In My Studio

Notes on Achacha

2012-02-11T04:49:00.000-08:00

—Notes On Achacha—

A native fruit of Bolivia, achacha has migrated to Australia and has now hit the Sydney markets. An Australian couple Bruce and Helen Hill brought in the plants about ten years ago and now their achacha plantation in Palm Creek, south of Townsville Queensland, is said to be the largest in the world, with 17, 500 trees. The fruit looks somewhat like a small "tiesa" but with the texture and flavour of mangosteen only sweeter. My response to this lovely new fruit was to grab a camera and take a few shots, then pick up my sketchbook to make some rapid pastels notes and then my iPad for another quickie, before devouring it all. I can't get you to taste the achacha unfortunately, but maybe you can savour it a bit via pastel or ipad or digital photo. Very tasty and juicy.

Achacha on camera

A quick pastel impression

Achacha iPad-a

Achacha closeup snaps

—Notes On Achacha—

Alfredo Roces/ Ako:Self-portraits/ music Shirley Bassey "I Am What I Am"

2012-02-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

This is a Youtube of my self portraits entitled "Ako".

Music: Shirley Bassey "I Am What I Am"

The lyrics seem to speak for my auto-portrait:

I am what I am
I am my own special creation.
So come take a look,
Give me the hook or the ovation.
It's my world that I want to take a little pride in,
My world, and it's not a place I have to hide in.
Life's not worth a damn,
'Til you can say, "Hey world, I am what I am."
I am what I am,
I don't want praise, I don't want pity.
I bang my own drum,
Some think it's noise, I think it's pretty.
And so what, if I love each feather and each spangle,
Why not try to see things from a diff'rent angle?
Your life is a sham 'til you can shout out loud
I am what I am!
I am what I am
And what I am needs no excuses.
I deal my own deck
Sometimes the ace, sometimes the deuces.
There's one life, and there's no return and no deposit;
One life, so it's time to open up your closet.
Life's not worth a damn 'til you can say,
"Hey world, I am what I am!"

My 12 Good Years With Geo

2012-01-25T18:53:00.000-08:00

Vol.5 no.2 Cover Photo: Alfredo Roces

My 12 Good Years With Geo

Geo, Australasia’s Geographical Magazine landed on my lap —out of the blue.

Editorship of this quarterly publication came my way at a critical time when I had no inkling what lay in store for me in Australia. My passport to Australia had been Filipino Heritage. The publishing house that produced this scholarly opus —Paul Hamlyn Pty— took me into the country to supervise the production and printing (in Singapore) of the 10-volume series. That assignment took just a little over a year to complete. My family and I arrived in Sydney in 1977, Filipino Heritage was published in 1978.

My family and I had moved to Australia to get away from the Marcos Martial Law regime. No lucrative offer pulled me out of the Philippines, I was pushed out. My experience with Filipino Heritage (see blog below Nov 12, 2009) had urged me to escape the stifling atmosphere. With the completion of Filipino Heritage I had nowhere to go.

The first 12 issues of the quarterly publication 1979-82

To make matters worse, Kevin Weldon, the Managing Director who had sponsored my entry to both Australia and the Paul Hamlyn Pty, had suddenly sold out all his interest in the publishing house to James Hardie. There was no one who could secure a job for me within the publishing house where my status was that of a consultant rather than an employee. With my consultancy contract about to end upon the publication of all ten volumes of Filipino Heritage, my professional survival was in free fall.

Enter Geo. At the inception of this neophyte publication I was assigned the role of consulting editor for Asia/Pacific and contributed an article to its maiden issue. I wrote about the Badyao (Asia’s Gypsies of the Sea). Problem was I had no color photographs available on the subject, so I improvised with colored pastel and ink illustrations.

Vol 1 No 1 "Sea Gypsies of the Sea" Illustrations Alfredo Roces

Vol 2 No 4 Cover photo: Alfredo Roces

But somehow, the first issue failed to take off like a rocket, and there followed some frantic rethinking about the life of the fledgeling publication. Before two issues were out, Geo’s Publishing Editor was promoted to a higher post in Adelaide at the same time that Geo's managing editor resigned. That’s when I was offered the editorship of this endangered publication. Apparently no one else wanted to touch a hot potato. I officially took over as editor on its fourth issue, released in December of 1979.

As the saying goes, you must prepare yourself should lady luck come your way. Happily, my profesional past with the Manila Times —and Filipino Heritage as well— had prepared me nicely. Geo kept me alive and growing professionally for my first crucial dozen years in the strange land I had sought refuge in. I learned heaps, specially since I opted to take to the field on occasion (at no charge) to do my own stories and take my own photographs. All photo-graphs in those days with Geo were on film. Who would have thought that— a mere few years after the life of Geo— the digital camera would become the essential tool of professional photographers? Recently Kodak anounced bankruptcy.

Several minor changes were made with Geo over time: the original name
“Geo Australia’s National Geographic” was quickly modified to

“Geo Australia’s Geographical Magazine” by the second issue, and finally —on my recommendation to expand the geographical scope of coverage— to “Geo Australasia’s Geographical Magazine", from volume 2 number 3 onwards. A blue border was added.

My editorial outlook was conservation and the environment at a time when global awareness was just dawning. Geo also highlighted the rich cultures and endangered plight of various peoples of Asia and the Pacific.

Covereage of Sri Lanka's Perahera and ancient culture

Geo changed ownership in 1989. Two years later, in 1991— after 12 years and 46 quarterly issues— my yearly contract with Geo was not renewed. As I was about to turn 60, I figured it meant it was time to retire. I typed (yes, we were still using typewriters then! ) my last editorial for the June-August, 1991 issue. It had been a really great learning experience.

The fiesta of San Isidro in Lucban, Quezon

I had a chance to interview David Attenborough and made the most of it

Bangkok's 200th celebration

The Thaipusam ritual in Singapore

Geo put bread on the table for myself and family. To me, it was God sent. Some years later Geo folded; which makes the philosopher in me reflect: was Geo's existence just for my benefit? Surely it served the purpose of many others too. I merely happened to be at the right time in the right place. In my valedictory editorial I quoted from the Book of Ecclesiastes: "...to everything there is a season; a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die...A time to seek, and a time to lose, a time to keep, and a time to cast away."

I remain grateful to all with who made my labors at Geo a privilege, specially the talented contributors and loyal readers. Two decades later, a handful of us who in one way or another were part of those Geo days still make the effort to stay in touch: Trevern and Ana Dawes, Peter Solness, Reg Morrison, Bill Templeman and Phil Mathews.

Note: The selection of photos for this blog is purely sentimental and personal, in order to represent at the same time my own photo-journalistic work with Geo. This does not imply that these are the best images of Geo as there were many, many excellent photographers and stories of major significance that could accurately showcase Geo.

Fifth Festival of Paciific Arts in Townsville, Queensland

The Geo staff celebrating 10 years of Geo in 1989

—My 12 Good Years With Geo—

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

—NEW DIRECTIONS—

Alfredo Roces One Man Show

Crucible Gallery Nov.22-Dec 11, 2011

Photographs by Inas Amoyo, Crucible Gallery

Eeeek! That's art? Hahaha!

I couldn't be around for this exhibit in Manila, held in absentia at the Crucible Gallery. The works represent a new direction: the paintings first conceived in an iPad2, the outcome glicee-printed on 4ft X 3ft canvas; and then, brush in hand, given final touches with acrylic paint.

Artist’s Statement

These paintings began their lives as concepts and compositions on my iPad2 after which they were giclee-printed on canvas in very large scale to allow me to bring these concepts to their final resolutions with acrylic paint. The gestation period in the tiny ipad screen is vital because this allowed me to play rapidly with gestural forms in the fever of the moment.

On the other hand, translating the output into much, much larger scale on canvas gave me the chance to seriously contemplate these now full-blown images in order to consciously engage them in a conversation with myself, brush and paint in hand.

Working on the first stage on iPad is like viewing a landscape from a window; while the second painting stage is like entering and walking inside that landscape.

This two-step process is a dialogue between technology and the human hand; between spontaneity and contemplation. The final results you see would not have been possible otherwise. The challenge is to preserve the original freshness while turning playful thumbnail renderings into painterly studio compositions. In effect, I have introduced a new technological element, iPad2, into mixed media art. I pray the viewers will find these paintings original, alive, simple, relevant.

My personal gratitude to Randy Young, Sari Ortiga, Charrie Elizano and Inas Amoyo of Crucible Gallery and to Ross and Ellen Capili of ONEworkshop, for their invaluable assistance in turning my ipad imaginings into these mixed media paintings.

—Alfredo Roces 11-11-11.

Soliloquy in Black and Gray

Final touches at ONEworkshop

Photo courtesy of Ross Capili

Visitors Ely and Sym Mendoza

Heber Bartolome graces the show

Artist Rod Samonte drops by

Photo courtesy of Rod Samonte

Concerto in D for iPad

Flight

Living In The Dreamtime

At work on the mixed media approach

photo courtesy Ross Capili

The Moment Of Creation

—NEW DIRECTIONS—

Alfredo Roces One Man Show

You will find comments on the show by Krip Yuson, Philstar, in site below:

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=752603&publicationSubCategoryId=79

2011-11-22T00:43:00.001-08:00

—FACING AN EVENING WITH FAACES—

Gotta share my 15 minutes in the “Hall of Fame” of FAACES ( Filipino Australian Artistic & Cultural Endeavour Society) with you. A “lifetime achievement” award from FAACES beamed me up to their “hall of fame”. My thanks to Ramon and Annie Coloma who not only nominated me but graciously transported Irene and me from our home all the way to Burwood and then deposited us safely back after. Fellow artist Mon was an awardee in the Visual Arts division.

Thanks also to the moving spirits behind FAACES, Manny Diel chairman of the Awards Committee and Evelyn Zaragoza, President of FAACES; as well as its Board of Directors and members. I am truly honored.

Friday 18 November 2011 was an enjoyable evening with commendable entertainment.

Peaches & Cream

Manny Diel, chairman of the Art Awards Committee opened the show

Reggie Cruz croons "Portrait Of My Love"

Ramon Coloma Visual Arts awardee

Alex Fernandez belts out "Prayer" in Italian

Ben Sanchez is among those who bagged a Film/Photography/Video award

Haaaay!

Analisa Hegyesi awardee for Interior design.

I was told she is the daughter of Ferdinand Marcos.

Marilyn Mendez "For Once In My Life"

More awardees For Film/Photography/Video

Superstar Lillian de los Reyes wows 'em with "This Is My Life"

Consul General Anne Jalando-on Louis

with Hon. Robert Furolo NSW Shadow Minister for Communities and Citizenship

and Mr. and Mrs. Angelo Paras of GAM Enterprise present the trophies.

Evelyn Saragoza President of FAACES gives the parting shot

—FACING AN EVENING WITH FAACES—

2011-11-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

—Drive-Past III: Look The Other Way, Please—

On this last visit to Manila I continued with my drive-past photography. I am more confident with the technique. Somehow, this time around, images and scenes I had tended to overlook intruded into my lens. These are not what we like to see around us. I have not intentionally and consciously sought out these pictures, they somehow made their way into my consciousness as I zoomed past in a chauffeur-driven air-conditioned car, weaving and crawling its way through MetroManila traffic. They are common, everyday Manila scenes, but we instinctively look the other way when they catch our attention. What can I say? There they are.

Sampaguita vendor

Early afternoon, a bus stop beside the Legislative Building

—Drive-Past III: Look The Other Way, Please—

2011-10-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

—President Noynoy Aquino at CasaRoces Exhibit—

Oct. 25, 2011

Pardon the name drop, but I found myself in a rare moment with the famous. President Noynoy Aquino graced the opening of CasaRoces and an exhibit of Roces artists and friends. The artists included Carlos Roces from Gijon Spain, Morita Roces and her son Wahoo Guerrero, and Sandra Fabie, Julie Roces. Artist friends included Abdulmari Imao, Edd Castrillo, Carating, Albor, Impy Pilapil. Guest of honor, National Artist Arturo Luz, cut the ceremonial ribbon.

I sneaked into the show one iPad art. Two days later, at the airport waiting to board, I was informed President Aquino would be happy to pose for an iPad portrait. The technique had intrigued him. I was tempted to abandon my flight. It would have given iPad art a big boost. Sometimes life is missed opportunity.

Nostalgia: two generations.

Eddie Roces and President Pnoy Aquino pose with vintage photo of their parents:

publisher Chino beside young reporter Ninoy Aquino.

On left paintings by Spanish artist Carlos Roces, on right by yours truly.

La Naval.

One of my iPad artworks. Glicee print on canvas.

President Aquino expressed great interest regarding the iPad technique.

In front of one my oil painting "Yellow Fruit".

With my brother Peping and my better half Irene

—President Noynoy Aquino at CasaRoces Exhibit—

2011-08-09T23:05:00.000-07:00

—iPad Expressions—

Got this iPad2 last month and have been exploring the medium as sketchbook and finished art. It is a learning process, the goal being to discover the qualities that would give this iPad medium its unique and special character; some kind of iPad flavor with electronic pizazz. Meanwhile there are many rivers to cross and mountains to climb. But then that is the fun of it.

You start by feeling hopelessly clumsy, specially as your basic tool is your finger in place of a pencil or brush. One can avail of a stylus of course, but I want to start from scratch (excuse the pun). There are several applications available for the iPad, so naturally I have opted for the free downloads.

Those familiar with traditional art tools and media will come across stumbling blocks: the area is too small to work on and it feels like you can not get pencil point accuracy; the screen is hard to see outdoors; there seems to be no tutorial available. The line or mark created is technologically determined and cannot vary with your stroke into light or dark, thick or thin, as you would with a brush or charcoal stick. This renders the line mechanical and somewhat lifeless. Your have to go around that problem. But rather than dwell on these negatives, let me point out its great advantages over traditional art media.

1. You can "undo"or erase several steps you have made.

2. With the flick of two fingers, you can blow-up or magnify any area of the image you are working on to work on details and then zoom back to the original size.

3. You can save the work through various steps, allowing you to make daring experiments and artistic risks with the assurance that you can always go back to the earlier stage. In traditional media the next step is always the point of no return thus inhibiting wild impulses as the work progresses. (But then that risk of not being able to go back is what makes doing art exciting.) This way too, you can have one work take various directions from a saved work to develop lives of their own as entirely different works.

4. You can use "layers" thereby allowing you an infinity of shades and colors. You can even change the background.

Black background, quick sketch at the RAS, Sydney

Figure drawing in Manila

Portrait of Agustin Montilla rendered in a more traditional style

Yes! Eat your heart out Matisse.

Quick sketch of Pia Young, Manila

Miggy Montilla

The driver of Millie's car we rode in made a good model as he had to keep his eye on the road while I sat beside him seeking escape from traffic boredom.

Morita stage one

Morita stage 2

First effort at drawing the figure, Manila

Tiny Nuyda

Sylvia sitting across the dinning table

—iPad Expressions—

2011-05-15T05:56:00.000-07:00

Virgin Of Turrumba, Pakil Rice Cake

Linocut and acrylic

Philippine Folk Traditions

—field notes and sketches—

My objective in researching on Filipino folk rituals and traditions in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s was of course to document and preserve the relevant and meaningful ones; but equally also, to give life and relevant roots to highly Westernized contemporary art by tapping into this rich lode of folk art motifs. If the life and soul of a people are expressed in their art, then art should have roots in our ancestors, in our past culture if it is to flower in our contemporary art.

The artists of the 60’s were totally focussed on the latest Western trends, and so everyone was looking for a Filipino quality in all that trendy abstract to Conceptual imports from the West.

In my minor involvement during the project study of the Cultural Center of the Philippines within which a design center was planned, I had suggested that the function of such a design center should be to research and document traditional Philippine art motifs, specially folk art, and thus serve as a repository that could then be used by contemporary designers to give their modern designs an authentic Filipino character. But that didn’t quite happen in the end.

Here are some notes from the field on various folk rituals and my efforts at harnessing these into my own art expressions. The notes are very quick jottings on the spot with all the movement and chaos going on. I sort of like that type of end result over meticulously labored polished artwork created after the event. You only have an instant to get it all down. The energy and the excitement is somehow preserved.

Young girl marching in Angono River Festival Parade

Marchers on lake's edge, Angono's feast of San Clemente, Nov. 23, 1960

Angono fluvial festival, feast of San Clemente

Malabon fluvial festival

Ati-Atihan participant Rouben Tonel, Kalibo, Aklan. watercolor. 1961

Traditional Ati-ati costume, Kalibo Aklan, watercolor, 1961

Ati-Atihan, watercolor, 1961 from the Sunday Times Magazine

Pencil notes on Salubong rites, angel and image of risen Christ, Marinduque

Notes on participants in Feast of Santiago Apostol. Dapitan, Zamboanga. ballpen.

Morion mask, pen and ink. Philippine studies, Ateneo University, 1961

Morion participant, watercolor, Gasan Marinduque

Morion mask, Gasan Marinduque, ink wash

Morion mask, linocut on rice paper with watercolor applied

Maranao Sipa player, ink on rice paper

Markings on this cave wall represent rare prehistoric art in the Philippines.

Petroglyphs in an open cave in Angono, pentel pen, 1965

Christmas Cookie mold: San Nicolas.

Linocut and colored inks

Digital version of San Nicolas motif

Second digital version: San Nicolas

My own motifs based on pastillas wrappers.

End-paper of the book: "Where Slaves There Are None"

The complete poems of Jose Rizal in Spanish by Alfredo S. Veloso

Far Eastern University, 1961

Logo of Cultural Center based on the ancient Tagalog letter "K"

(Cover: CCP launch brochure)

Text above explains the CCP logo and reads:

The symbol of the Cultural Center of the Philippines shown on the cover

is derived from the ancient Tagalog script to form a modern abstract symbol of the three letters "K".

The three Ks (Katotohanan, Kagandahan, Kabaitan) stand for

truth, beauty, goodness, the motto of the Cultural Center.

The "K" symbol also has historic significance as it was the

emblematic element in the flag of the revolutionary forces, the Katipunan.

The symbol explores the spirit the Center embodies,

—that of stimulating new modern forms out of traditional ones.

Philippine Folk Traditions

—field notes and sketches—

2011-04-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

—Exploring Maranao Art—

Philippine studies was a fresh frontier to explore in the late 50’s and early ‘60’s. Dr. Robert Fox was active digging in earthen pots as well as Chinese porcelaine in Calatagan and ultimately would discover the Tabon skull in Palawan, while Fernando Zobel and others were studying churches and santos. I was then in my mid-twenties, a lecturer in the humanities at Far Eastern University where my brother Alejandro was Dean of arts.

At the time Anding was keen on fiestas and we ultimately formed an FEU research team to look first hand into Philippine folk traditions. It was a hands-on education on Philippine culture that took us to various parts of the country, crawling inside caves, scrambling up Mayon Volcano, and Bathala knows where else.

We worked on the documentation and preservation of folk rituals and folk art motifs. The Maranao sari manok was one such ikon that intrigued me. Over the years this motif still surfaces in my art. The sari-manok became the emblem of Far Eastern University as designed by artist Galo Ocampo who later also created a stained glass work of this motif. It was our hope that through the rediscovery of traditinal folk designs, artists and designers would recycle and recreate new art and design based on these traditional motifs. This could help evolve a vocabulary for Filipino art.

Just the other day, while rummaging through some of our things, my wife, Irene, found a cheese plate I had designed for Comtrust back in the 70's using the Maranao ñaga emblem. This set me off to work on this blog.

The Naga design adapted in this ceramic piece commemorating the 20th anniversary of Comtrust is derived from an ancient Mesopotamian motif. The term naga is Sanskrit, meaning serpent demon or dragon, which describes the basic design.

In the Philippines, Naga is found in areas where Muslim culture flourishes. It appears in Maranao art as a decorative design used in exteriors and interiors of royal houses. Repeated in rope-like fashion called “obid-obid”, it is found in cloth brassware and jewelry designs. It is a basic element in the Maranao art form called Okir. Naga also figures in Badjao and Samal art.

This particular design is derived from a serpentine motif elaborated by leaf designs. It is based on a motif recorded by the Department of Education in the ‘30’s. I have made free use of it, adapting a circular shape not used by the Maranao and employing various elements and color combinations. I also used folk techniques so that no two elements are exactly alike in shape or color, achieving a free-wheeling, fluid effect. —Alfredo R. Roces ( Note accompanying Comtrust gift cheeseplate)

I did this cover design using the sari-manok for Australia's Hemisphere Magazine in April 1960. A short write-up in the magazine described the symbols I utilized including the legend about a Lanao princess, a sultan's daughter named Sari.

In 2009, the Gosford Cultural Office invited me to collaborate with an Aboriginal artist Kevin Duncan in a land art work on a promontory jutting out into the sea known as The Skillion. That's how I re-introduced the sari manok into Australia in Terrigal, NSW.

Photo by Victoria, Gosford Arts Council.

—Exploring Maranao Art—

2011-04-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

Man of Sorrows, pastel (1954?)

—Lenten Expressions—

Holy Week has always been a special season for Christians. On many occasions I have relied on my pen or brush to reflect on this brief sacred time. From my files, I offer a few I have managed to put together going back more than 50 years to 1954(?) from a pastel on canvas ( above, "Man Of Sorrows" ) to today's digital era. I am sure I have a few more, but that would require an earnest search. These are personal meditations in this

season of spiritual reflection and renewal.

Forming his cross, Christ's seven last words are engraved with pen and ink on gold cardboard.

Seven heads of Christ make up his main image. You will have to look close to discern them all. (1958)

"Golgotha" applies Jackson Pollock's enamel drips into a dark landscape. (1960?)

Engaged in research into fiestas and folk rituals in the late 1950's, I was fascinated by the Moriones Lenten festival in Marinduque where masked participants portray Roman soldiers who crucify Christ. The main figure was one-eyed Longinus, who had stabbed Christ on the side with a spear and had witnessed his resurrection. This woodcut appeared in the cover of Hemisphere Magazine in Australia in 1961.

"Cock's Crow" is of course the story of St. Peter's denial of Christ.

This is one of my first attempts at using digital art producing the entire image

on the computer screen with a mouse. I used a software called "painter"at the time.

Another digital art using my hand which I had placed on a scanner

and a photo I had taken of a colorful lorrikeet in my backyard.

My hand on a scanner in another version.

Christ is Risen! Happy Easter

—Lenten Expressions—

2010-12-30T18:20:00.000-08:00

—METRO-MANILA IMAGES—

THROUGH MY "DRIVE-PAST" PHOTOGRAPHY

The images of MetroManila that linger in my mind are the helter-skelter jumble of colors and shapes that somehow compose themselves within a fantastic artist's canvas. Suddenly you encounter visual order in chaos. Poetry in poverty and decay. You somehow sense this, zipping in a car past all these collage of busy forms and psychedelic colors that present themselves as shops and homes spiced with countles vestiges of human life on the streets. Public spaces are for all types of commerce, or games, or socializing, or simply loitering and gawking. Life is celebrated on the sidewalks.

I could see in these kalaidescope of whizzing scenes endless templates for paintings. Why not walk these streets with a camera and take marvelous photos? That was my instant reaction. But patrolling the sidewalks would be cumbersome as one’s perspective gets much too close, plus people would instantly be conscious of your camera. That was my experience with walking Divisoria. Instead, I decided to experiment with taking furtive, chance shots from inside a moving car, behind tinted glass, without signalling the driver beside me what I was doing. Oblivious of my silent activity he maintained his usual speed.

Of course the results are not technically perfect: there is blurring, there is a problem of focus, there is the tinted glass of the car window in the way, and worse there is no time to compose. You assess a scene in millisecond, anticipate the car’s progress and trip the shutter. Serendipity and luck make the picture. Some results are nothing, of course, but a few capture that vitality and unusual coherance. The blurring and the soft coloring actually enhance the overall image, like an impressionist painting. I believe I have chanced on a new personal way to show you the vibrant soul of MetroManila. Eureka! I will continue to experiment.

—METRO MANILA IMAGES—

2010-12-10T17:15:00.000-08:00

—Book Launch—

November 25, 2010

SYM

The Power of Struggle

by Alfredo Roces & Sandie Gillis

Published by The Crucible Workshop

2010

Co-author Sandie Gillis, Yours Truly, and subject of the book, artist Sym Mendoza

At the Ayala Museum

Back cover

Jim Paredes MC

Ayala Museum Director Guillermo Luz, National Artist Bencab, Silvana Diaz of Galeria Duemile

Maritess Pineda, Chit Pineda, Irene R, Betsy Westerndorp, Yours truly, Ephraim Samson, Tam Austria

Co-author Sandie Gillis

Peping Roces, AR, Enrique Velasco, Fil Juntareal

Ephraim Samson, Tiny Nuyda, Tam Austria

Jun Magsaysay & Virgie Moreno

photo: Marites Pineda

Some days we are blessed with happy moments.Standing here before all of you captive people, I thank the Good Lord for this chance to be in Manila once more in the good company of friends, young and old. What a happy occasion!

Good evening to each and everyone of you.

Writing and designing this book was a joy trip. The best part of doing this baby was that I was in the privileged company of a team joined in that rare spirit of mutual trust. Egos were sublimated towards one common goal: to make a book we could all be proud of.

One new aspect of this particular project is its global nature made possible through today’s communication technology. This is a book about a painter from Cebu now based in Vancouver, by a writer from Manila now based in Sydney. Written and designed in Sydney, it was printed in Vancouver, and this evening launched here in Ayala Museum by the Manila publishers, The Crucible Workshop. Basic research was done in MetroManila . Visual and textual data went back and forth between Vancouver, Sydney and Manila.

On a technical level, we communicated via the computer using email and skype. Drafts sent to Sandie and Sym in Canada ended at the doorstep of our professional editor Sylvia Montilla in Makati. Actually,I did not physically see the final printed book until I reached Manila two weeks ago.

When I first involved myself in writing and book design in the 1950’s, —more than fifty years ago—text was written in a cumbersome noisy machine called a typewriter. The edited typewritten copy was sent to the printers. The final proofs, cut in column-width strips, were pasted up on dummy pages. The photos were sent separately, and the printers then put all these together.

These days what you design in a computer and submit to the printers in disc-form is what the printers will use as is. Faced with the physical distances between our Canada-Australia-Manila team, the computer proved a wondrous time and space machine. Some doodad called Mobile-me Gallery placed the photos on my mac in small files I could manipulate quickly for study selection and design. Another doodad called the dropbox allowed the large high resolution files, including the final layouts, to go back and forth between us and ultimately the printers. For me, it was a learning process, and I am mentally the richer for it. I guess it is one way to beat Alzheimer’s; —although Sandie who spotted me repeating images in the draft stages quite a few times, may not think so.

***

The subject of this book, my good friend Sym, needs no introduction to you here. I mean, hello? he is almost as old as I am. His painting style easily communicates and therefore speaks for itself, so I need not take you down the merry path of allegory, social agony, or aesthetic nirvana. In fact it is the very simplicity of both the art and the man that appealed to me as a subject for this book. Working on this project was felicitous since I have known Sym from the early 60’s at Solidaridad Galleries where we both had solo exhibits. Sym was also part of the Saturday Group, where we would sketch from life and enjoy ensaimada and coffee or a banana split at the Taza de Oro. In those happy times, I recall doing a ball pen sketch of Sym, while somewhere in my hopelessly messy bodega is a treasure, an oil sketch Sym made of me working in my studio in Pasay. If only I can find it. Our decades long camaraderie has formed a bond of trust, which not only allowed open and frank discussions but full freedom in all I had to say about the man and his art. Take the word of a veteran writer, such a blank-check trust rarely happens.

***

I mentioned that this book is the product of a team. My co-writer Sandie Gillis was an invaluable asset and half the credit easily goes to her. She carried the work load of interviews with the Canadian Dimasalang group in Vancouver where I have never set foot, and managed countless but very vital liaison work with all those involved in this enterprise up to production stage. Cool under fire, she made any minor obstacles easy to overcome. My niece Sylvia has given this work her trademark light, but careful, editorial touch. Sylvia and I have collaborated often enough to foster a healthy professional relationship. The third arm of the team is associate designer Andy Naval who provided invaluable technical support in assuring the highest quality at the production stage. Although I have never met him in the flesh, I still know I have made a one more good friend and professional colleague through this book. One more technical artist must be credited and he is no less than Sym’s son Vilmen, who happily found some free time to attend to the technical refinements of some flawed color plates.

Sym’s wife Ely was most supportive and helpful in every way. Thank you Ely. So too Sym’s colleague Romulo Galicano. Thanks also to Randy Young and Sari Ortiga, old accomplices in this art publishing game. My wife, Irene, is not visible in this book, but I assure you she is very much a part of it. She has shared with me the agony and the joy. This book would not be possible without her being by my side.

I also wish to salute my mother in law Caridad Morente Pineda who expects to celebrate her 105th birthday 43 days from now,on January 7th. FIve years ago, when she crossed the century mark, she graced the book launch of my book on Anita Magsaysay-Ho.No doubt she would be here now were it in her power to do so. Thank you and God bless.

***

Sym Mendoza, AR, Ely Mendoza, Sandie Gillis, Irene R, Bob Gillis

Saxy musical entertainment

TV interview

photo: Maritess Pineda

Monica interview for TV show

Post Book Launch TV ABS-CBN Interview

Sandie gets herself dolled-up for ABS-CBN TV interview

ABS-CBN TV talk show with Paulo Abrera

Here is the print link to that interview:

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/11/30/10/artist-syms-struggles-chronicled-book

—Book Launch: SYM The Power Of Struggle—

Back to the Drawing Board

2010-09-15T22:23:00.000-07:00

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

Figure Drawing At The RAS

Last March I joined a sketch club of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales on 25-27 Walker Street in North Sydney. Deja vu. A return to my student figure drawing days of half a century ago at Notre Dame (1950-54) and at the Arts Students’ League of New York (1955-56). As I no longer drive at night, this activity was happily made possible because a young friend and neighbour, Will Sun, had very kindly invited me to join him on these Thursday evening sessions.

Deprive an artist of regular life drawing sessions and his manual skill goes to rust. Which was why, on my return to Manila in the 1960’s, I enthusiastically initiated life drawing sessions with the Saturday Group, a practice that was no longer fashionable among the abstract Modernists of those days. That return of the nude to Philippine art was documented in my book “Filipino Nude” published in 1977.

As it was in my youth, the two hour sketch sessions at the 200 year old RAS engage the model in two-minute, five-minute and ten-minute poses. You have little time to fiddle with minor details or wallow in complex pencil cross hatching techniques. There are no instructors, you are on your own. Your eye grasps the posture, reads the essence of the movement at the same moment that your hand moves to the rhythm of the figure’s most eloquent lines. The adrenaline is flowing, the time is ticking, and your work grapples with chaos. It’s quite exhilarating; trains your way of seeing, your memory, and your clumsy hand grappling for that one expressive line.

Drawing from life as a group stimulates you as you see various talents tackle the very same problem in vastly different and highly imaginative ways. Unlike my fellow sketchers at RAS, I opted to experiment with black paper and white chalk along with charcoal and colored pastels. The black paper gets me to analyse in reverse, to see the light areas rather than build from the dark passages.

The professional models at the RAS, —male and female, I would guess aged between 18 and 65— come in all shapes and sizes. During breaks I try to chat with some of them. A good many have interesting personal stories to tell. So here I am, back to my green years, when the human figure was the major learning challenge. After all these decades, it still is. My fascination and interest with the human figure —young or old, fat or thin, grumpy or sassy—has never waned. Happily the RAS has me back to the drawing board. Every third week we get to tackle the figure on a long pose, but that's for another blog. What can you draw within five to ten minutes? Have a look.

—Back To The Drawing Board—

2010-07-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

—5Lands Revisited—

It was only last year that we were at the Skillion in Terrigal with a sarimanok land art. We are back this year at MacMaster’s Beach, this time with a transitory exhibit of paintings and photographs. Edd Aragon gracefully joined us in a duo show. Edd and I were traveling minstrels: in by early morning to set up the exhibit, and out by early afternoon taking the entire exhibit with us. Is that a record for holding quick exhibits?

I had sent off 15 small paintings rummaged from my house walls along with a disc with a set of 25 photographs of insect life on the barks of gum trees. Edd, in turn, brought huge scroll paintings in a sepia medium he calls merbau. MacMaster’s Surf Club is not exactly the Louvre, but we were showcasing art by two Filipinos.

5-Lands Walk is a celebration of the land by various ethnic communities living in the Central Coast. This year the Greeks, Brazilians, Maoris and Fijians along with Filipinos and Aborigines flaunted tokens of their rich culture before an appreciative crowd.

The participants from Sydney: Lene Aldeguer, Edd Aragon, Mario Aldeguer, yours truly, Menchie Maneze, and Irene.

Edd Aragon and his Merbau ladies on scrolls.

Organizer Milan Rose and his better half.

Edd pounding happily in the drumfest.

Baring almost all in the Winter cold, these Brazilian hot mamas wow the audience.

I am not quite sure what set these Fijians on a rampage

A Scottish bag-piper in MacMaster's Beach

One of several Filipino dance numbers

This year's land art at the Skillion

Surrealistic ephemeral art graced Avoca Beach

An elegant visitor to our exhibit at MacMaster's

Menchie on a rock

Some of the Pinoys behind the 5Lands Walk festival.

Give Us This Day

2010-05-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

Paksiw Picasso. oil. 1993

Collection: Offie Villongco Viola

—Give Us This Day—

The quickest way to this particular man’s art is through his stomach. There is something about food that moves me to paint. Perhaps my aesthetic sensibilities are directly linked to my taste buds and digestive tract. I am trying to explain why food is very much a part of my artistic expression and output.

Happily these days, a major emphasis of chefs is on presentation, affirming that when it comes to food, the eyes are as important as the taste buds. Top chefs have made the splashing and dribbling of sauce and garnish on a plate truly a work of modern art.

To my mind, food as a subject for painting, is not just a matter of putting together a still life of various shapes and colors. The subtext of a painting about food is the mystical nature of the ingredients themselves combined with the very human act of consuming food. Eating food is a communing with God, Nature and our fellowmen. We say grace before meals. We break bread with friends and family. Those intangible elements are what I vainly strive for when I paint food. You, of course, may respond in a different way to my paintings. Welcome: it is always my hope the viewer will put something of him/herself in my paintings.

I recently wrote a brief piece for a Roces-Reyes family cookbook where I mention this aspect of food as ritual code of expression that triggers memories:

" One certain memory marker carried inside us, passed on and on, is the food shared at table. Our stomachs have very long memories. It is a major seat of nostalgia for all of us. The aroma of certain spices stirs, not just the salivary glands, but our memory banks and our deep seated subconscious. No matter how far away from home we are, how alien our surroundings may be, the sight and taste of familiar food brings us viscerally back to our childhood “home”. Ahhh, that smells familiar and yummy. We know the instant it touches our taste buds. No, not for us that smelly marketplace bagoong nor that fancy commercial gourmet bagoong, no thank you; this, THIS, is the bagoong Mama used to make."

(Celebrations: A Culinary Feast From The Roces-Reyes Table. Anvil Publishing. 2010)

Prawns ala Bach. oil. 199?

Prawns And Dilis. Oil. 2001

Offering. Pastel. 1976

Apat na Ming, Labing Isang Tinapa. Pastel. 1976

Lechon. Pastel. 199?

Balut. Pastel. 1976

Dilis. Charcoal on paper. 1976

Purple Theme With Artichokes. Pastel.1992

Collection: Annie Roces

Give Us This Day. Oil. 200?

Prawns Durer. Oil. 1999

The Things We Did Last Summer. Oil. 1999

Zarseula De Mariscos (For Frankie Sionil Jose). Oil. 1999

A Hymn To Seeds In A Pumpkin. Pastel. 1992

Composition In Red And Green. Pastel. 1992

Collection Mrs. Leonor Montinola

Dalawang Daeng. Pastel. 1976

Salmon Heads. Oil. 200?

Home Saturday Night. Oil. 1999

Tinapa. Pastel. 1976

Garfish. Oil. 200?

Salaysalay. Pastel. 1992

Arrangement With Red Crab. Pastel. 1999

Collection: Marcos V. Roces

Hanging Raddish. Pastel. 1992

A lady writer (Bibsy Carballo) observed about one solo exhibit:

“...it is difficult to convince an audience overwhelmed by the brilliant blues and greens of pechays floating in space; of tuyos on a Ming plate, and repollos and sitaws rendered in almost mystical terms that these are merely exercises.” (Bibsy M. Carballo: Layman’s Viewpoint. The Manila Times, March 20 1972)

Below is an excerpt of a review by Leo Benesa about these genre of paintings. Art critic Benesa was never a great fan of my paintings or of myself as artist for over a decade. So when he penned this piece, even allowing for some snide comments which I have deleted only because they are not relevant to this particular aspect of my art, I was mildly amused. I have deleted the first paragraphs which are not directly pertinent to this aspect of my paintings, but I cite the original source should you wish to access the full review.

"...Today, among 32 representational watercolors and pastels at the Bleue, the gallery goer is confronted by a number of works from his painting hand which compel more than just a second look, especially the pastels. We assume that the reason the present show is more rewarding, than his past shows is that he has more time to devote to creative work, although the execution of a number of them still leaves some things to be desired.

What makes the successful pieces especially striking io their choice of subject matter: nothing classically ennobling about it nor romantically exciting. The pictorial offerings arc simply still-lifes with which every Filipino (and for that matter every citizen of ASEAN) should be able to relate to, more specifically to relate to with their taste buds and olfactory nerves.

The most remarkable of the successful pieces is Apat na Ming at Labing-isang Tinapa. It is a very cool work of art done in chastened colors, with the four Ming plales quadrated on the canvas, and the life-size, photographically realistic tinapa arranged like prize-catch minitrophies within the porcelain interiors.

Transposed into the realm of art, the 11 dried fishes are no doubt the most expensive of their kind in the Philippines. But in all seriousness they demonstrate that the humblest of subjects or objects are material for art.

1n the hands of an artist who is familiar with their vibrations. Or did not perhaps the inclusion of Ming porcelain with its inherent blue and white decorations in the overall design do the trick in the subconscious awareness of the viewer?

The answer to that is the two other fishes in watercolor, entitled Movie Page and Study in Brown which are likewise outstanding. This time it is not Ming but crumpled newsprint which is used as wrapping paper and as artistic foil for the bangus.

There are also a number of daeng still-lifes which to a lesser degree, are also interesting. The tulya pieces also demonstrate what could be done with lowly subject matter - the humble fare of the common people no less - without necessarily getting involved in social protest or propaganda art.

"..Roces' artistic predilection for daeng, tinapa, kutsinta, puto, balut, kangkong, pechay, sibuyas, hipon, alimasag (Pakwan Notes is also noteworthy) and other domiciliary items connected with the kitchen and the dining room should endear him to all Filipina housewives engaged in the culinary arts, as well as to collectors.

His new works built around these fami1iar themes certain (sic) raise Philippine genre art onto a special level of appreciation. They also serve to project a new image and presence of Roces himself, as Artist. (ROCES: THE KITCHEN AS ATELIER by LEONIDAS V. BENESA. The Times Journal. Monday, March 15, 1976)

—Give Us This Day—

Painting Fraser Island

2010-04-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

Sand and Sea/oil/19

Painting Fraser Island

Every other year (since 1994) we go on a pilgrimage to Fraser Island. I bring pastel sticks with me in my backpack. Between fishing, photography and walk-abouts, I always manage to get in a bit of painting. You will find my photographs and various accounts of our sojourns to this island in my other blog —From My Cyberjournal— but here—In My Studio—I focus exclusively on my “brush” with this painterly island.

To an artist, the handiest means of capturing Fraser Island vignettes is of course with a sketchbook and charcoal stick; given more time and energy—then pastel; or better still, oil on canvas. I take with me small canvases stretched and taped on light styrofoam boards. For speed nothing beats a palette knife. You are not trapped with delicate detail and you by-pass the drying time required of transparent layered passages a brush is inclined to create.

Fraser Island offers a broad variety of subjects: on the beach you have sea and sand, the wind shaping the sand into sand-blow dunes in the interior, or into monumental multicolored sculptured spires known as “The Cathedrals”; on the other hand, in the interior there are dark forests and a multitude of fresh water lakes, each quite different from the other including color. As you paint in the outdoors, foraging dingoes may menace, the raging winds blow sand into your eyes, the insects and flies attack your exposed skin, and the unfiltered rays of the sun barbecue you. Nevertheless capturing the moment is really an exhilarating task; on occasion, actually relaxing.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your delectation or amusement, a menagerie of my output from eight sojourns over 14 years to this special island.

Moonrise/pastel/2009

Fraser Island Still life/acrylic/2007

Indian Head/oil/1994

On Fraser Island/pastel/1996

Sandblow/oil/199?

Lake McKenzie/oil/1998

Paperbark tree/oil/1996

Catch Of The Day/oil/200?

Dead Bird/pastel/2004

(This is a photo of the sketch with the real, smaller, dead bird on the right)

Sketching Champagne Pool/photo/ 1996

The Wreck of the Mahena/oil/1998

Champagne pool/pastel/1996

Twilight Tide/oil/200?

On The Beach/oil/2004

Blossoms In The Sand/oil/1996

-Painting Fraser Island-

Filipino Heritage

2009-11-12T00:05:00.000-08:00

Filipino Heritage

An Untold Story

Throughout 14 years of martial law, Filipino Heritage was black balled by Marcos and his coterie of intellectuals. As editor in Chief of Filipino Heritage, allow me to reminisce, because it has dawned on me that, after over three decades, nobody else will.

A new generation of youth today remains blissfully unaware of the true nature of Marcos’ New Society. It was not just corrupt politicians with the military and the CIA who lorded it over the country during Martial Law. A good many—who on the surface saw themselves as decent people—were involved, vocal nationalists and scholars included. They made it all happen and were very much part of it all. Like Lady Macbeth, the stain of guilt will not wash off from their hands.

Yes, of course they will tell you, that they were there to keep things strictly professional, and that without them things would have been much worse. In the end they practiced a type of cultural mores that they continue to practice to this day; a professional style by which the self-serving personal and political agenda willfully overpower scholarly merit and objectivity. Thriving on hidden political connections and clever image-making, they hide behind a mask of respectability, while always ready to pounce on occupational glory or any bonanza that presents itself to their personal advantage.

A double spread portraying the cast of characters from Rizal's Noli Me Tangere by artist Carlos Valino

My sense of outrage has long dissipated itself, but I remain puzzled about the negative treatment of Filipino Heritage. If indeed the objection to Filipino Heritage when it first appeared was it’s accuracy and validity then surely that learned and highly articulate intellectual circle of Marcos and Imelda would have engaged in scholarly open debate and critiqued the work point by point right then and there. After all they not only enjoyed access to media, they controlled all of media. Instead they silently, underhandedly, guerrilla style, sabotaged the venture. This was made immediately obvious to me and the Australian publishers when the official book launch of the series was shut down by what was claimed to be electrical power failure inside the Cultural Center of the Philippines. They literally turned off the light on Filipino Heritage.

With all the resources at their command, these Marcos altar boys could have easily responded by coming up with a superior product to demonstrate that Filipino Heritage was not up to scratch. In the end, all the Marcos bright boys could come up with—after years of lavish expense— was a failed, pathetic, book series entitled Tadhana, whose authorship was fawningly attributed to their idol: Ferdinand Edralin Marcos.

My experience with Filipino Heritage provided me with actual personal insight into the machinations of the New Society and the historians, writers and scholars who were very much a part of it. Today, like Imelda, some refuse to go away. That same cavalier attitude about scholarly matters lingers as the cultural dynamics in the country to this day. This is the reason why I am compelled to continue writing against this legacy of the New Society. Somebody has to say it.

Filipino Heritage was intended as a part works series to appear weekly as a supplement to the Manila Times. The originator was an Australian Publishing house called The Hamlyn Group. They had successfully produced Australia’s Heritage and New Zealand’s Heritage in previous years.

The Hamlyn Group approached the Manila Times and it’s publisher, Chino Roces, then asked me to serve as the project’s editor-in-chief. I visited Sydney and New Zealand to familiarize myself with the previous ventures and immediately got started. The first step of course was to map out material that would provide the best information and the most meaningful narrative. I opted to end the 104 part series (to appear in weekly installments over two years) in 1946 when the Philippines formally gained independence rather than carry it to the present (at the time very early 1972) where the project could get embroiled in the political frenzy of the times.

After careful consultation, I chose the following to serve in the Board of Advisers: Chairman,Carlos P.Romulo Secretary of Foreign Affairs, members Godofredo L. Alcasid Director of the National Museum; Horacio de la Costa SJ General Assistant and Consultant to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Robert B. Fox technical assistant on anthropology, office of the president National Museum; Lucrecia Kasilag, Director, Theater of The Performing Arts, Cultural Center of the Philippines; Benito Legarda Jr., Special Assistant to the Governor On Economic Research, Central Bank of the Philippines, Jose Maceda, professor of Philosophy and Political Science, University of the Philippines, Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, Journalist Expressweek, Carlos Quirino, Consultant Museum of Philippime History and Icongraphic Archives; Louie O. Reyes, President of Vera Reyes Press, Inc., Liceria Brillantes Soriano, Director of Public Schools.

As you can see from the line up, they all carried impressive credentials. These members proved to be enthusiastic and active participants in the planning of the series and in the choice of authors. Scholarly and impartial, the board not only suggested a meaningful cross section of subjects and viewpoints covering the entire series, some actually wrote for the series. Our method was to pinpoint essential topics and then pick the most eminent expert to write on it. The publishers, The Hamlyn Group, gave us a completely free hand and never meddled in the editorial contents.

For the editorial staff, I gathered together the historian and former National Library Director Carlos Quirino and noted writer Gilda Cordero Fernando to serve as associate editors (the former to monitor the accuracy of the history narrative, the latter to add style to the language) with Manuel Gutierrez and Godofredo Burce Bunao as sub editors; For book design artists Ben Cabrera (Bencab) and Porfirio Castañeda were art directors, Felice P. Sta Maria and Antonia L. Brucelas, picture reseachers. Corazon S. Alvina, was production manager, and Ma. Scorro E. Honorio, business manager.

Left to right, back row: Remigia Trillana, secretary; Remedios H. Reyes and Corazon Santuile, typists; Ma. Socorro E. Honorio, business manager; Corazon S. Alvina, production manager; Godofredo Burce Bunao and Manuel C. Gutierrez, sub-editors; Pepito Friameza, paste-up artist. (Missing are layout artists Bencab and Porfirio Castañeda.)

Seated: Carlos Quirino, associate editor; Alfredo Roces, editor in chief; Gilda Cordero Fernando, associate editor;

Front: Ben Laxina, photographer; George Leonero, messenger; Antonia Brucelas, pictures researcher; Felice Sta. Maria, pictures editor; and Felice's dog, Dennis.

What joy to note that since then, Carlos Quirino and Bencab gained distinctions as National Artists, Cora Alvina is currently director of the National Museum, while Gilda Fernando got into publishing books (GCF Books) essentially derived from, or directly inspired by, Filipino Heritage. Gilda and Bencab even teamed up in one GCF opus entitled “Being Filipino”.

I also like to think that Bencab's subsequent Larawan series (first exhibited in late 1972) had a little bit to do with his exposure to Filipino Heritage. Bencab stayed only long enough to design the first volume after which he returned to London, Porfirio took over volume two, and subsequently with the termination of the editorial phase, I found myself having to complete the book design of the remaining 8 in Singapore. I personally learned much from Filipino Heritage, immense knowledge that I have made use of since; I only hope others working with FH may have also acquired some worthwhile ideas.

Bakya art that surfaced during the Japanese Occupation. We had a lot of fun picking out topics of cultural interest

About 186 contributors covered 593 topics in 2,800 fully illustrated pages. It took 3 years to complete the editorial work which started early in 1972; however, subsequent production and design work only allowed the last volume to see the light of day in 1979 extending my own actual years of labor on this project to six. It transported me to Sydney, Australia.

Off the top of my head, among eminent contributors: historians Teodoro Agoncillo, Gregorio Zaide, Horacio de la Costa SJ, Cesar Majul, Carlos Quirino, Pedro Galende OSA, Benito Legarda Jr. ; anthropologists Robert Fox, Harold Conklin, Wilhelm Solheim, William Henry Scott, John Schumacher SJ, Fernando Zialcita, Antoon Postma SVD, Alfredo Evangelista; writers Nick Joaquin, Gregorio Brilliantes, Gilda Cordero Fernando, Ninotchka Rosca; artist illustrators Cesar Legaspi, Carlos Valino, Bencab, Porfirio Castañeda, Manuel Baldemor. I know I have missed many more important names so I hope they will forgive the oversight.

An essay by Nick Joaquin

These series of paintings showing the entire scope of Philippine history was painted by Cesar Legaspi. It was intended as a giveaway large poster with the series but it was never published. I featured it in the monograph on Legaspi. They are in my collection.

Illustration specially made for FH by Bencab.

So what story does Filipino Heritage have to tell? Part of it I can tell you from personal knowledge but part of it remains a mystery to me. Barely months after the editorial work began President Marcos declared Martial Law September 23, 1972. For public consumption, and the New Society’s record, the date was pushed back to September 21 just to suit Ferdinand’s lucky numerology. I cite this minuscule historical item precisely to point out the Marcos Regime’s policy of writing “their” history as it suited the powers that be, and that these learned historians were happy to play along with factual history. Some people remain of the belief that the date is September 21 and not 23. This is the wall that Fiipino Heritage crashed into. The FH history was not the manufactured version they wanted to impose.

Filipino Heritage ultimately appeared in print as a ten volume series, and despite the hostile atttude of the Marcos regime, when the first volume appeared it gained an award from the Citizen’s Council For Mass Media’s (CCMM). When the Hamlyn Group splintered in the 1980’s, the ownership of the project was placed in limbo where it remains to this day.

Below is an extract where I mention Filipino Heritage from a published essay entitled “Dioskodai Diospora” anthologized in a book “Life On The Cusp” edited by Rita Ledesma and Mert J.Loinaz (Anvil, 2003).

Sometime in early 1972, I had been asked by Manila Times publisher Chino Roces to serve as editor for a project between the Manila Times and an Australian publishing house called The Hamlyn Group. A rainbow in the sky might as well have leapt down and curled itself on my lap, so surprised was I at such a divine gift. It was tailored to my interests and expertise. The venture was to be a handsomely illustrated, parts-work series on the entire history and culture of the Philippines, covering everything from the stone-age in the Philippines to 1946 when the Republic became independent. Over two years, 102 parts were to appear in weekly instalments with the Manila Times.

Given a completely free hand by the Australian publishers, who never ever meddled with the editorial contents and work, I titled the series Filipino Heritage and put together a formidable board of advisers consisting of the leading experts from various segments of Philippine culture, such as historian Horacio de la Costa S.J. and anthropologist Dr. Robert B Fox. Secretary of Foreign Affairs Carlos P. Romulo agreed to serve as chairman. On 23 September 1972, my dream job was overtaken by a sudden rush of events. The night President Marcos declared Martial Law, the project fell into the abyss. The Manila Times was shut down, it’s publisher Chino Roces, jailed. Nevertheless, going by the Pollyanna notion that President Marcos was a reasonable man who would see merit in the project, the Hamlyn Group believed that the publishing venture was still viable. Since there were no newspapers around (except for the Manila Bulletin), the series was then repackaged into a 10 volume book set.

I spent the first two years of Martial Law putting together Filipino Heritage. Once the project had reached a stage where we had something to present, which was about a year down the track, it became necessary to obtain some kind of approval from the New Society. Through Manila Bulletin publisher Gen. Hans Menzie, who had served as presidential aide to Marcos, a meeting with the President was arranged. The Australian publishers flew over for a courtesy call to Malacañang to explain the project. With the Manila Times obviously in the Marcos blacklist, prudence ruled that I absent myself from that meeting. The publishers were aware that I had been highly critical of Marcos in my daily columns just before Martial Law. In fact, on instructions from my publisher, Chino, a few days before Martial law, mine was the anonymous hand that had written that unprecedented pooled editorial critical of Marcos which simultaneously appeared in all the major newspapers just before Marcos seized power with the support of the military.

It was Kevin Weldon, the managing director of the Hamlyn Group, who later gave me a vivid account of that Malacañang meeting. President Marcos, so Kevin recounted, had a good look at the sample work we had dummied up. Perusing the names in the staff box, he spotted my name as editor in chief. Said Kevin: “That’s when his face turned purple. He kept screaming louder and louder “Roces! Roces! Roces!”. General Menzi kept interjecting, ‘This is the one with the beard! The one with the beard!’ I guess Menzi brought up my dark beard to distinguish me from Marcos’s arch enemy, my cousin Chino, whom he had already locked up. I have no reason to think Kevin dreamed up this story as he was not too amused with me when he told it.

Next thing we knew there was this letter from Malacañang, signed by Presidential Assistant Juan Tuvera saying that the editor in chief of Filipino Heritage was to be President Marcos. Well, hello? The President of the Philippines under Martial Law wants to be editor in chief of our publication? Shaking off my bewilderment, I approached Kevin Weldon and I said to him: “Kevin, if you make Marcos editor in chief, you will sell a million copies easily because all the public school libraries would be required to buy a set. So, I will step down. ”

But by this time, Kevin seemed somehow to have taken this whole affair as a political and moral struggle instead of a business. To my surprise, without a millisecond’s hesitation, he snarled: “No, you are editor and that’s how it stays.”

Very brave indeed, but how do you publish and release the series of 10 books right at the terrifying ascendance of Martial law, without bringing down all hell from the new Cyclops on the mountain? The only strategy I could think of was to get the merits of the project and the credentials of the writer-contributors out to the public, on the desperate notion that this would make it harder for the Marcos dictatorship to stifle a highly scholarly work that carried no obvious subversive political agenda. The plan was to win the support of the historians and scholars (many of whom had written for the series), and of school teachers as well, by making them aware of the scope and contents of the publication. After all, nothing of this magnitude involving Philippine history and culture had been attempted before.

I approached Lucrecia Kasilag, President of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, (she was a member of our board of advisers) to lease to Filipino Heritage for an official launch, the top floor of the Cultural Center of the Philippines where art dealer Potenciano Badillo’s Muslim artifacts where displayed.We went to great expense and much effort to have marvellous photographs from the books, blown up and exhibited. Samples of various sections of the first volume had been printed as giveaways. All the leading historians, school officials, and scholars, had been invited. Kevin Weldon himself along with two other top executives from the Hamlyn Group had flown over just for the grand occasion.

When we got to the Cultural Center lobby the evening of the launch, we found the lights curiously dimmed and the escalators immobilized. Valiantly, if somewhat puzzled, we clambered up the three flights to the exhibition hall only to find the place in total darkness. There was a brownout, we were advised by CCP’s officials. Those things happen often in the Philippines of course, so we sort of stood around waiting for the power to return, or for the CCP’s emergency generators to hum. I could hear muffled sounds of a play or some musical function going on in the CCP’s main theater, so I knew the power shortage we were experiencing was not total. Meanwhile, the exhibition room which was teeming with shadowy guests in the blackness, was getting hotter and stuffier. After about an hour of marking time in limbo, one of the CCP officials, Tony Quintos, timidly sidled up to me and in conspiratorial sotto voce said: “It’s not really a power failure, Ding. We got a call from Malacañang saying we have to close this show down. Putting out the lights is all King Kasilag could think of to comply with the order.”

Something stirred in my guts. I can’t tell you in words how let down I felt then because to this day I try to repress that evening’s trauma. Had I been at least warned of a fabricated power failure, I could have brought candles and flashlights. At the time, I regarded some of the officials of the Cultural Center as personal friends.

A few scholars and school officials whom I numbered among my friends before Martial Law did not bother to show up; either because they had been tipped off that the launch would be suppressed or because they did not want to be seen as part of it. Of course we tried to make the best of a calamity. Whistling in the dark, as they say. With a pinch of candlelight, we carried on with the ceremonies. Our guest of honor, the Under Secretary of Education waxed eloquent in praise of the project, the poor man blissfully unaware that Marcos and his men had given the project an ominous “no”. To the barely visible audience, I mumbled something about being reminded of Mark Twain’s essay “To a Person Sitting in Darkness” as I apologized for the bleak ceremony and launch caused by “the failure of power”. I doubt if a single soul understood that I was not referring to electrical power.

Off we stumbled down the darkened, inoperative escalator and out into the street for some clean sea air. Kevin consoled us with dinner at a nearby restaurant. As I sat there beside him, Kevin eyeballed me and said emphatically: “I want you to get every single item of Filipino Heritage material out of this country and to our office in Sydney first thing tomorrow.” Finally, the coin had dropped for Kevin. He now realised how deadly the game could get under Martial Law. But he wasn’t buckling under. Instead, he was making sure the Marcos tsutsuwas would not get their scheming hands on Filipino Heritage for their own propaganda ends. Marcos and his clandestine, generously financed, think-tank of academics would, in fact, later set up throughout the decades of Martial Law years their own version of Filipino Heritage which they called “Tadhana” with— you guessed it—Ferdinand Marcos as author no less. Would you believe that the Cultural Center still billed Filipino Heritage for the rental of the exhibit that never was? We paid through the nose.

That’s how I ended up in Australia. I asked Kevin to help get me a permanent residency. In any case, to publish Filipino Heritage the way my staff and I had structured, edited, and designed it, I had to be in Sydney. I ended up single handedly working on the production, and literally designing seven volumes as well, during months-long sojourns to Singapore where the printing was done.

The story did not end there because when the ten volume series was finally released it got the pariah treatment from Marcos and his cultural sacristans.

To this day, no friend or foe has ever come to me to express his or her sympathies, for that sinister sabotage of the project. To this hour, no scholar or writer, despite some having gained (as contributors to Filipino Heritage) crucial material and intellectual sustenance in that first dark hour of Martial Law, has written or voiced an opinion, good or bad, about the treatment of Filipino Heritage. It’s a silence that counterpoints the thunder of patriot drums and the pizzicato of nationalist bandurias.

——Filipino Heritage——

2009-09-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

The Long Distance Runner: Culture Shock Philippines

Recently acquired by Marshall Cavendish, “Culture Shock! Philippines” has again been updated and reprinted. This book, which I co-authored with my daughter Grace, was first published 24 years ago in 1985. It has never been out of print. We have continuously revised and updated the work. It has been reprinted 6 times (1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2009). German and Korean translations have been published. That is much more than I can ever say of any of my other published books.

All the other 15 books I have published, including four that have won the Manila Critics Circle’s National Book Awards, had simply gone out of print after their initial run. You can understand why I feel a special fondness for “Culture Shock! Philippines”. In the last update for this book I even contributed some of my photographs simply because I had become conditioned to be on the lookout for typical Filipino situations and images for future updates to “Culture Shock! Philippines” whenever I visit the Philippines.

For a podcast interview with yours truly by John Cloutman in San Francisco, click below:

http://www.sacramentobookreview.com/alfredo_roces.php

First publication by Times Printers International in 1985

It was while in Singapore, working at Times Printers on the production of the 10 volume Filipino Heritage series, that I was approached by editors of Times Printers International to do Culture Shock. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time for such a project. In the early 80’s I was adjusting and settling down to a new life in Australia heightening my Filipino identity while sharpening my awareness, in a very direct and personal way, about the differences between cultures.

Of course my experience with Filipino Heritage then served me well, but even more so were all those 12 years of writing a daily column for the Manila Times until Martial Law brutally took away my typewriter (that’s the instrument one wrote with in those days). To include insights from a younger generation and assure an empathy between genders I asked my daughter Grace to co-author the book. She gave it the right touch.

Culture Shock! Philippines translated into Korean

By now you know that much of my writing and painting (i.e. "Filipino Heritage", "Adios Patria Adorada", etc. ) focus on the Filipino identity. Culture Shock! Philippines was one opportunity to examine this with a mixture of light-hearted notes and practical applications. What can I say about my professional experience with Culture Shock! Philippines? First of all I learned that one never knows which work that you do will survive and enjoy a long life span; second, even when you address your art themes and expressions for Filipinos inside the Philippines, these get very limited and narrow response and therefore have a very fleeting run, but when you go global, you may get lucky and connect with many more who would be responsive to your work out there. Lastly, but most important of all, when you deal with a professional organization, you get professional results.

Book review by John Cloutman: San Francisco Book Review/ Sacramento Book Review

October, 2009:

Culture Shock! Philippines By Alfredo Roces; Grace Roces

Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 352 pages. $15.95

Culture Shock! Philippines is one in a series of guides for travelers and would-be residents, emigrants and the like. This is the most comprehensive and up to-date guide I have ever seen for traveling to the Philippines. As an American who is often embarrassed by the behavior of other Americans in foreign lands, 1 would recommend this guide to all who plan to travel to the Philippines. For that matter, a guide this comprehensive should be required reading for all Americans traveling to any foreign lands, and I might even go so far as to suggest a test for them prior to stamping their passport and allowing them out of the USA.

Culture Shock! Philippines' holds countless useful insights into local culture, cuisine, traditions, and more. It gives very valuable advice for those wishing to blend in (as much, as that may be possible) to the local environment, and goes as far as detailing the things one might need to consider when planning a longer-term residence in the Philippines, including business considerations. I imagine that many countries' version of the Culture Shock! guide was easier to produce than the one for the Philippines. After all, the Philippines is a rich, diverse nation comprised of more than 6000 islands with major Islamic, Catholic and Christian religions, dozens of regional dialects, colloquialisms and traditions. The amount at information packed into this volume is truly amazing, and I must say it was written with just the right touch of humor, sensitivity to and respect for the traditions of the people and the nation.

In my opinion the Philippines is a kind of "Asian Melting Pot," similar to America in that it has been colonized repeatedly over the course of centuries prior to gaining its independence, and an incredible array of folk from all over the world have settled there and called the place home.This guide takes into account much of that history and deals with it in a very respectful way. The politics of the region, and even some of the behaviors there which judgmental Americans might otherwise find objectionable are a11 treated and explained in a way that allows one to understand the culture at its root and ultimately embrace it. An example is the discussions of a "Querida" system in which Filipino men appear to be empowered to have multiple mistresses and grow multiple families. This behavior is a part of society that is more complex than it appears on its surface, and the guide does a fine job of describing it in both positive and negative terms without judging it.This style at writing tends not to beg the reader to judge the culture too quickly or harshly, a tendency for which we Americans may be unaware. There is much humor in this guide and reading it along with my Filipina wife, we found that there are many details, quotes, and suggestions as well as analysis of the culture which are truly entertaining to each of us. I'm sure much of the stuff we find so entertaining is not intended to be that way to the uninitiated. hut having been to the Philippines and now having family there, the guide takes on a whole new light for me and is really worthy of repeated browsing. I can wholeheartedly recommend Culture Shock! Philippines to anyone planning to travel there, in fact ! recommend you re-read it after you return - you'll be surprised at how helpful and accurate this guide was for your journey - and this guide will definitely be with me when I return again, lest there were any details I'd. forgotten over time.

Reviewed by John Cloutman

—The Long Distance Runner: Culture Shock! Philippines—