul: start up your cash engines...and may the best oligarch win! and dont f#&@ it up!

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Temptation Island: I'm a crook and a damn good crook. And I can tell another crook when I see one

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Trek: The term "half-assed" is somewhat applicable, but "computerized" is inaccurate.

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars: "I suggest a new strategy, R2VIL-AR-OIO. Let the wookiee win."

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars: Mos Ampatuan spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars:"Into the garbage chute, flyboy!"

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars: "Don’t call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease."

Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars: Noynoy to Gibo (who's looking at his baldness: "That’s no moon, it’s a space station."

and last but not the least...Philippine Presidential Election by way of Star Wars: "I find your lack of faith disturbing." ;-)

Happy Sweet 16 Philippine Internet: 1998 the Year of Alchemy (Media Design Group)

2010-03-29T11:44:00.008+08:00

Happy Sweet 16 Philippine Internet: 1998 the Year of Alchemy (Media Design Group)

Alchemy Media Design Group was the award-winning and pioneering Web Design-arm of Tridel Technologies, Inc., the parent company of one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines, I-Manila. The team was a disparate mixture of talented individuals who were thrown into the hot cauldron of the then-burgeoning web design enterprise. This alchemical brew did turn lead into gold when they bagged prime accounts such as Asian Development Bank and Haribon among other clients. Their involvement with the Haribon Conservation Group yielded their first Philippine Web Award in 1998, whose designs and information architecture were spearheaded by web designer, Eric Agoncillo Ambata (He Who Smileth A Lot, according to the "Book of Alchemy").

The Alchemy Media Design Group, whose acronym AMDG, reflected the values of its members (AMDG initials are a hidden nod to Ateneo de Manila University's motto: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, Latin for For the Greater Glory of God, three Ateneans comprise half of the team).

The Website below was designed by Xandro Castaneda who now works for the Asian Development Bank. The Alchemy team members include: Taj Deluria (group leader), Michael Ong, Tad Fadallan, Eric Agoncillo Ambata and Honesto "Jay" Jaro, Jr. latter important and notable peer additions were Melissa "Maisa" de la Torre and Lyn Llige.

The Website is divided into 5 sections: Identity, Craft, Gallery, Arcana and Courier which translate into About Us, Our Disciplines, Our Works, Our Philosophy and Contact Us. Some sections were forever, under construction. Ah, the wonderful follies of youth.

By the way, I designed the "Alchemical Tablets" found at the top of the page.

Designing for Museums: The Ayala Museum Website (2004-2007)

2009-10-27T13:49:00.010+08:00

Though the end product of my design work for Ayala Museum is its Website (its incarnation ran from 2004-2007); the intricate and delicate work of capturing the Museum; its philosophy, spirit, character and holdings in the most subtle of ways and manner; is like capturing a djinn in a flask; and patiently and calculatingly distilling it for its vital essences.

The launch of the Website coincided with the opening of the New Ayala Museum and I can't be more happier.

During the span of my design process from conceptualization to final execution and publication, I was fortunate enough to travel abroad and visit a few of the great museums of the world: Louvre, Uffizi, Vatican, Cologne...but one particular visit to an exhibition in Bonn, Germany precipitated a deluge of ideas and inspiration. It was an exhibit of the hoard treasures of the Scythians; a once-mysterious race of tribal conglomerations which ran the steppes across Eurasia during the centuries of Imperial Rome.

Below is a sample of my sketch work for the website design.

To be continued...

Visual Meme (for Finance & Economics): Rampant Lions, Tigers, Dragons and Weasels

2009-10-27T04:02:00.143+08:00

Re-purposing the Rampant Lion, historically the heraldic symbol of the old Kingdoms of Castille and Leon (from the Coat of Arms of the Philippines) as visual meme for Philippine Finance and Economy was, in my humble opinion, one of my best bright-bulb moments (Lion being a strong metaphor for a fighting economy and nothing more) when I was the Lead Expert for Web and Graphic Design of the Asian Bonds Online Project of the Asian Development Bank, Manila. A role and responsibility I pioneered and cherished for close to seven years. It was an inspired reaction to the news photo of King Juan Carlos I of Spain when he was conferred the Grand Collar of the Order of Lakandula (whose medallion I designed) by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (herself a descendant of Lakandula, a Native Royalty of pre-Hispanic Muslim Manila)

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and His Majesty King Juan Carlos I of Spain

(with the Grand Collar of the Order of Lakandula medallion designed by Eric Agoncillo Ambata)

The idea for visual memes in place of currency symbols for ASEAN+3 (Association of Southeast Asian Nations + People's Republic of China, Japan and Republic of Korea) financial markets was nurtured by a former team leader who valued a heuristic approach to web information architecture. This rather intellectual yet easy solution was evidenced by the use of cultural and heraldic symbols to solve the dilemma of often non-aesthetically pleasing and uninformative apolitical and stark visual approaches prevalent in information design of multilateral organizations.

The large symbols in blue represented Asian culture's treasure guardians and messengers of fortune: dragons, lions, nagas and garudas. They were used as iconography for financial news items and watermarks for charts and tables. The smaller symbols were generally national symbols derived from each country's flags and/or national coats of arms. They marked the landing pages for each financial markets. Like the actual country/national symbols in the real world; the use of such potent images could be negated, disposed or changed by volatile political dictates and shake-ups in regimes. And that was when weasels came in.

Visual Memes for ASEAN+3 Financial Markets

(click images to enlarge)

The Philippine Coat of Arms, The American Eagle, and My Dad's Signet Ring

2009-10-26T23:57:00.029+08:00

I have been contemplative lately; getting aware of the littlest gossamers which connect my art/designs to moments and details of my life. The irony is that, though I'm officially on sabbatical, I still continue working for my clients. People I have nurtured throughout the years; of partnerships that went beyond official sanctums.

Recently, my Dad gave me his signet (sans the gold ring mount); the official token for his 26 indefatigable and fruitful years of service; working for the United States Information Service, Manila. He got employed in 1967, the same year my lovely elder sister Peggy was born. He retired in 1993. The signet bears on its shield a wrong info: 20 years of service. Boo! Uncle Sam.

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Throughout the years, my Dad would bring home free literature from his office: numerous books, magazines, and occasionally maps. I devoured them: the now-rare Horizon magazines; American History books; Problems of Communism series of magazines; and US Military magazines which I cut out and paste tanks and aircrafts on hardboard with which I then play with (I don't have G.I. Joe toys).

Propaganda materials as my older siblings are wont to say; but as I realized it later on; my Dad felt a true affinity with his employment and employer; for he was born during the American Commonwealth Period; 1938 to be exact. (As an aside, when he celebrated his recent 70th Birthday, I gifted him with a complete set of National Geographic issues of his birth year!) I remember his stories: during his childhood they would sing the Star-Spangled Banner before the Lupang Hinirang, the National Anthem of the Philippines; and play baseball. He also played the clarinet during his teens because Benny Goodman was his favorite musician. He was clearly the product of his time and generation.

In 2003, I got what I considered the opportunity of a lifetime. I was given the honor to re-design and improve upon the National Symbols of the Republic of the Philippines: Coat of Arms or Seal of the Republic; the National Flag; the Presidential/Vice Presidential Seal and Flag and heraldic symbols that constitute them. It was pure joy!

The American Bald Eagle; a colonial and historical symbol and part of the Philippine Coat of Arms; was one of the most difficult heraldic symbols I had to re-do. Manuel L. Quezon III, my boss in Malacanan Palace and project leader that time, gave me historical graphic resources and invaluable input on my design. I had to shed my creative prejudices and licenses away and stick to what is historically accurate and true. I did not replicate the Eagle that was on the US Presidential Seal; but instead drew from the representation of the Eagle as it was used during the Commonwealth-era Philippines. The difference was both minute and vast. The Eagle that was on the Commonwealth Seal of the Philippines was graphically a close cousin to the one on the US Presidential Seal. I had to count the feathers as they were delineated in the Commonwealth records. Manuel also showed me medallions embossed with the Commonwealth Eagle, paper currency of the period and historical photographs for comparison.

I'm so proud that my Dad, despite his 26 years of service in the US Embassy, did not pursue his privilege of migrating to the States like his other former co-workers. It was the early 90s and there was recession brought about by the Gulf War and he had heard so many horror stories of retirees becoming charity cases in their bid to pursue their American dreams. But then again, his being a former employee did not help him either in gaining a US Tourist Visa when he planned to go to the States to visit his daughters in December 2001. It was wrong timing as the tragedy of 911 happened just a few months prior and US internal security became so tight.

I showed my Dad my re-designed American (Commonwealth) Eagle before I submitted to Malacanan. He said I got it right.

Postcript: Some Photos

My Oil Portrait of Dad, Romeo Amparo Ambata

Some of my Dad's books in our small library at home

My Dad's Certificate of Service signed by Ambassador Richard Solomon

Noynoy Aquino, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Anime Avatars and me!

2009-10-25T18:32:00.023+08:00

I was fortunate enough to meet and greet the now-Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama of Japan when he was a Member of the House of Representatives in 2003. He was with the Yuai Youth Association, our sponsor in JICA's Youth Friendship Programme: Information and Communications Technology Group. The man made a very good impression on this graphics guy when he handed me his anime-inspired card. He, on the other hand, inquired about the design of my business card, which was also, modesty aside, cool and attention-grabbing.

His anime-inspired personal card has three avatars. All three images carried his trademark look: big bulging eyes, sleek hairdo and lanky frame. The top-left avatar is the "politician"; right image is the "nature lover", with pink hearts for eyes! (I remember he gave us a book of his nature photographs as souvenir). While the bottom one is the "brawler", I guess because the cartoon image has a bruise (?) (must be a reflection of his no-nonsense personality in the political arena); and then again these are just my interpretations; but for a public servant and politician to actually do this is refreshingly progressive and cool! (Left image: my old business card, please click to enlarge)

Which brings me to my avatar design of the good Senator himself, Noynoy Aquino. I believe he will bring the much needed vigor, inspiration and youthful energy back to the Presidency. Noynoy carried by the sealion is my "cool factor" take on his campaign for the Presidency. The sword and leonine qualities of the sealion manifest in his no-nonsense stance on corruption.

Please vote for your favorite avatar design here. And please vote for my entry! hehehe ;-) thanks!

http://www.noynoy.ph/index.html

http://www.noynoy.ph/avatar.html#avatar

Postscript

Below are my pictures with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama when he was still Member of the House of Representatives in 2003

Philippine ITC Group with Mr. Hatoyama (I'm third from left)

Mr. Hatoyama looking at my business card (I will look for the card)

Mr. Hatoyama (Shaider) with Annie! :-)

Diet Building

Dead Gladiator: Juan Luna's 152nd Birth Anniversary

2009-10-24T13:07:00.009+08:00

October 24, 2009 is the 152nd Birth Anniversary of Juan Luna, considered the Greatest Filipino Painter. He was of late 19th-century bourgeois Filipino milieu: burgeoning nationalism, anti-friar and anti-clerical. His expatriate and nationalist art was of the European schools' Romantic and Neoclassic spheres which apex in his greatest allegorical masterpiece: La Spoliarium (on permanent display at the National Museum of the Philippines).

Dead Gladiator by Eric Agoncillo Ambata

Oil on Canvas

(from the collection of Javier V. D. Rufino)

A few years ago I made a boceto or oil study of the dead gladiator detail from Luna's La Spoliarium. It was inspired by my trip to the Roman Forum and Colosseum in Rome and the Manila staging of the stunning 2003 Asensio/Cayabyab opera, Spoliarium based on the life and works of the painter. It was an award-winning neo-opera in three-acts with Libretto by Fides Cuyugan-Asensio and Music by Maestro Ryan Cayabyab.

Dead Gladiator by Eric Agoncillo Ambata

Oil on Canvas

(from the collection of Javier V. D. Rufino)

Juan Luna circa 1899

(photo courtesy of Lopez Museum & Library)

Juan Luna was a tortured great man in the vein of a Greek Tragedy. He consorted with future martyrs and heroes, compatriots like Jose Rizal and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo in Europe and as proud indio painter won medals for his works. He eventually killed his wife in a fit of jealous rage; died a pauper; and made an orphan of his only child; who became an eminent art deco architect of the early-20th century Philippines.

Detail from La Spoliarium now permanently displayed at the

National Museum of the Philippines

Madrid Salon of 1884 showing the location of the Spoliarium

(photo courtesy of Lopez Museum & Library)

More information about Juan Luna can be read here:

> Juan Luna Biography

> Hidalgo and Luna: Vexed Modernity

> The Role of Luna and Hidalgo in Philippine History

> Juan Luna: A Collection

My Noynoy Aquino Avatar

2009-10-22T22:39:00.007+08:00

Senator Noynoy Aquino is running for the highest office in the land (President of the Republic of the Philippines). This avatar design was inspired by the Sealion of the Presidential Seal (which I incidentally, re-designed back in 2003, see illustration below). Please vote for your favorite avatar design here. And please vote for my entry! hehehe ;-) thanks!

http://www.noynoy.ph/index.html

http://www.noynoy.ph/avatar.html#avatar

Sea Lion Heraldry of the Presidential Seal

Blog Action Day: Climate Change: Help! Threatened and Endangered Animals of the Philippines.

2009-10-15T21:29:00.003+08:00

For Blog Action Day: Climate Change am reposting my previous entry: Threatened and Endangered Animals of the Philippines. For my other write-up for Lopez Museum:

http://pezseum.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-action-day-climate-change.html

This same month, exactly a year ago I saw my first Tarsier in Bohol province of central Philippines. It was a fascinating creature, so tiny and helpless. But my initial sight of it was so tantalizing it made me think of weird thoughts: what if nature avenges itself against man and goes berserk and mutates this lowly tarsier into a daikaiju? Was there a Pleistocene megafauna version of this creature? Fanciful ideas but the awful truth of the matter is the population of this humble animal is dwindling because of deforestation and other man-made havoc.

The Haribon WildLife Gallery I designed was taken from the old Haribon Foundation website of 1999-2000 with photos courtesy of Lory Tan. Please visit the Haribon Foundation website. And please help, contribute, and support your favorite Environmental Conservation group for these animals, endemic only to the Philippines are threatened by hunting and poaching and some are endangered of extinction.

Philippine Eagle

Bear Cat

Rufous Hornbill

Philippine Cockatoo

Cloud Rat

Philippine White-Winged Flying Fox

Flying Lemur

Monitor Lizard

Serpent Eagle

Palawan Porcupine

Bleeding-Heart Dove

Cory Aquino, wife of Martial Bonifacio

2009-08-01T14:33:00.007+08:00

Rest in peace. Pres. Cory Aquino is now one with the immortal heroes: Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Manuel Quezon and Ninoy, her patriot-husband. As a Martial Law-era baby and a grade-schooler during the EDSA Revolution of 1986, my politics as a young man was shaped by these pivotal events but whose meanings were sadly, gradually got lost to me by the ebb and flow of living my mundane adult life. But with this spark in my memories I can fan again the flames of passionate conviction and keep it real.

"Life and Times of Martial Bonifacio"

The painting below now hangs in my sister Peggy's bedroom. It's entitled, "Life and Times of Martial Bonifacio", a pseudonym of Sen. Benigno Aquino II, the hero-martyr and husband of Corazon Aquino. I painted it in 1991 during my Freshman year in Art School.

"Life and Times of Martial Bonifacio" by EAA, 1991

Listening and Reading Mode

2009-07-14T00:44:00.002+08:00

A Deja Vu Post: The Philippines are or is? (Quezon.ph and the Filipino Librarian)

2009-06-24T12:13:00.018+08:00

This is what happens when one has been lacking sleep and burning the midnight oil for three consecutive nights. About 2 hours ago, blogger Manolo Quezon tweeted a link to his Tumblr entry: "Why do Americans insist the Philippines *are* and we say the Philippines *is*: http://tinyurl.com/koaof9".

I followed it and promptly clicked on some links and landed on to more postings by him and The Filipino Librarian. I was not paying attention to the date stamp for those entries were from freaking 2005! Before this knock-on-the-head I posted my equivalent "visual" reply to their postings. I took this entry off for a couple of minutes but decided to re-post it. What the heck, these seals are beautiful!

These are complementary visuals to the question: The Philippines are or is? as posted in the blogs, Filipino Librarian (by Von Totanes) and Manuel L. Quezon III (by Manolo Quezon).

The Filipino Librarian asked: Why is a the used with Philippines?

To quote from The Explainer, Manolo Quezon:

"So when the framers of the 1935 Constitution in a sense, named their country, a chance Filipinos hadn’t had since 1898, they decided to view their country in the singular and not the plural: my guess is that an attempt would have been made to drop “The” even later on. In 1940, the Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth was briefly changed, the scroll underneath, for one, which had said “Commonwealth of the Philippines,” changed to simply, “Philippines.” Unfortunately the design (very similar to today’s national coat of arms) was unpopular at the time, and the old Commonwealth arms swiftly restored."

The three variant Coats-of-Arms in this page are from the Philippine Commonwealth Period which I rendered for the Malacanan Palace Presidential Museum, and are based on historical visual records.

NO to CONASS: For love of Philippines and its people!

2009-06-09T23:57:00.001+08:00

Lovable Wild Animals in Hokkaido

2009-06-08T23:29:00.007+08:00

Hokkaido, Japan is one of the most beautiful places I've visited. Pristine nature, the Ainu, best sushi and nice people. The picture above shows two of my favorite souvenirs: a sleeping fox and bear cub.

Below are images from the postcard series: Lovable Wild Animals in Hokkaido

A lonely cub in Mt. Moiwa in Sapporo

The pika is thought of as a living fossil.

A brown bear.

A striped owl.

A great spotted woodpecker

An Ezo raccoon dog

Crane chicks in Kushiro Marsh

A cub on the flower garden of Mt. Daisetsu

Fish eagles migrate to Hokkaido to pass the winter.

A white-tailed sea eagle.

An Ezo owl.

Ezo deer (the biggest deer in Japan).

Swans and drift ice on the Bay of Notsukke.

An Ezo squirrel.

Filipinopithecus on Mt. Tarumae

Endangered and Threatened Animals of the Philippines

2009-06-06T18:27:00.028+08:00

Philippine Eagle

Bear Cat

Rufous Hornbill

Philippine Cockatoo

Cloud Rat

Philippine White-Winged Flying Fox

Flying Lemur

Monitor Lizard

Serpent Eagle

Palawan Porcupine

Bleeding-Heart Dove

Artificing Rizal: An Experiment

2009-06-06T14:02:00.025+08:00

Rizal in Rome by eaa

Dr. Jose Rizal, Philippine National Hero, Patriot and Martyr; and deified cult-figure to a hero-worshipping sect will be 148 years old on June 19. As one famous female mythographer put it, "We are all Greeks"; but then again I believe Rizal is the only figure, dead or alive, we can get to a tragic and triumphant Greek hero: travelled the world, Odysseus; practitioner of the arts, Orpheus; healer, Asklepios; and civic hero, Theseus.

His apotheosis in Filipino culture and identity is hallmarked by the fact that he was a pacifist and his main weapons were his erudite pen and uncanny wit and irony. The same Greco-Roman gods were kind to Rizal as he was a Renaissance man in the truest sense of the word.

He probably felt "at home" when he roamed Europe in the latter part of the 19th-century and it must have imbued in him a deeper sense of purpose when exposed to ancient literary classics and the remnants of bygone cultures together with the enlightened politics and burgeoning fires of nationalism and self-determination of the time.

The disconnection of Rizal's truth with contemporary Filipino youth is very palpabale today. Save for the banal, the monuments, holidays, memorials and required scholastic reading, Rizal does not resonate with the self and the personal.

Lopez Museum in its past exhibit, Dime a Dozen and Cut and Paste featured a social experiment of "Rizal interacting" via the social networking website, Friendster. A personal profile of Jose Rizal was set up with his vital statistics; his likes and dislikes; and other "mundane" information. The success of the experiment can be more or less qualified by how "friends" interacted with him through posted comments and feedback. But more than that, the effect went beyond the eerie fact of "friending" and "interacting" with a dead "hero-celebrity", but the act and artifice of using Rizal itself was put into observation and question.

My personal contribution to the experiment was a mock series of Rizal's travel photos in Japan, Rome and Paris.

Rizal in Paris by eaa

Rizal in Japan by eaa

I accomplished my personal re-connection with Rizal by using my own travel photos as locales of his historic journeys. Authentic photos of Rizal were digitized together with touristy-scapes I took of my previous travels to Europe and Japan; where my particular photographed locales could or could not have been the same places he visited.

Most of the time the conceit of re-connecting with the past is achieved only through artifice but what always remains authentic is the communing spirit.

"Jose Rizal's Friendster account"

Lopez Museum: Dime a Dozen, Cut and Paste

Recurring Themes: Sacred & Profane

2009-06-06T01:44:00.018+08:00

"Life and Death Cross by eaa, AIDS Candlelight Memorial Exhibition 1996"

Recently at a cocktail party, a Swedish friend of mine remarked that she had a hard time appreciating paintings with "religious" themes. She did not however elaborate on her comment nor she needed to but I "got" her right off. I believed she, being from Scandinavia, is reason enough for historically there was massive iconoclastic backlash during its era of Protestant Reformation and it endured until modern times.

My hitherto mistake is relating "sacred" to "religious" as if they are actually interchangeable. For the longest time I considered my painting motifs as "religious art". There might be a subconscious reading to this reason and as time went I realized that there was more to it than semantics.

Coming out of art school in 1995 was taxing for me personally and artistically. I remembered my work being psychoanalyzed as "by a sexually repressed Catholic school boy with an identity crisis." By all accounts it was a correct analysis or diagnosis if you must.

I believe if the early Cro-Magnon man drew those charcoal buffalos to somehow "overpower" their prey and make their hunt a success and not because they found the images aesthetically pleasing. This primal reason is as effective today as it was millenia ago.

As I got further educated in art (and in life) as not all things are learnt in school, I became at peace with my art, and with its recurring motif of the sacred and the profane. It's now easier for me to narrate my stories in symbols and imagery drawn from my esoteric and exoteric communions.

These are some of my sacred and profane motifs circa 1991-1996:

"lingam guru"

"phallic angels and uterine garden"

"AIDS Madonna"

"angelic phalluses, guru-in-yoni and the immaculate"

"ovulation"

"Dormido" for Charity event of Dominican Student-Brothers , 1995

"Baroque, 1994"

Adam & Eve; "phallus-man and venus of willendorf"

"sacred tree of life"

Music Appreciation: A Procrastination (and Koko Taylor is Dead)

2009-06-05T19:47:00.038+08:00

facing the music: dusted-off CDs

I have to admit procrastination is the twin sister of lethargy. Even in my music appreciation, I tend to abstain when the mood is not right. When working, my sensory experience should always be congruous: the right amount of sunlight streaming through the curtains; the right room temperature: I prefer it a bit chilly; jammies or shorts without shirt on; iTunes visualizer turned on for background visuals (or a favorite reality design show on infinite loop); and the right music.

Sometimes, I rummage through my modest CD collection (900 plus or minus) for my "first-impression" music to set the mood right, if I don't prepare a playlist on iTunes beforehand. (After I inadvertently obliterated my 5 year-old playlists a few months back, I felt I cannot recover from my loss).

"You snooze, you lose", my partner tells me. So when I "window shop" in the music section of Fully Booked, Bonifacio Global City I know for a fact that I can't leave the floor empty-handed. I lost many a good selection before when I decided to come back for them on a later date. But this lethal collection-obsession has a downside to it: I don't really get to listen to all the music CDs I buy. It takes months before I open some of my purchases but if the mood really calls for it I devour them in no time.

Recently a blues legend passed away, Koko Taylor is not as popular as say Nina Simone, but then again the comparison is unfair but if her name does not ring a bell then you get the point. As I was reading the New York Times article, I was having this nagging feeling in my head: "you have a Koko Taylor CD, don't you remember? you know you have one." And I discover I have! I felt sad after reading that article. I remember doing a week long rotation of Ray Charles' music when he passed away years back.

Now I have gathered and dusted-off a selection of CDs from my shelves, which I have not played before for one bizarre reason or another, that the timing or mood or the celestial alignment was not right or probably I was just plain lazy. But for Koko's sake I have opened their plastic wrap and am now ready to face the music:

The Alligator Records Compilation: Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials; Katie Webster; Elvin Bishop; The Lonnie Brooks Blues Band; Koko Taylor & Her Blues Machine.

I devoured the Stax Records compilation rightaway and after that the Apollo Theatre luminaries CD but this Alligator Records compilation got lost in the "shuffle".

Asensio/Cayabyab's SPOLIARIUM: The Opera. This home-bred Opera's review I read years back was very positive. Still, this CD was relegated to "wait" after a succession of Cecilia Bartoli, Eileen Farrell, Joshua Bell, Renee Fleming, Bryn Terfel and Lang Lang.

ROBERT BURNS: My Heart's In The Highlands. My all-time favorite poet, I can still recite the poem from my elementary days: O My Love's Like a Red, Red Rose. I will play you may be after watching Brigadoon, again.

HARRY ON BROADWAY (The Pajama Game and Thou Shalt Not). I am a completist when it comes to Harry Connick, Jr. and his first concert in Manila was spectacular but I haven't gotten around to listening to his version of the Pajama Game. I know Doris Day is not "there" and though I loved Rosemary Clooney's version of Hey There, it was not enough to make me click the play button to hear a new take on the song. But I will now!

Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha will have its time under the iTunes' visualizer sun. This was to go in tandem with the Porgy and Bess opera CD but when I got back to buy the two, only Treemonisha was left.

I like Thai Buddhist culture but I don't know if I would like it's music. This double CD is already 8 years-old and I have yet to overcome this irrational fear and pop the CD.

CONASS: Watching from the Event Horizon of a Blackhole

2009-06-05T00:15:00.009+08:00

The image above is inspired by the cartoon of Philippine Free Press, Saturday, October 18, 1941 issue entitled "Pity the Poor Voter" from the book, Philippine Cartoons (Political Caricature of American Era 1900-1941) by Alfredo Roces and Alfred McCoy.

Things may have changed since then but they still stayed the same.

(CONASS: Constitutional Assembly) Asses are still asses and nothing escapes their blackholes, not even the light of reason and love of country.

For those of us watching from the Event Horizon, these pundits help us be enlightened:

http://www.quezon.ph/2009/06/04/the-long-view-the-phoney-war/

http://caffeinesparks.blogspot.com/2009/06/bloggers-on-conass.html

Rep. Teddy Boy Locsin on HR1109

http://www.scribd.com/doc/16072001/Locsin-on-HR1109

Haribon: a Tree; then a Bird for a short time; and now a Tree again (A Branding Story)

2009-05-30T14:41:00.037+08:00

animated Haribon "bird-logo" 1998

Sail away...

From Bissau to Palau in the shade of Avalon.

From Fiji to Tiree and the isles of Ebony.

From Peru to Cebu, feel the power of Babylon.

From Bali to Cali, far beneath the Coral Sea.

De de de de de...

Sail away...

from Orinoco Flow by Enya

In 1997, Haribon celebrated it's 25th anniversary. The commemorative booklet had this quote together with an illustration of the Philippine Eagle: "Only after the last tree has been cut, only after the last fish has been caught, only after the last river has been poisoned, only then will man know that money can not be eaten".

Haribon is one of the most active and influential environmental conservation groups in the Philippines today. In 1972, it started as a bird watching group and in 1984, it was registered as a science and research foundation conducting floral and faunal studies as is accredited by the Department of Science and Technology, and by the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, as a private voluntary organization. It is also a member of World Conservation Union (IUCN) and collaborates with international organizations such as Birdlife International, the Wild Bird Society of Japan, Ocean Voice International, World Wide Fund for Nature and Greenpeace. Haribon also maintains a strong network with local environmental groups such as the Green Forum and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the NGOs for Protected Areas (NIPA).

The now-defunct pioneering web design solutions group, Alchemy Media Design Group developed Haribon's first website in 1998 and being a then-junior designer I was tasked to design it. I was challenged to say the least, but if not for Lory Tan's inspiring environmental and animal photos I would have balked and backed out. I first encountered Haribon in one of their campus recruitment drives in college and I remember I signed up but I don't recall ever attending any meetings thereafter.

Designing the website was a treat and frankly, I was happy to discover animals which exist in the Philippines (things I didn't know apart from watching David Attenborough): the Cloud Rat and the Hydrophis semperi of Taal Lake come to mind. Plus, I was given free reign in my designs but one of Haribon's officers that time, Jukka Holopainen would always keep watch for sometimes I would mistakingly collage non-endemic animals with the local menagerie! The then-website of the international World Wildlife Fund was pretty remarkable and I would attempt to emulate their endangered species gallery.

It was that fascination with the WWF and their oh-so-simple-yet-very-effective panda logo in particular that made me come up with a different brand for Haribon. I don't recall much of the conversation with my teamleader and Haribon but I was given permission to come up with a new logo at least for the website to parallel with the panda logo of WWF. But later on I would see this new logo I made in a poster in one of Haribon's events.

Website rendering of original tree logo and logotype

The official logo of Haribon is a stylized tree. As I saw it, the look and feel of the original tree logo was dated and has Ferdinand Marcos' "New Society" graphic feel to it which was geometric and it looked like inverted golf clubs. I have no knowledge of who designed the original tree logo but it was updated in the early 2000. I like what it is now: more dynamic and "swaying" like a real tree would.

Haribon's gorgeous current branding, the updated stylized tree

But in '98 to 2000 the Haribon logo in its website was actually a bird which was being true to its name: Haribon, King of Birds referring to the Philippine Eagle.

Haribon Website Branding, 1998

Philippine Eagle and Eaglet inspiration

I can cite three influences in the Philippine Bird logo I made: The Philippine Eagle, WWF's Panda and Enya. It was Enya the Irish singer of Orinoco Flow who figured heavily in my design inspiration. Her songs were in heavy rotation in my Sony Walkman CD player. It was the Font Enya that I used for the logotype which was seldom applied but the logo itself was a variation of the the Enya Font's letter H.

from Enya's H to Haribon

An inspired tweaked of the letter H of the Enya Font became a negative rorschach for a mother eagle and her eaglet. It was also during this time that my use of Fractal Design Painter trumped Adobe Photoshop.

Iconic Philippine animals I designed for Haribon website 1998-1999

using Fractal Design Painter

It was an Orinoco Flow moment, indeed! The two websites I designed for Haribon eventually sailed away with two Philippine Web Awards: Best Environmental Website in 1998 and Best Cause-Oriented Website in 2000.

http://www.philippinewebawards.com/

It's always different when clients let me "sail away" with my designs. They get awards for it!

I Heart Calligraphy

2009-05-29T04:06:00.007+08:00

My partner recently visited Shanghai and Dalian in People's Rep. of China with his family relations. He, being a history buff was giddy about visiting the two cities: the movie Empire of the Sun came to mind for Shanghai, while for Dalian: Manchuria, Russia and Manchu-Kuo. The food was great according to him and later on he would show me the pictures he took of the beautiful locales. As always whenever he travels abroad he would tease about his perfect present for me, and this time it was utterly gorgeous and ultimately functional: Calligraphy brushes! I could not ask for anything better.

Which reminds me, I can now replicate with precision the Calligraphy version of my name below: The two Chinese characters mean: "young at heart" and "to open new boundary".

A few years back, December of 2006 to be exact I was knee-deep painting plates at Color Me Mine, Podium in Mandaluyong City. It was Christmas season and it had been a tradition for my partner and I to "work" on our personal gifts. That time we decided to paint ceramic plates to give to our family and closest friends.

That's me getting dirty with acrylic paint.

More plates to go! Ceramic painting took two days.

My trusty Japanese Kamon book and the crest I painted.

Below is a gallery of some of the plates I painted

Jellicle Ball Cats: the Rampant Lion, the Picatso and the Oreimon

2009-05-27T22:10:00.081+08:00

"Jellicle Cats come out tonight, Jellicle Cats come one, come all

The Jellicle Moon is shining bright, Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball"

Jellicle Ball, from the hit musical Cats

In my fourteen years as artist and designer, I have dealt with cats professionally: heraldic cats; anthropomorphic cats; and sometimes corporate cats. All aristocats as they turned out to be. Because cats seem to live in the upmost caste of bestiary designs. The Jungian reason could be because the lion, the main predatory cat, has always been a solar symbol since time immemorial and its kith and kin had inherited its traits: strong, fearless, majestic...and apparently saleable. (top left: maneki-neko, ceramic enticing cat, a Japanese gift from a friend)

Left: Seal of the Republic of the Philippines, Right: Rampant Lion

The heraldic rampant Lion of the Kingdoms of Leon and Castille (i.e.

Spain

) is part of the Seal of the Republic of the

Philippines

. I re-worked it in 2003 (for the Office of the President, Malacañan Palace) and made it more naturalistic and apparently less cartoony in its representation. I studied the original renderings in the Malacañan Palace archives and noticed the deterioration of its imagery throughout the decades of its usage. I went back to its historical roots and re-invigorated its elegant and powerful form for the Strong Republic and the contemporary Filipino.

Anthropomorphic cats are dear and special to me: Garfield, Heathcliff, Hello Kitty and Felix the Cat come to mind. Just like any other kid I grew up with a steady diet of Saturday morning cartoons and went about childhood wanting things branded with Sanrio, Hanna-Barbera and King Features Syndicate characters. What with the medieval knights whose armory and flags were emblazoned with lions and leopards to win tournaments and battles, today's domesticated and housebroken pet cats have anthropomorphized into incredible commercial and advertising successes.

In 1992, I was privileged to be chosen as semi-finalist of Sanrio/Gift Gate's local art contest:Create-A-Character. I was a giddy art school sophomore of 17 and I submitted five designs but the one ultimately chosen was my entry “Painter-Cat” who went by the name of Picatso, an uppity black-and-white cat "dirtied" with colors. In context, it was outrageously witty and funny but I relented, the winning entry was stronger for it captured the essence of Japanese minimal design that characterized Sanrio. My design was more in the mold of DePatie-Freling and Hanna-Barbera school of animated character design.

My sketch studies for Picatso, 1992

Picatso's face is in the shape of a Painter's palette board,

the thumb-hole becoming its eye

My next anthropomorphic feline encounter after Picatso came 17 years later in the multilateral organization, Asian Development Bank, Manila, where I eventually worked as a graphic and web designer/consultant for six productive years. A few months ago a very creative and visionary Italian economist prodded me to create a design to welcome the ADB President (who is Japanese) in his annual walkabout and picture-taking. He came to me proposing a character in the mold of Pokemon: a "cuddly yet powerful” hybrid anime creature symbolizing regional integration and cooperation of ASEAN+3 countries (South East Asia + China, Japan, South Korea). The guy was totally insane and we had fun conceptualizing the unofficial “mascot of the department” (Office of Regional Economic Integration) all the while considering it a tad subversive for it circumvented the official graphic design policy of the institution. It became the “semi-official mascot of the department" amidst raised eyebrows and naysayers.

Oreimon as it was christened was a chimeric tiger and dragon creature. The Italian economist liked the concept and championed it and had it rendered a display standee (a lifesize cardboard cutout), ultimately the ADB president was photographed with it much to the chagrin of a few non-fans.

Designing Oreimon was a blast, and as a student and fan of Japanese contemporary popular culture, I found anthropomorphic design to be a powerful humanizing element in the graphical representation of an institutional organization. And didn’t I say the Italian economist was creative and a visionary?

Song of the Sea-Lion: Tales of Philippine Heraldry (Part 3)

2009-05-22T18:46:00.003+08:00

Coat of Arms of the Philippines 1898-1902

The majestic Sea Lion, ennobled creature circumnavigator, conqueror of the Pacific.

(to be continued)

Sea Lion and Tower (Detail of Cartouche from

Mapa de las Yslas Philipinas, 1744 by Fr. Pedro Velarde Murillo)

Mapa de las Yslas Philipinas, 1744 by Fr. Pedro Velarde Murillo

Song of the Sea-Lion: Tales of Philippine Heraldry (continuation)

2009-05-19T20:15:00.004+08:00

The Sea-Lion of the Presidential Seal was spawned in the Age of Exploration in the 16th Century CE, unlike its thallasic cousin the noble Hippocamp, it did not share the seas with nereids and tritons of the classical age. It's birthcry was muted by the wails and sobs of the Spanish Armada in its defeat by the glorious English fleet in 1588.

to be continued...

To boldly go where no man has gone before: Star Trek, Micronauts, and Lam-Ang in Space

2009-05-18T20:24:00.031+08:00

Lam-Ang in Space, 1993 (oil on canvas)

My plate for the Composition class of Prof. Antonio Austria,

UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts

I'm a proud geek card-carrying artist. I know my Forrest J. Ackerman from my Eugene Roddenberry. My Barbarella from my Ultima. My Fritz Lang from my J. Michael Straczynski. You get the drift.

But I may surrender my geek card 'cause I'm not a true-blue Star Trek fan. I only have one Star Trek comic in my entire geeky childhood, a local black and white re-print of the story "Legacy of Lazarus" which I bought for 1.50 pesos in a bookstore beside our elementary school back in 1983. I was in Grade 3 and my grasp of English then was ok given that I also watched Sesame Street but I knew even then that I was not attracted to the costumes, the phasers and the almost-retro feel of the story. This was in comparison to the cosmic Shi'Ar storyline I was reading in my Uncanny X-Men comics.

My father would gather all my comic books and have them bound by his friend who worked in the printing department of US Embassy, Manila. One of the comics included in the bound volume was a copy of Micronauts issue number 1. Micronauts was a space-opera comics based on toys produced by Mego Corp in the late 70s and early 80s. It was my alternative to Star Trek. Micronauts was taglined with "They Came From Inner Space". They were space adventurers molded after Star Wars which was the most popular Sci-Fi movie of the era: Space Glider, Marionette, Acroyear, Bug, Biotron and Microtron could be your Skywalker, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, C3PO and R2D2. My science fiction geekiness took it's first flight with Micronauts' Spaceship Endeavor figuratively.

My one and only Star Trek comic book was not an ultimate waste, I appreciated it more when I got to highschool. The storyline was about a planet populated by android clones created by disgraced Earth scientist Lazarus. The clones were historical figures: A George Washington married to a Helen of Troy, a Nero, an Abraham Lincoln and Anton York the 45th President of the United States! Whoa!

In college, my favorite borrowed book from the Thomas Jefferson Library initially located along Buendia Avenue, Makati City was Pilgrims Through Space and Time, a history of "science fiction" through the ages; moon travel stories by the Ancient Greeks; travels of early explorers; Jules Verne down to Metropolis by Fritz Lang and Buck Rogers; of utopian and dystopian futures and martian invasions.

This book was very influential to me, with it I composed my college painting plate: Lam-Ang in Space, a native epic warrior in full astronaut regalia.

I may not surrender my geek card anytime soon afterall, my love of Greek Mythology and Science Fiction are reconciled in the hit TV space drama: Battlestar Galactica which I enjoy tremendously.

The Muses in Helicon are sending their blessings through folds in space-time...between galactic scylla and warping charybdis...this geek will boldy go where all geeks have gone before, split infinitives and all...

Angels and Demons, Heretics and Painters

2009-05-17T18:46:00.016+08:00

Albigensian Heresy was just one of the more prominent doctrinal heresies discussed by our Dominican Tertiary, Siena Highschool, Moral Guidance teacher, Ms. Virgie Nermal back in '88-'89. Our Catholic theology then was more comprehensive than the one discussed at the University of Santo Tomas during my college years in the 90s. Long before my literary encounter with eminent theologians, Hans Kung and Bart Ehrman, I was soaked, hung and dried with Ecclesiastical History told through the point of view of our Dominican-trained mentors.

~~ train of thought breaking, am listening to Carmina Burana (Ecce Gratum in particular) while composing this blog piece ~~~

"Sunflower Madonna" detail from my Triptych College Thesis

In short, I was hooked. Though the lessons of Ms. Nermal were just an outline, it was a rather satisfactory preparation for my eventual encounters with Medieval Church History, Catharism, the Great Schism and Papal History. My long afternoons in the University of Santo Tomas Central Library and the Jefferson Library were spent browsing through art history in general but church art and history in particular.

My wall poster: A Family Tree: From Adam to Jesus

This weird fascination was seared into my brain early on because it evoked Medieval knights fighting heretics, castle siege, tales of satanic rituals, and of angels fighting demons. I now think this was a natural progression from being weaned on Bulfinch's Arthurian and Carolingian Myths at a very young age. And because it was a Dominican highschool, of course the story centered on its patron Saint Dominic de Guzman who was the "canis nero" hero of the Albigensian Heresy war.

Every Catholic family has one: altar (from a Bottled Jordan River Water, Apostolic Certificate of Pope John Paul II blessing our family to Vatican Jubilee Candles, pilgrimage-touristy statuettes, faux antique santos, electric-lighted effigies)

And this is my oblique intro to Ron Howard's movie, Angels and Demons which I found rather stimulating/fascinating and laugh-out-loud funny. The former because I've been to some of the places shown in the movie and the latter because if one hasn't read actual church history, one would be misled by the supposed facts in the fiction of Dan Brown.

To say the least, I did not find the movie virulently anti-Catholic or anti-Papist. I find it would induce curiosity from the cafeteria Catholics to know more about their sacred history. This I hope to happen.

Trinity detail from Triptych

And if my intro is an indication I am not a red-blooded Catholic nor the i-go-to-church-every-Sunday kind of Catholic. I'm more, let-me-think-about-it-after-I-read-the-Borgia-family-saga kind of Catholic.

~~ Carmina Burana music is over it's now Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orpheo Ed Euridice ~~

Taking cue from the music, like Orpheus I was too proud not to look back which made the ghost of my Eurydice vanish forever. Uhm, mixed metaphor there. Meaning I tried to learn more about my Church history and in knowing I now tend to go in circles when asked about my faith. Purgatorial best describes it. Neither here or there but not beyond redemption for those who are concerned.

My wall posters: Family Tree of Jesus and a Cavalcade of Popes

Popes and their Coat-of-Arms: detail from My Popes Poster

A Cavalcade of Popes: anti-popes not included

Painters thrive in this state of being neither here or there, between agony and ecstacy, in hidden symbolism and mixed religious-secular metaphors.

One of the images in my triptych college thesis painting is this Wolfen Monk. It is an allegory to St. Dominic de Guzman whose symbol is a black dog carrying a torch, but in my rather subversive take, the Wolfen Monk is the firebrand monk of the Middle Ages who called people to arms and took them to ethnic cleansing (in the Provence area of France, among other places). No war is ever holy which was my belief when I painted this imagery and which I will always espouse. The Church have matured ever since and now the war is wage on matters of sexuality. My short take on this is that the Church has always been about sex albeit veiled: Bride and bridegroom, bedchamber, some of the psalms (Shekinah) and parables have sexual connotations and they will always be cloaked to the uninitiated. I won't go Dan Brown with meanings of Church symbols but they are myriad and they don't teach that in school anymore.

But I'm glad that beyond Dan Brown there are true theologians out there and not fiction writers such as Hans Kung, Bart Ehrman, Karen Armstong...and to know them is to live long and prosper! But that's another story.

Judge the Book by its Bookplate: Rejected Bookplate Designs

2009-05-12T23:54:00.020+08:00

The ready-made design I was meant to "tweak"

In his latest daily dose, pundit Manolo Quezon III opened his article with images of bookplates used by his grandparents. They are excellent tidbits of history for those who give a damn and I quote,"scans of AAQ’s and MLQ’s bookplates; though rarely used today, bookplates used to be a highly-developed form of personal expression".

The practice of using bookplates is kind of rare nowadays. I borrow books from friends and only two in five bothered to mark their books. But one can often see bookplates being sold in popular bookstores hanging in rows beside the cash register. Some are of the cutesy variety, I once bought a Panda bear-design bookplate and it looked awful on my occult books. Madame Blavatsky would no doubt mesmerize and tame it.

Months ago, I went through the agony of designing the bookplate to be used for the library collection of the Malacanan Museum. They have a ready-made design and I was tasked to tweak it. I got lost in translation and decided to change the whole thing. My boss that time liked the changes I made but suggested a refinement of the concept and imagery. We went back and forth and back and forth and in the end he decided to go back to his initial design and forgo all the changes. It was a mess, it could have been a "hot tranny mess" in reality tv lingo meaning "in shambles but still a compliment". I liked my designs then and I actually defended them but looking at them now, they are just awful.

The tweaked design using a goddess figure, I was told to make it non-Grecian

and use Mother Filipinas instead.

The Mother Filipinas figure with all the accoutrements

and style of the Art Nouveau era as suggested by

my boss. This rendering he rejected.

I was told to go back to the original design and

to amp it up sans the mytho-figures. This design

was also rejected.

Finally, they decided to use their original

ready-made design and I was told to put

a stylized border. This is the design I submitted

but I have no idea if they used it.

So, whoever likes the rejected designs and wants to use any of them, just holler! (except the last two)

The Great Philippine Book Blockade of 2009

2009-05-11T00:01:00.010+08:00

I was gestalt-ing...surfing and scanning a backlog of wonderful blog reads until...

The Great Book Blockade of 2009

http://www.quezon.ph/2009/05/10/the-great-book-blockade-of-2009-timeline-and-readings/

I was incensed to say the least and my fingers literally burned designing the poster above.

The lower right part has the crying Maria Clara watercolor by Juan Luna, which was intended for the novel Noli Me Tangere, but he died before he finished his illustrations.

The imagery also carries a profile of woman with a mysterious mole and crouching legs of a Harpy...

My Mother's Day Card

2009-05-10T17:23:00.004+08:00

The electronic card I sent to my mother-friends. With love.

Art Conversation between Wolverine and Deadpool

2009-05-08T22:49:00.004+08:00

Some words are in Filipino...

Once upon a Facebook...

Wolvie: I hate sloppiness and bad fidelity. Psychedelia. Grunge. Lomo. Holga. Excuses for mediocrity, all

I, Deader than Deadpool like this.

(Deader than Deadpool) at 3:42pm May 7

one man's mediocrity is another man's enterprise, hee hee may sense ba? pare di lahat artist pero merong "creative" na hindi "artistic", mas lalong walang sense! LOL

Wolvie at 4:12pm May 7

MoMA is a shining example of the validity of modern art. Something's terribly wrong when people start attaching extrinsic aesthetic merit to what is intrinsically garbage

(Deader than Deadpool) at 4:27pm May 7

Uh oh, don't forget art history 101, i will digress here but the essence is the same: impressionistic art (pointillism, et al.) were considered "garbage" and were first exhibited in "Salon de Refuses". "intrinsically garbage" sounds like it has "industrial/ capitalistic/commercial" connotation, garbage = non-functional, art in its truest, purest form is supposed to be inert, non-functional. Mutability renders it layers/emanations of aestheticism.

Wolvie at 4:57pm May 7

by intrinsically garbage i mean expressions that require no skill or forethought to produce, and do not represent any archetypes of beauty whatsoever, but instead require conscious rationalization (worse, herd mentality) to accept and appreciate

(Deader than Deadpool) at 5:18pm May 7

Proj Runway Season 4 playing in the background for the nth time...Conscious Rationalization is a given 'cause to others "appreciation" does not come instinctually, and CR is a by-product of art becoming institutionalize (so-called arbiters/educators of taste). What I'm incongruous with you is that there is a creative process that does not "require" skill set or aforethought: abstract expressionism falls into this in "a way"...(this art style has been abused) My point is the "process" that creates what others may view as "garbage". I don't point the end-product "garbage."

Song of the Sea-Lion: Tales of Philippine Heraldry

2009-05-08T22:11:00.006+08:00

Sea-Lion of the Presidential Heraldry

T'was such a sad state in the national bestiary, the regal Sea-Lion of the Republic devolved into a vermiform of almost unrecognizable features. The creature, whose kith and kin in myth were both terrifying and majestic, was not worthy to breathe the same rarefied ether.

To be continued...

Gift ideas from the Lopez Memorial Museum

2008-12-05T14:10:00.002+08:00

The Philippine STAR, Sunday Lifestyle, Sunday, November 30, 2008

more can be read here: http://pezseum.blogspot.com/

Night at the Museum 2: Notebook Cover Design Details

2008-11-07T19:58:00.002+08:00

Fr. Blanco's Garden Denizens

The Native

Night at the Museum: Notebook Cover Designs

2008-11-07T16:33:00.004+08:00

OBAMA MAN: Man of Tomorrow

2008-11-05T12:20:00.002+08:00

I am very happy today! The future looks bright!

Up, up and away!

Fac ut vivas

2008-10-08T10:12:00.009+08:00

Hermes Trismegistus, here me thrice patheticus!

Tarot, tarot burning bright in the synapse of the nye!

Bah, bah, mindseye, have you been fooled?

Yes, may be have I, now three times a fool!

One by astral masters, by another two ashamed,

What a pity this little boy who cries in the lane!

Cacophonous August-September

2008-09-30T21:20:00.005+08:00

I am mesmerized by the new visualizer of the iTunes upgrade and I can just stare at it for hours. It's music of the spheres, like Tiamat in estrus or Rahab wailing in birth pains! In space no one can hear you scream, no, not even chaos gods! These visuals remind me of the deafening silence of August-September.

Mythopoeia Filipiniana 6

2008-07-09T15:27:00.006+08:00

The Luconia Jar
Lui-Sung Votive Jar

Mythopoeia Filipiniana 5

2008-07-09T12:00:00.002+08:00

Convert or Die: Our Lady Maitum

Mythopoeia Filipiniana 4

2008-07-09T00:06:00.003+08:00

Death of the Old Gods

(The Last of the Maitum People)

Mythopoeia Filipiniana 3

2008-07-07T23:51:00.002+08:00

Kinnari de Surigao
(and Pedrong Tuka)

Mythopoeia Filipiniana 2

2008-07-07T22:38:00.006+08:00

Tara de Agusan
(Agusan Image)

Mythopoeia Filipiniana 1

2008-07-07T14:05:00.009+08:00

Mythopoeia Filipiniana Graphic Novel

The High Concept for the Graphic Novel is High-Fantasy meets Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.

It throws into the magic cauldron phantasmagorical versions of our Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Spanish Histories to secret stories about the formation of the Masonic brotherhood among our National Heroes and their betrayal by Admiral George Dewey.

1995 Thesis: Philippine Sainted Imagery

UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts

The idea germinated years ago during my college years in fact it has been one of the inspirations for my thesis and throughout the years my interests had jumped from mythology to comparative religion to history to ecclesiastical art and Church history.

Here are the nuggets so far:

Work In Progress: Graphic Novel (Part 13: Mythopoeia 9)

2008-07-06T23:33:00.006+08:00

The Galleon Aqueronte

The image below is an allegorical painting entitled Galleon Aqueronte and is displayed in the Philippine National Hermetic Museum, Manila.

The painting is attributed to Romano Spoliatio, the 19th-century Fiipino painter and propagandist in Spain. It depicts the legendary Galleon Aqueronte that carried the persecuted Roma Stygia to the Philippines, a collective of so-called heretics, gypsies, marannos who escaped the Great Inquisition and Persecution of the Order of Torquemada in 16th-century Europe.

The three women figures represents the so-called "witch queens" who escaped the Inquisition Citadel in Lusitania. The gigantic shadowy image behind the galleon is identified by scholars as a representation of Charon the hellish boatman of Hades and who according to the Secret Papers of the Order of Torquemada is the patron-symbol of the Brotherhood.

Work In Progress: Graphic Novel (Part 12: Mythopoeia 8)

2008-07-06T21:19:00.011+08:00

Black Dog Virgin: Secret Icon of the Order of Torquemada

The recently discovered "Black Dog Virgin" was found in the catacombs of the National Palace of Hermetic Sciences, Manila which served as the Hermitage of the Order of Torquemada before the Revolution. Secret papers pertaining to the Order under the possession of tycoon Don Javier Vincenz are now on loan to the Museum.

These photos surfaced in the blog of Nobel and Pulitzer-prize writer Dr. M. Ke-Sun.

The photos below show the iconic Black Dog of the Order "watching" over the archipelago. The image of the sitting black dog was used by the order in justifying their Inquisition. The image contains the 16th century map of the archipelago drawn by mystic Marco Pigafetta which according to his writings the shape of the archipelago resembles the Order's sitting black dog.

Work In Progress: Graphic Novel (Part 11: Mythopoeia 7)

2008-07-05T15:06:00.004+08:00

Cata Raya Chita: Motto of the Brotherhood

It was only recently that the heraldry and symbols of the secret Brotherhood came to light and they are now being deciphered by the scholars of the Philippine National Hermetic Museum led by Dr. Xeldran. The head of the lady in profile is very similar to the drawing in Rizal's Noli but the connections are still a mystery.

Work In Progress: Graphic Novel (Part 10: Mythopoeia 6)

2008-07-05T12:51:00.009+08:00

complete panoramic view
click to enlarge

Illuminated Drawings from Pinakotheka Nostika,

Philippine National Hermetic Museum, Manila

Recent scholarship over the so-called Illuminated Drawing by Anonymous Master in Pinakotheka Nostika in the Philippine National Hermetic Museum revealed the style to be of the Cappadocian School circa 1850, presumably under the Hermit Granma Moses. The naive style is reminiscent of primitive Bogomil hagiographic art.

middle part "ecclesia"

left part "tree of life"

right part "Theogonia"