Come Fly With Me

Treat and Treat


Come Fly With Me. Have Bamboo, pigment pen, paint brush and pencil will travel...
Pigment ink on 9"x12" Bristol Board. Double click on image to enlarge details.

You know what's sad? It is sad when you fly by yourself. It does not matter how high you fly when you are alone or when have no one who wants to fly with you, it feels empty. Then, when you land, no one's there to meet you. I think that's sad. Thank you for flying with me.

Ces And Her Dishes

4 - number of years blogging
1015 - number of posts that have not been deleted
2 - number of times I have deleted my entire blog
20545 - comments remaining
500 - approximate number of comments deleted in past two years, including spam
19670 - profile views
190043 - visitors since 2006
25 oil paintings this year alone
over 300 - pen and ink drawings
countless - number of laughter
priceless - friendship

I know that I would definitely be painting even without blogging, but drawing? I only started drawing again for Illustration Friday in 2008. The rest were just doodles and journal sketches. Everyday is an opportunity to create. On the left is my son's watercolor painting of an elephant and on the right is my daughter's colored pencil rendition of Ponyo:

A Life Spent...

A childhood spent at play with my sisters and brothers in our mother's garden...

2010 with all the stresses of projects on top of projects; of deadlines and fire drills; of high profile problems requiring immediate resolutions; of being stretched too thin in all directions; of motherhood; of health issues, it is fast replacing 2007 as my Annus Horribilis, but I shall not dwell on it. Actually I won't call 2007 as an Annus Horribilis, but a dysfunctional and aberrant year. Instead I would like to recall the many Annus Mirabilis that I have doodled in my Moleskine notebooks. These drawings which I doodled during meetings and conversations with friends were rendered in Bic ball pens.

L to R, Top Row: Scaling the wall of my elementary school in the weekend with neighborhood friends, Harvesting star apples with my younger sister, Hanging out in the backyard with my older brother and younger sister. Second Row: The towering figure that was my maternal grandfather we call The Castillan, Playing the hula hoop when our parents thought we we fast asleep, My Epsilons overtaking the living room with their tent home. Bottom Row: Teaching Epsilon II the "bojack" and "strike" in a type of marble game, The Espilons playing hide and seek in the garden, Unfinished drawing of The Epsilons.

Don't Lose Your Head

...on second thought, perhaps, it may be a good idea.

Here are some doodles done in ordinary ballpoint pen, on a Moleskine notebook.

Farm Logo Drawing Practice

No kidding! I am practicing drawing a commission I agreed to do. My client is very patient... she has been waiting for two years!


I have been struggling to do it. But I got a break today. My friend told me to imagine the children as the people I love, holding the basket of vegetables.
Ooooooh! I needed that!


I came home after a grueling day at the office and actually sat down to draw.
But first I had to listen to music.


I am coughing my lungs out and my eyeballs are bugging out but I am drinking coffee from a white Fiesta mug,


and in half an hour I have a date with a very handsome man with a beautiful chest.
He is taking me to a Don Williams concert.
I just hope I get to hear the music because I am drugging myself with cough suppressant,


I will be so groggy,
I wonder if he will take advantage of me...


Okay, the farm logo will not be of a gigolo and a rhino,
I promise.

We had a Race, You Won...

So did I!

No Contest. Permanent pigment ink on 9"x12" Bristol Board.

There are things in life that make me pause and not only make me examine or analyze them, but they stop me on my tracks. I am not a religious person but I think my Mother has instilled in me the virtue of spirituality. I am a logical, analytical person, and it is sometimes easy to dismiss the notion of faith, that there is a certain being or power that make some things so. If I doubt sometimes, all I have to do is remember my parents and my family. Surely, the good God made me belong to them. Then there is The Viking. He makes me so mad, sometimes I want to hit him with a skillet, yet deep down, I am lost without him for I love him so. Then there are my children. The first one especially challenges me and sometimes I want to give up. He is so like me, I cannot stand it! But he is one heck of a loving and lovely young man. Then there is my daughter who just took all the superlatives. There is a music bar below my header, the second one is Dolly Parton's "Here You Come Again". Ah that melody reminds me of everyone I love. I cannot in my heart forsake anyone of them for they make me quiver and turn me into a believer.


Then there are the blogs where I meet people of all sorts. We tend to attract the ones with similar virtues, although sometimes we find duds out there, unlucky for those who do. Ah, but this one is a pure gem. She is beautiful, gifted, intelligent, witty, eloquent, funny, talented, gentle, loving and guaranteed, she is going to blush as she reads this. She is so humble, too humble for she has to have an extra dose of humility to throw my way sometimes. Yes, I am very proud, proud and happy that I have a such a friend, the best I say.


One night we had a race. I hate losing, so I don't know why I agreed but I don't shy away from competition. It was fair and square. She won. She is the better woman. But I cannot think of myself a loser in any way with this, for I won, the very first day we met.

Dream...

Rest
Sleep
Dream
Heal
Awaken
Live


The Dreamer. 9"x12" pigment ink on Bristol Board. Double click for larger image.


To my favorite dreamer,
whose visions and dreams ,
she transforms
to some of the most beautiful works of art
I hold precious in my mind and heart.

I was about to tear this drawing while it was a work in progress. There was something wrong with the first time I drew the water. The ripples and waves were a bit unruly, disorganized, random and without harmony. I told my best friend I was disappointed with it. She encouraged and suggested but mostly she left it to me. I have already drawn the bull elephant and his tender eye begged me not to rend the world I created for him and his herd. So I painstakingly drew different waves over the first ones. This is in permanent pigment ink and there is no room for mistakes. I think I managed to calm the waves, don't you think? By the way, a herd of elephants is headed by a female elephant. Young bulls may join the herd.

Fail Spook

Baby with paintbrush
Bebe nga may brocha para paminta
Bébé avec le pinceau
Baby mit Malerpinsel
Bambino con il pennello

그림붓을 가진 아기
Bebê com pincel
Bebé con la brocha

Pigment ink on 9"x12" smooth Bristol board.

Okay, I have to admit it. I cannot think of anything for Illustration Friday's theme "Spooky" without being too cliched. Instead, I drew something like the one above. Hmn. What do you think? Isn't she a cutie-patootie? My 8-year old friend said that the elephant sucked his (she thought the baby is a male) hair because he did not do his chores and the pig is eating bacon. I love children!!! Especially imaginative, creative and smart children. However, I do not want the IF police to tell me I am not posting in line with the theme so here is something spooky (and trite and commonplace). Just look at the ghost! See if you notice anything amiss. I have been sucking on Tootsie roll pops lately. See photo on top of sidebar. Oh and I have a question in the comment section.

FAIL SPOOK!!!

The BBB Club - Beautiful Bald Babies!!!

In celebration of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month,
To the memory of our beloved Renee,
To Karin who is bravely waging battle,
To all our friends and family members who have been through cancer,
survived it
and to some we have lost,
To those who dedicate their lives to search for the cure,
Forever we shall celebrate, remember and help:

Bella Sinclair and I collaborated in designing The Beautiful Bald Babies (BBB) Club logo. Further down below, is the original logo in pen and ink. Bella and I also started the idea of the BBB Club when we found out that we were both baldies when we were babies. I first celebrated our bald heritage with the painting of The Ivory Babies.

Two years before bisextile day, bedecked, bedizened, beautiful, bald babies and some bouncy brainiacs, badinage in the leaf mobile while a distant bagatelle play Rock-A-Bye-Baby. Sometimes they are guilty of being boisterous but never being bellicose. There are 31 BBBs in this image (so far) and our beloved Renee as the maple leaf-carrying dove . The Beautiful Bald Babies Club (BBB) is a group of artists, writers, musicians, gardeners, photographers... Pigment ink on 9"x12" smooth Bristol board.

My dearest friends,

This was an overwhelming task. For me, to draw this portrait of pediatric impressions of the BBB was a roller coaster ride of emotions and ideas. I thought what might have been had we all been coetaneous childhood friends. Imagine that! That's a lot of baldies and some of their hirsute friends. We would have had similar experiences and we would be able to assume an easy understanding and have a common bond.

On the other hand, consider the loss of our personal experiences in different times, ages and eras had it been so. Our differences and the understanding thereof, are what makes us special, after all. From Arija's photographic memoirs to Mita's introspective musings; Karin's trials and Tessa's punctuated equilibrium, Amalia's artistic evolution and Deborah's joy. In the midst of all that is happening, we live our individual lives in parallel time line, sometimes intersecting, overlapping, entangling even momentarily yet we are forever changed by the virtue that we gain from our tender, gentle even lighthearted experiences.

This is not social networking, not amassing of fans and superficial friends by the numbers. I think I counted an overwhelming number of thirty babies occupying the leafmobile. Yet, I know I have disappointed some who came late and I have already inked the spaces. Please forgive me. To exclude you is not my intention. You are welcome to join us. I just had to finish my drawing lest it fall victim to disinterest. and I need you to express interest. I can only assume for very few, Arija for one, who has no clue that I had converted her during her leave this week, into a bald toddler sharing space with Shirley in the scout pod. So many babies, surely it will sink or tear the leaf pod, but it won't. Our energy, enthusiasm and a genuine desire to establish an honest virtuous friendship and support one another through our blogs will keep us all afloat and soar.

Without further ado, please read about the origin of the BBB Club here. If you are reading this and was late in heeding the call, take heart. the ring of friendship is expandable. Come and play. Let these artists' blogs speak for themselves (links in progress):

Our beloved Renee is a maple-leaf carrying dove in this recent club picture and also on the first ever BBB Club picture. Above, L to R - bottom row: Uber-talented Vanessa Brantley-Newton (navigator); lovely mental ninja Bella Sinclair with sympathy- right eye patch (president), my favorite everything - friend, artist, brainiac; Ces with left eye patch; beautiful and gentle Deborah the midlife poet, and dancer with security blanket; Linda Cardina, the beautiful painter; Manon Doyle, ever so gorgeous and gifted and Amalia K. the beautiful gentle artist on right lower corner. On the Scout pod: Arija, beloved wise and gifted photographer painter friend and Shirley Ng-Benetiz, master watercolorist!

Clockwise from bottom left: beautiful Silke Powers with scarf, my elegant and sublime friend Janice Heppenstall with camera, fully coiffed handsome gifted Francisco Martins; Andrew Finnie the master story teller-painter-digital art wizard surfing on leaf; Steveroni, Gemini Peep, the symphony fiddle man - looking so naughty!

Left to right: Lakshmita Indira the Enigma, Julia Christie, the beautiful writer-artist being herself; Audrey my lovely quiet artist friend; Buckram and Bembo my beloved Gemini twin sister holding a plate of siopao with faces; behind her is my favorite super gifted French painter MartineAlison, Tessa Edwards, the Regal painter and writer holding a book, the multi-talented K.H. Whitaker and the acrobatic wicked multi-media artist Anne Huskey-Lockard.

On the Tea party pod: prolific artist Diana Evans the beautiful shooing the spider with a spoon; Katelen Tays, the lovely Poetic artist ducking the spider; Faerwillow the mysterious artist contemplating what to do with the spider; Caroline Soer the awesome-wicked master water colorist par excellence and Karin Bartimole, multi-media artist fighter and who inspired me to draw the first leaf mobile.

Top row: Marie Segal, the master clay artist and sisterfriend; Lisa Holtzman, painter and master-calligrapher; Jack Foster, the wonderful digital artist; Jan the fabric artist-nature lover-body builder, all around fun!

The Stalker

Last night, my husband and I went to dinner at a restaurant with his fellow directors of the M.U.D. Board. After dinner we all walked to where our cars were parked. Everyone was talking when all of a sudden, I noticed something from the corner of my eye and saw this tree. Oh my goodness! It stood over a hundred feet tall. The base of the trunk was about 4 feet in diameter; and there it was, just staring down at us, like a stalker. Nobody else noticed.

An conversation with my first-ever-best-friend:

Ernesto this looks like a forlorn, lonely, dead tree or a lady with manicured long nails, or a ghost. But then it is Autumn,let us wait for the summer, then the tree may not be lonely anymore and the lady has cast off her nails, and the ghost replaced by an angel guarding the tree.

Ces Ooooh I love your comment. May I post it on my blog please? I will anyway!

Ces It is not dead. The halogen lamp was directly in front of it. It is actually so strikingly beautiful!

Ernesto Sure ! feel free. But if I am alone on a road with that tree, my imagination might kill me with something out of the ordinary. YOu sure picked the right TREE!

Ces And I love how you describe it! And I love you! I think it is a Shumard Oak; quercus shumaardi. It was very tall so I was not able to verify the leaves, plus it was dark.

Ernesto I have to zoom the photo to see the leaves. I thought they were all shed. I hope NOT to remember one of O Henry story, The Last Leaf, or hear for a long time the song by the Cascades, for these might bring tears to ones eyes.Ah, the cycle of life of a tree. Can you present photos at each season of that tree. But trees are not God's greatest, but man who does not listen.

Ces I remember O. Henry's Last Leaf. By the way, William Sidney Porter lived in Asheville, NC. Twice a year we go to lunch there. I also drew a picture reminiscent of The Last Leaf. Can you still recite Joyce Kilmer's Tree? I know that poem by heart.

Ernesto is my older brother.

No Sympathy

So what happens when you reach the top?

Some things we never forget.
Something like this:


To the parents of Ces:
This is to inform you that your daughter was punished at school today and was sent to my office for guidance. Mrs. I., her homeroom teacher, reported that Ces was very talkative in class this morning. When she was told to keep quiet, she glared at Mrs. I. and mumbled. Mrs. I. then instructed her to stand in the corner of the classroom. However, Ces made faces at Mrs. Inot and continued talking. She was then sent to my office for disciplinary action. While at my office she complained of pain on her left eye. I sent her to the school nurse for examination, but was cleared of injury. I would like to ask for your help in making Ces understand that she has to follow school and classroom rules. The school will not tolerate disruptive behavior. We hope that Ces will learn to enjoy the instructions to better prepare her for a successful future.
Sincerely Miss. G.
Guidance Counselor


Dear Miss. G.
Thank you for your letter. My daughter came home from school today with redness on her left eye. She gave me your letter and I spoke to her about the incident in class today. However, I had to take her to the emergency room at the provincial hospital, because she continued to complain of pain on her left eye. The EENT doctor, Dr. Paez, at the provincial hospital diagnosed her condition as a corneal abrasion to the left eye. My daughter relayed to me and to the doctor that during the class, her teacher was giving instructions and passed by her seat. The teacher was holding a hairpin and poked Ces on her eyeball. I am hoping that the incident was unintentional, however, when my daughter complained and told the teacher that she was stuck on her left eye with the hairpin, Mrs. I. told her to keep quiet. My daughter said she was embarrassed and was crying quietly. This was apparently interpreted by Mrs. I. as disobedience. My daughter was then asked to stand on the corner of the classroom. Because of the pain on her left eye, she continued to cry as quietly as she could. Thereafter, she was sent to your office.

I am in agreement with you regarding the adherence to rules of conduct during class instructions, however, I am most disappointed that the school has neglected to listen to my daughter nor verify her complaint about her eye injury. She is lucky and I am thankful that it has been diagnosed as a temporary injury. In the future it would help our youth if we give them a chance to explain their behavior. Their safety is our primary concern. I hope I will be able to rely on the school administration to provide a safe environment for my daughter. Thank you very much.
Sincerely yours,
Mother of Ces.


"May I please wear the eyepatch to school."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Dr. Paez says the eyepatch should not be worn more than 24 hours."
"But my eye still hurts!"
"Does it?"
"No."
"Okay then, you are going to school without an eye patch."
"Mrs. I will poke me on the eye again."
"Believe me, she won't."
"Josephine wore a cast on her right arm for one month!"
"Do you have a wrist fracture?"
"No."
"Then you don't need a cast."
"You're supposed to be on my side."
"I am. Go to school."
(GRUMBLE GRUMBLE!!!) "No sympathy."

Join The BBB Club!!!

Come Fly With Us...
Join the club!!!
Read about the BBB here.


P.S. I still think the BBB Club President's (Bella Sinclair) drawing style is better suited for this logo job but here is my attempt. I will work with Bella and see how we can improve the logo. You may post the logo on your sidebar at your pleasure, for now.

Come Fly With Us!!!

Dedicated to my Beloved Sisterfriend, Karin Bartimole.

Artist extraordinaire; Brave - Bold - Beautiful - Bald and Beloved; Most Worthy.
Please wish Karin the best as she fights cancer.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Drawing transports my mind into certain stratosphere with no holds barred. This is my entry for Illustration Friday's theme - Transportation. Pigment ink on 9"x12" Bristol Board. The Magic BBB Club Transporter currently holds (L to R) Ces, Sgt-at-Arms - because I write rules for a living, steering the stalk; Bella Sinclair, Mental Ninja and Brainiac Artist (president with squirt-star medal); Deborah, The Midlife Poet (Born with beautiful blond curls) who will teach us how to dance before we can walk; Amalia, The Constant Dreamer, who draws like a dream, trying to steady Anne Huskey Lockard, The Passionate Artist, who seems like she is mooning everyone but is adjusting the BBB Club Yearbook; Silke Powers, Beautiful Eyes, who wants peace and quiet; Lakhsmita Indira, The Enigmatic Beautiful designated coifed cheerleader; Karin Bartimole, The Brave, hoisting the turbo paint brush; Vanessa Brantley Newton who is Ooh La la baking illustrations and a cake but is using the spatula to squish the spider; Caroline Soer, Truly Beautiful Baby With Hair and water-colorist supreme; Arija The Gentle Wise and Learned who knows everything about oak and poison oak and prevent us from getting contact dermatitis and Manon Doyle, The Beautiful, practicing her mountain climbing skills. If I did not include you I may just be a little embarrassed sending you this inquiry email: "This is short and quick but were you bald when you were a baby?" Please join us!!! Boys welcome but don't bring frogs and lizards. Sisterfriends are automatically welcome but I did not want to assume that you would like being called "baldie".

Come Fly With Us
Join The BBB Club Today!!!

BBB as in Beautiful Bald Babies Club. All you have to be is nice. Of course you have to have been born bald and beautiful. However, we will give exceptions if you had certain curlicues or wads of kewpie strands as long as you understand what we, genuine baldies had to endure while growing up. We were given names like "General Ike", "Baldie", "Calvolite", "Melonhead" and the dreaded "Boy". Our parents did not seem to think much of it. They did not glue silly ribbons to our bald pate to tell everyone we were girls, as if boys are automatically born bald, which they are not. At any rate, I think growing bald or kewpie, instilled and fortified us with certain inner strengths and taught us when to let go or when to beat the living crap out of your bully. The painting on the left is the 30"x40" oil on gallery stretched canvas painting of The Ivory Babies, also known as The Mud Pie Babies.

About the pen and ink drawing: I had to think of something that moves and as I looked through my illustrations I saw several drawings that would have qualified such as Renee's Gypsy Wagon Madisyn's Birthday Flight and The Sisterfriend Day Celebration. Ah it seems I have a propensity for making oak leaves fly. They don't. Oak leaves float as they fall from the tree to the ground. However, The oak leaf transport system you see above is propelled by the magic energies and spirits of its passengers, in this case the beautiful bald babies and their not so bald friends. They don't have wings and therefore have to go to sleep in order to sustain their magic flying dust levels which is gauged by the liveliness of a butterfly designated for each baby. See why they don't squish the caterpillar? That's a future baldie baby energometer. So it is imperative that members of the BBB Club encourage and support each other to maintain healthy and happy lifestyles just in case it is their turn to steer the oak leaf stalk. This transportation system is biodegradable and does not use fossil fuel, just a lot of imagination.

So come and join the BBB Club. Simply leave a comment and indicate whether you were a baldie. If you were not a baldie and still want to join, you have to be nice and be creative or play a musical instrument or be a terrific dancer, scuba diver, photographer, etc... Baby Boys are welcome. Also we have an opening for the Bug Squashier/Squishier position, but you must show restrain and not arbitrarily squash/squish any bug, just the ones crawling towards us. We will create a Yearbook and maybe ask our president to illustrate a seal, not that seal, a club seal - logo!

Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!

The Birthday Party Caravan. I will never make it in the delivery business nor be a successful social director. Hahahahaha! The cake! The poor cake! Acid-free, archival black and colored pigment ink on Bristol board. Cake design borrowed from cake given to me by beloved sisterfriend Deborah.

Today is October eight!
I'm late!
I'm late!
For a very important date!
Wait!
Wait!
I have the cake!


***

Happy Birthday to my favorite tween, mental ninja, brainiac young writer, her Mom's wonderful daughter and her little sister's terrific big sister,
Happy Birthday, Nona!!!
Tsup! Tsup!!!

***

Happy Birthday to my favorite first niece who still reminds me of that tender lovable little girl I carried to the beach one hot afternoon. I did not carry any water, my goodness, it was a very long walk, so I carried you all the way and you fell asleep on my shoulder. I love you.
Happy Birthday, Gloda!!!
Tsup! Tsup!!!

***

Happy Birthday to one of my favorite artists, whose watercolor paintings make me sigh with great admiration and sometimes, I hate to admit this, with envy.
Happy Birthday, Caroline!!!
Tsup! Tsup!!!
Please go to Caroline's blog and make a lot of noises!

***

Whew! I have never squiggled so fast in my life before!
Happy Birthday sweetums!

Renee, This One's For You!!!

Acorn collage. Pigment ink on sepia cotton ACEO sized paper. All materials are acid free and archival quality.

You all know what an awful business woman I am. If I had to sell something to support myself, I would be homeless! I wish I went to business school but instead I went to nursing school. Oh well.


A few months ago, I was approached by a dear friend at work who volunteers at the Susan G. Komen Foundation. She asked me if I wanted to donate some art work for auction at this year's fund-raising event. Before she could finish her sentence I said "yes". I immediately thought of my beloved Renee. I wanted to honor her with something I do and which she loved, my art. I also have a lot of friends who are fighting and who survived breast cancer. After talking to my friend, the next thing I did was talk to my beloved sisterfriend and favorite artist, you all know who she is, and to my delight she also agreed to donate several of her illustrations.


Well, yesterday, I received the great news that both our illustrations were sold to the highest bidders above and beyond the fair market value. I am so delighted! The fund-raising for breast cancer occurs every year. This was the second time I donated to the foundation (my first donation was a set of dishes - surprise!). There will be another opportunity next year. So if you are interested, I would be happy to connect you with the fund-raising committee. All donations and proceeds are tax-deductible and IRS regulation compliant.

Yoo-hoo, Renee darling! We did it. A big smile to you up there!
Tsup! Tsup!!!

The current blog header is a detail of my farewell illustration and post to my beloved friend, Renee. The illustration depicts Renee, Bella and myself. Both Bella and I have illustrated Renee several times during her blogging days. When Renee was alive, Bella and I spent many times conducting marathon blog comment sessions with her. The memory of those sessions still make me laugh and smile and sometimes when I am sad, I cheer myself up by reading those comments.

Thank you Renee, you continue to give love and happiness. You live in my heart.
Tsup! Tsup!!!


***

Today I am also celebrating the birthdays of several beloved friends and family members. Birthday celebration crew coming up...

***

Hang to Dry

The above photographs will give you an idea of the relative sizes of most of my paintings. The larger 36"x48" pieces are in the bedroom and therefore, off limits, but you can see one of them in the 1983 photo below shortly after I painted it in New Jersey. At that time, I used 36"x48" canvases. These days, the largest canvas I use is 30"x40" because shipping fees are atrociously steep.

Oil paintings take between six to twelve months to dry. The oils need enough time to oxidize before varnish application. Since I don't have a studio, I am hanging my paintings around the house, to dry. The rest of the paintings are stacked against furniture and walls. Isn't it uncanny that impatient as I am, I chose oils for my medium? Even my pen and ink drawings take a long time. I always have this sense of urgency in everything I do, yet when I paint and draw, not only does time seem to stand still but I turn back the clock.

This post has been updated since its original publication.

.

Beneath The Starry Sky

Beneath the starry sky
And under the full moon,
She cried out her agony until
Her eyes ran dry...

About this drawing: Still continuing the Bamboo Series. I have been drawing this image mostly at night in bed when I oftentimes doze off to sleep. You may not see them, for I tried to mask them, but there are errant lines and squiggles. I don't have much time left for painting or drawing lately. So many more important things happening and they need my attention. This weekend, I cleaned up my painting area and put away both of my studio easels into storage. I still have my tripod easel and a Jullian French easel handy, but my usual 30"x40" canvas may not fit properly. I'll see how my time management goes. Also if the weather will allow me to paint outside without getting roasted, I may paint en plein air during the weekends.

Have a great week, everyone!

Tsup!