No. 5 - Las Hijas de Señora Phenomena Naturale - Ba'ha'

Happy Birthday to my Beloved Father.
Today, he would have been ninety one.

He loved a good story.

This is for you Tatay...
I love you.



Ba'ha'. Permanent pigment ink on 12"x9" Bristol board.

Ba'ha' is the most human of all disasters. In fact she is almost human in the sense that she relies on humans for her appearance and sustenance.

She does not fly or hover; does not live underneath the earth. She stays on the surface, mostly waiting. She travels in human time. She has learned to wear shoes, to protect herself from the many protrusions concealed underwater like trash, garbage, grass clippings and metal scraps on river beds and tree stumps along the hills and mountain slopes.

She is often seen frolicking with her cousins the beautiful and refreshing Ulan (Rain) and the hyperactive and obsessive Monsoon.

She has human injuries. She has a jagged scar along her right face which she sustained when she stepped on her twin Lutak (Mudslide) and smashed her face on a crag.

Mostly she is a calm and peaceful river or scenic lake, a useful dam, a recreational pond or a simple drainage path. However, when she encounters human stupidity, avarice and shortsightedness, she makes an appearance and displays her wrath, sows misery, breeds diseases and strikes death blows; even after Ulan and Monsoon have departed.

No. 4 - Las Hijas de Señora Phenomena Naturale - Buhawi

Buhawi. Pigment ink on 12"x9" Bristol Board

Buhawi's pet is an eared vulture name Torgy, short for Torgos tracheliotus. She also has a pet tree dragon, Phora (Diporiphora superba). Here she is practicing her blowing skills in the ocean where an albatross is quite impressed while the petrels are more interested in following a tanker for food scraps. Buhawi is equally destructive like her sisters Bulcana, Lindol and Chunami, just by the sheer frequency of her appearance, the lack of warning signals and her sudden onset. She is unpredictable. She mostly flutters, but when she decides to touch down, she leaves the people without any warning and just as fast as she came, she leaves; totally annihilating everything in her path.

L to R: Lindol, Bulcana, Chunami

No. 3 - Las Hijas de Señora Phenomena Naturale - Bulkana

Bulkana, The Spitfire. Permanent pigment ink on 12"x9" Bristol Board.

This series is make-believe. I want to make sure I made that clear. I made up everything, including the names which are Hiligaynon words and their variations for the natural disasters.

Beautiful and majestic Bulkana. She is Lindol's twin sister. Before she awakens she summons Lindol and later she may call Chunami. She lies dormant and asleep most of the time. She is the Mother of Organic Gardening for she makes the earth fertile with volcanic soil. She is beautiful when she is asleep and even when she awakens and erupts, it is a sight to behold, afterwards she colors the skies and cools the earth. Never underestimate her power. Heed her warnings. The three of them live in the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Lindol and Chunami

I grew up in an island with a volcano, Mt. Canlaon. My bedroom window faced the view of the volcano. It was always beautiful. I witnessed a moderate eruption when I was a teenager. It is one of the active volcanoes in the region. I grabbed the photographs below from the web, they are not mine:

No. 2 - Las Hijas de Señora Phenomena Naturale - Chunami

Chunami, The Overwhelming. Pigment ink on 12"x9" Bristol Board.

Let me tell you about my favorite cloud formations. My favorites are the Roll clouds, then the Anvil and then ta-da!... Mammatus! What has it got to do with Chunami, the Overwhleming daughter of Phenomena Naturale? Nothing really. But please check out the mammatus clouds. They are usually associated with severe weather and tornadoes.


Chunami is the third child and is the twins' (Lindol and Lupuk Bulcan) younger sister. Chunami lives in the ocean depths where she plays with her pet, the Enteroctopus dofleini. She adorns her hair with architectonica perspectiva. She wears a necklace with a Harpa articularis pendant. She is usually naked. She loves to adorn herself with jewelry from the sea. She takes no prisoners. Though she doesn't linger, her quick passage causes total devastation which are almost always fatal.


She may give an indication ahead of time that she is coming: She makes the ocean and sea water recede, sometimes making the fish jump in exposed shore beds and luring the unsuspecting people who are fascinated by the massive shore that suddenly appears; and just when they figured they have time to romp in the sand, she sucks them and washes them ashore and swallows them back to sea.


So, if you see the water draw back to the sea, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

Lindol

No. 1 - Las Hijas de Señora Phenomena Naturale - Lindol

My Disastrous Series

How did I come up with this series? Well, Andrew Finnie gave me a “Bald Faced Liar” (Creative Blogger) Award. I am accepting it with ambiguity. I now have to live up to it by concocting some puffery. So here goes a new series, but first a truthful explanation about the mundane topic of “blog comments”. I would like my friends to blog without obligation. So feel free to look. I will, henceforth, remove all expectations regarding comments. We have now achieved blog nirvana. Ohmmmmnnn…

Mother Nature

I have a healthy respect for Mother Nature. She offers beauty and the gifts of her bounty. She creates and nurtures, alas she also destroys.

Lindol, the Unpredictable (Earthquake). Permanent pigment ink on 12"x9" Bristol Board

Lindol is the twin sister of Lupok Bulkana. Lindol has the characteristic trait of being known where she is located but no one ever knows when she will appear. Like her twin sister she has the power to create fire. Like her twin sister she is capable of emitting noxious gas and suffocating the unlucky ones who live under her footsteps. Like her twin sister, she buries and destroys live things. Unlike her twin sister who rumbles before exploding, Lindol keeps to herself and just caves in. Sometimes she gives out signals to those lucky enough to detect her but truly, there is no guessing or predicting this very tempestuous phenomenon.


Lindol’s pet is a giant white rat who summons all the little rats to come out when Lindol swallows the earth and crumples dirt. Lindol, like her sister lives in the Ring of Fire but happens to have other homes too. She was last felt in the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai, China on April 14^th.


Really though, I grew up in the island of Negros where I have witnessed earthquakes (though mild, thank God!), a volcanic eruption when I was a teenager, cyclones, floods, typhoons and lived in fear of tsunami. I experienced drought and heat followed by monsoons, or was it the other way around. Yet none of these disasters are long lasting and devastating as the dictatorship that left the economy in shambles and cultivated a deep rooted culture of corruption.

Goodbye My Beloved Bug!

So yesterday Milo was all bandaged up but Dr. Specs took very good care of him. Today I took him to have his dressing removed. I am not really sure what type of procedure or surgery he underwent but he came out of the clinic looking like this:

Mille!

Okay, he was just playing dress up but he fell in love with the dress and the little baby bug. He wants to adopt the baby bug. He wants to travel wearing this outfit. I told him I have to ask Deborah about that...


Milo insists on wearing this dress, so we compromised. I told him he can wear it if he is willing to put something over it:



Goodbye my beloved bug. I will miss you.


Your friends will miss you...



You are my favorite Butt Cheek!

OOOPS! 6:00 PM Update: A girl panda was not very happy with the Milo taking one of her dresses. There was a scuffle and a certain bug ended up nekkid. So I soothed him by dressing him up with more appropriate clothing. Milo wanted to wear his pants slung real slow and walk like those dummies with their legs wide apart so the pants don't fall. I told him absolutely not. A person's IQ is directly proportional to the height of his waist-pants. So Milo being a mental ninja bug immediately raised his pants up to his teats. Well, he has no teats but you get the point. Doesn't he look dashing with a vest? I wish I had a little camera to sling over his neck.

...but when I turned around he was wearing another dress and hanging out with the girls!

Intermission - Mea Culpa

Please forgive me Deborah. I looked away for a minute.

I took him to the world's best medical center and the best health care, for now. I can't say the same starting later this year, the health care I mean.

I promise he will perk up when he reaches Manon.

Comment Away!!!

Okay, comment as you please. Hahahaha!
Gee, so impatient!

Grateful

Amalia K's "Cescalina"
Thank you!!!
MEOAAAAAAAWWWWW!!!

Thank you to my friends who think I deserve these awards. Thank you Andrew Finnie, Shirley Ng-Benitez, Susan Mordigal, Amalia K., Anne Huskey-Lockard and Janice. I am honored. The greatest gift is the joy and happiness I derive from my acquaintance and blogging with you. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Ces

Still drawing several disasters...

Brewing...

I have decided not to paint this weekend.

Instead I am brewing up a disaster...

I am creating a new series...
At least that's what I want to do.
I am calling this series
Las Hijas de Señora Phenomena Naturale viuda de Disastre.
She will have many daughters:
Their names will be
Bagyo-Bagyo (Typhoon)
Buhawi (Cyclone)
Tsunami (Tidal Wave)
Baha' (Flood)
Bulcana (Volcano)
Lindol (Earthquake)
and if I can remember the word "drought" in my language, I will include her.

Oink Oink Thank You Oh Banana Abaca!

A Pig Visiting A Small Grove of Musa Textilis. Permanent Pigment Ink on 12"x9" Bristol Board. Double click image to enlarge. Musa textilis or abaca is a member of the banana family and without the fruit, it may be easily mistaken as a regular banana plant. It is indigenous to the Philippines. The plant is unlike other banana plants with its characteristic slender and pointed leaves. The fruits are full of large seeds and not practical for consumption but the abaca is a versatile plant used for hemp and cordage (Manila hemp), furniture and specialized paper used for tea and coffee bags, sausage casing paper, currency notes, cigarette filter papers, medical food preparation and disposal papers and high-quality writing paper. The original Manila folders and envelopes were originally made of abaca hemp. Today's Manila envelopes and folders are manufactured elsewhere using cheap and easily torn paper. The abaca plant consists of about 12 to 30 stalks radiating from a central root system and about 12 to 20 feet high. The abaca fiber is stripped from the stem not the leaf.


Do you know that the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano in Iceland has been erupting since March 26, 2010? The eruption creates pollutants (sulfuric acid) but volcanic eruptions cool down the earth's atmosphere and create the most beautiful skies. You may check my sidebar for the Natural Hazards link.


Okay! I am off to do some oil paintings but first a load of laundry and a quick one hour drawing to exercise my brain. In the past I use to paint still life oil paintings of Fiesta dishes for exercise but now I exercise with pen and ink drawings. I am drawing The Typhoon Queen. Her name is Bagyo-Bagyo which is the tenth month of the calendar in the Hiligaynon language:

Month - Bulan (meaning month or moon) in Ilonggo which is the conversational version of the language heavily influenced by Spanish and Hiligaynon which is the pure language:

January - Enero; Ulalong
February - Pebrero; Gagangkahoy
March - Marso; Dagangbulan
April - Abril; Kiling
May - Mayo; Himabuyan
June - Hunio; Kabay
July - Hulio; Hidapdapan
August - Agosto; Lubad-lubad
September - Septiyembre; Kangurolsol
October - Oktubre; Bagyo-bagyo
November - Nobiyembre; Panglot-diotay
December - Desiyembre; Panglot-daku

1986 - Ahem... a Peeping Tom is NOT a detective!!!

The Bathers. Oil on canvas. 36"x 48". Double click to enlarge. I remember my frustration with this painting. As it progressed it became darker in hue. It was done around the time I have decided to give up painting because of the accumulation of lead in my blood, so I stopped using Flake White for a while which gave my paintings those deep bright colors. I remember squirting the oil paints directly on the canvas. I wanted a lot of details on the foliage but I used slow drying oil. It was still wet when it was framed and when my sister took it to her place. I love this painting but she said this was the one she liked of all of my paintings, so I gave it to her. There is a snake that is soon going to get the Peeping Tom.

This is a long forgotten painting done in 1986, the last one I did before I left New Jersey. I did not paint again until after twenty years when the epsilons were older. I was reacquainted with this painting when I came back to New Jersey for a visit in 2008. I entered my sister's home and there in front of me was this painting on the wall. It was like saying hello to an old friend!


This photo on the left was taken before my sister drove me to the airport. The lady right next to me and the ones in front of me in red and purple were my best friends. We called ourselves the Golden Girls and we promised to live together when we became old maids but we all ended up getting married. My sister is leaning against the wall in yellow sweater.

The Viking

This is not The Viking but he loves this painting. He saw it in my apartment in New Jersey 1984. It's a cover up painting. There are about four other paintings underneath. I told him he can have it. He left it with me. He asked me to bring it with me to Texas when I moved. I had no idea why he thought I would move. Two years later I moved to Texas.

I love my husband. I call him The Viking. He is of Norwegian, English and German decent. The photos on the left were taken around the time we met in the Philippines. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer and I was taking post graduate nursing studies in Manila. I have loved him since that evening I saw him from across the room at a Christmas party in 1979. Our glances met. He was wearing white polo shirt with thin horizontal stripes and blue jeans. He looked so handsome yet so gentle. He looked like a very kind man. All my impressions of him were true. I was so jolted and shaken, suddenly I felt my chest cavity tighten, I had to catch my breath. I whispered to myself "Oh my God! I just met my husband." It took another two hours of exchanging glances before I got so fed up that he was so shy, he did not approach me. I came with a friend and she was impatient. She wanted to leave. She told me that her chauffeur was waiting downstairs and was getting hungry. I told her to let the chauffeur come up and eat. She had none of it. I told her I was waiting for the American to approach me. She warned me about American men then she left me at the party. I approached The Viking, I was so nervous yet excited. He was so handsome with blond hair and mustache. We were both young. I said: "Hi, I saw you looking at me from across the room." He replied "You were looking at me too." I retorted "You looked first." He responded "Yes, please sit down next to me."I was wearing white rolled up long sleeved collared shirt tucked in my blue jeans. I sat down next to him. He said "I like your shoes." I was wearing custom made brown oxford shoes.

He complains about my shoes. He says I have so many shoes. He thinks I must have a hundred. I correct him. "One hundred and one, at least!" He exhales. I love my husband.

The Midlife Poet

Thank you Deborah!

Milo helped me draw this 9"x12" permanent pigment ink illustration on Bristol Board.

First of all, I want to thank my friends for the visits and warm comments. I appreciate each and everyone of you and will be catching up as soon as I finish my work week. I feel I owe a Milo update after the frenzied weekend. Milo by the way, when not jet setting, lounges by the Midlife Poet's pool.

The Midlife Poet is beautiful, as in beautiful-attractive and beautiful as in beautiful inside out. She is very tall. When she was young she was a dancer. She still loves to dance. She has a beautiful home where the handsome Brawny Man lives and a very handsome soldier son with big guns and a most beautiful and lovely daughter renamed Alice.

The Midlife Poet is my gift from my sisterfriendship with Renee. One day the Midlife Poet came to my blog twirling her pink parasol from Renee's blog. One day I drew elephants for my beloved sisterfriend Bella Sinclair. The Midlife Poet was so delighted. She made me smile, the kind of smile that makes your jaw quiver.

She loves organic gardening. She loves plants. She loves her crazy little dog. They have a free range resident turtle. Now that proves something right there, why a turtle would feel safe in its environment at the Midlife Poet's garden.

The Midlife Poet is a kind, gentle and loving friend. I think she loves me. I don't want to be presumptuous but I think she loves me. However, this I am sure ,I love her.

Deborah is an inspiration to several of my drawings and for this award (Read the original post regarding the significance of this ward). Please spread this award to the beautiful friends in your life.

I would like to once again give this award to the following beautiful people, Some of them I just met and the others I quietly read their blogs and still others, I make make a lot of noise when I visit:

Cori G.
Carrie
Linda of Lime In The Coconut
Ariadone
Shirley
Mita
Amalia
Karin
Helen
Janice
Bimbimbie
Katelen
Jan
Susan

Deborah is also the one who gave me the opportunity to host Milo... where's Milo???

Milo!!!

Android 19 is not pleased with the prospect of being examined by a bug. "Touch me and I'll zap you!" he threatened. On the other hand, things look copacetic for Specs.