DPICT Illustration Exhibition

"Illustration brings words to life through visual representation, depicting reality in a recognisable form whilst delivering a clear and strong message. DPICT will explore this concept and will help to create a network among illustrators as they view each other’s work and initiate a dialogue about their common passion."

This is going to be my first ever exhibition outside Cebu. I'm thrilled, scared, and excited all at the same time. I'll be sending my framed artworks tomorrow. Yay!

Opening: 16 December 2009, 7pm

Exhibition runs until 7 January 2010

at the Gallery of Light, Manu Chhabria Arts Centre

DUCTAC, Level 2 MOE, Dubai

For more information call DUCTAC: 04 341 4777

or visit www.ductac.org

Timings:

9.00am - 10.00pm (saturday to thursday)

2.00pm - 10.00pm (fridays & holidays)

ART'S GIRL POWER

We've been featured! My (favourite) Art Appreciation college professor has written an article about our works and how GIRLALOO rocks like Wonder Girls. (Awww, shucks.) I am tremendously honoured and inspired to create more "bimorphic forms" of art.

ARTICLE:

Art's girl power
by Radel Paredes, Cebu Daily News - Life! (November 17, 2009)

THEY are the local art world's equivalent to the Wonder Girls, making digital illustrations that (clap, clap) nobody, nobody can top. Not even the boys in the trade. Girlaloo, the all-girl group of illustrators, hopes to dissolve the digital divide and the gender gap in their first, self-titled exhibit.

Consisting of more than 30 computer-generated or digitally enhanced drawings, the show opened Nov.9 at the lobby of the University of San Carlos College of Architecture and Fine Arts building.

Most members were USC fine arts alumnae, so choosing to launch the exhibit tour in their alma mater is a gesture of homecoming. From USC, the works will be shown in the University of the Philippines Cebu Campus and the Benedicto College.

Targeting the the art school set is deliberate as the group aims not only to promote digital illustration as an "exciting outlet of expression and voice" but also to encourage other girls to consider it as a serious career option.

The artists thus flirt tipping the balance, making even the most macho digital art geek succumb to girl power.

And how diverse are the ways in which this power projects. There's the flotsam of bimorphic forms and cartoon monsters in the doodles of Govinda Trazo and Tambolbee Villarino.

There's also the strange digital and pop version of Art Nouveau in the portraits of women by Richelle Chua and Narki Hormiguera. Kristy Anne Ligones, on the other hand, is not as keen at the irony of simulating organic forms with a computer. Her own depiction of a woman combines the cute and the grotesque.

A mix of Mary Poppins and Yellow Submarine is hinted in the work of Kristine Oplando, while blinking stars and planets add cosmic aura to February Anne Ybanez's drawings of children. Childhood fantasy is revisited by Johanna Velasco-Deutsch, Luisa Gonzaga, and Madeth Villarosa. But rather than imagine a world of happy endings, the girls opted to portray a gloomy fairy tale.

Indeed the artists of Girlaloo have come of age. And despite the common fascination with the kikay, the kinky and the kitschy, they have proven that their works can still solicit serious reflection. Or, that high tech doodle, can be high art, too.

x x x x x x x x x x

Day In A Jar

Created in 2004, finally published today! I'm so thrilled to share a story about a brave little faerie who rescues Day from being trapped inside an evil jar. Find out how she and her friends save the Eearth from total darkness.

Buy my eBook!

Story: Govinda Trazo

Cover concept: Tambolbee

Thank you and goodbye.

I remember as a child on a balcony of my Dadi's office, I was feeling proud waving my tiny "L" hand sign and throwing torn pages from the yellow telephone directory. At 6yo I knew that we are hopeful for our country and that it was because of one brave woman named Cory Aquino.

Today she rests in peace. Let's say a little prayer for her soul. Thank you Cory, we love you.

what's in a resume

"...People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter's night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've received your test results and they're not so good.

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre at my job if those other things were not true.

You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast?..."

Anna Quindlen is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and bestselling author. I haven't read any of her books but I am moved by this particular part of her speech she made at a graduation ceremony. 

True, the best resumes in the world contains something about offering yourself to others unconditionally. I hope I can build a spirit resume that I can show off to my Maker at the end of my journey on earth.

X Out Cervical Cancer!

I got my second dose of HPV vaccine today. My left arm is nagging in soreness and the need to spread the word on the importance of this vaccine is nagging equally. Every woman deserves a chance against cervical cancer so get protected now. Love your life.

Find out more on how to Help X Out Cervical Caner.

happy hour

I found Polyvore and fell inlove with the website's function, simplicity, and shopping experience. It's like playing dress up while pretending you own a bohemian closet or a beach closet paradise. You can create your own outfit, layout your pieces together, and share! Actually, this is not bad for an idle designer that needed some exercise. Hey, maybe I can even do sets everyday as a short me-time therapy!

These are some of my favourite sets while searching for "bohemian".

Presenting to you my first creation. View items' details here. 

an insane amount of faith

I am always a believer of the Big Picture. Even how sour a day could be, or how deep I am swallowed by the biggest failure I made, I am sure that at the end of a hardship, there's always a bigger picture that says: you were part of that mess to sacrifice and achieve this grandest universal story. 

Faith is something no one can give you. It is rooted deeper than hope, or maybe love. Of course I could be wrong because this is just me, saying things that could at least erase any fears sleeping or lingering somewhere in my head. 

"With a little help of Rust-eze - and an insane amount of luck - you too can look like me. Ka-chow." says Lightning McQueen, but I'd like to rephrase it in my terms: With a little help of a wise plan and an insane amount of faith, everything will fall into place. Because we can only do so much and it's His time and His yes, that could move mountains. We can only plan, and hope, and believe that things will move according to His will.

And everytime, the Big Picture always put everybody in a smile.

When I'm down I shop.

Not really my motto in life. It's just an appropriate phrase for me today :P

I found my first - and already my favourite! - fabric online shop called Bee Square Fabrics. I had a great time shopping, drooling, and finally deciding what I'd love to have. I can look at them forever.

Thanks to Diane Hoffman for working it out for me. Hooray for freebies! Visit their blog for news and giveaways.

happy EARTH day!

I couldn't find time to make a new one, 

so here's my old (2005) litte gift to you Mother. 

So today I'm shouting: 

All is full of Love!

I want to go to school!

I can't spill all the details yet but the big news is I might get my sewing act up! Hoping the school will give me the chance to join them even if I'm a week late. I'm all geared up and firing with guts and eagerness.

How cool

How cool is a wifi connection at home and blogging with your iPod Touch! :)

you and me

While you are thinking you could be somebody new,
I thought about me being the old me.
If that is a good case, then the stars might shine nonetheless.
But if you can't stay, the moon shall shine anyway.

Every once in a while a small butterfly smiles to us
Saying we're a pair that can never be undone.
Whatever that means to that little creature,
I think it sounded good to the universe.

Look how silly we can be, like loving is a yoga.
I never thought I'd be as old as a turtle,
but still it is the case for my eyes have seen so much.
Yet you remain ageless, and timeless like you can never die.

You are my life like when I think of my life as a doodle.
I can draw things and patterns and the world can guess.
Still I hold that drawing in my heart, owning it because it is of me.
Yet you are yourself, like you are standing on your toes.

- govinda

041909

happy ME day!

I celebrated my day with my bestfriend, my woman, my kangolkid, Totingbats. Momi and Dadi agreed I should have my "me-day" on my birthday. Read : yes, we will take care of the babies while you go have fun. 

First stop, ukay-ukay adventure! Phew! Great kicks, wonder finds. Way better when you're doing it with your best friend.

With a sunblock, a panic-bought bikini, zero towels we head out to the beach! What can we do? The dagat is calling us. You know my best friend, she's a water creature so it's like it's her day too. I'm glad I gave you that tan you are craving for so long.

And the best-est part of my happy ME day, for the first time in my whole 29 years here on earth, I went snorkeling and kayaking! Whohoooooo! I can't wait to do it again :) 

thank you momi!

Surprise surprise!

 

I got these adorable fabrics from my mother for my birthday. Sweet sweet momi, she knows me too well. Thank you momi! Now that I'm all set, I need to bring my little dream of tahi-tahi come true.

the last of twenty-something.

I'm officially at the end of being a twenty-something. 

I think I need to have a list of things to do before I reach the big Three-Zero. 

Or I think I don't. I just need to be me - MORE. :) 

Thank you Universe for giving me another year of being part of your grand story. 

*blowing 29 proud candles! whoooo!*