Art and fashion always mix, and so when my cousin asked me if she can be considered an artist, I easily said yes! She is a fashionista (a colloquial term meaning someone who is so into fashion) to begin with. But being into fashion doesn’t guarantee one to being an artist! There is a long trail of hard work, positive craziness and certain gift that one will become an artist.

Like all other crafts, fashion should be honed and practice. One should expose herself into different teachings, facts, literature – all to widen his or her sensibility. This of cannot be done with reading a single book, or watching an art film, nor attending a fashion crash course! One has to study it!

And then she asked me where she would study. Without a doubt I told her that she should choose from any New York fashion schools! New York is great city, it is simply the center of the world! She can easily find a fashion school in New York that will teach her what she needs and what she does not. So I told her to go online to check the schools and universities where fashion is treated like a real art. There are a number of fashion schools New York where she can choose. This is simply her best step towards artistry!

The Joy Of Painting – every painter feels it but not probably the same way as Bob Ross did, the quintessential “happy” landscape painter who use to do painting demos on US TV PBS and broadcasted on local channel RPN 9. For everything he accomplishes in 30 minutes flat, it’s been all the same – the same snow-capped mountains, the same calm waves that are more velvet-like, the stick-thin trees rendered with a sharp edge of the palette knife, the flusterry clouds, the mossy foliage produced by a quick whip of a fan brush – configurable in pigments Bob Ross himself also manufactures, in sap green, van dyke brown, Prussian blue and midnight black. The landscapes are obviously from the Northern hemisphere, but the solitariness and ultra placid calm that would’ve been utopian are more eerie, unworldly, unsafe if only for the conspicuous absence of other creatures like people or even animals. Seeing all of them in succession would’ve made you think that Bob Ross as a hippie visionary who disdains human contact.

It is from this premise that Jayson Oliveria focuses on his latest series of paintings featured in his exhibit at Mag:net Katipunan entitled Truth Adjustment. Six of which are direct copies from Bob Ross instructional book The Joy of Painting, but with some adjustments – a naked boy pissing at the foaming waves in the dark night while a black dog perched on a rocky cliff does the same thing; a huge anaconda blocks the road to a humble cottage set in a peach melba sunset; a plastic-torch- bearing retard Olympian runs over a frozen lake in a snowy mauve haze. These elements, again downloaded from the internet, are Photoshopped in the scenes to emphasize the perilous nature of these landscapes if they ever existed, but made more ridiculous by their placement in such. This becomes another tactic for Oliveria to orchestrate yet another absurdist theatrics of The Sublime which is usually associated with Landscape painting, (and as the progenitor of abstract painting in its sweeping universality.)

Oliveria’s plaster casts of miniature tombstones, 50 in all, with various concepts and seemingly “big” words painted on each (e.g. black holes, exploration, hopes and dreams, history) somewhat pins down the curse on such sublimity, a sublimity too burdened by a lot of concepts, history, and “artistic license” (whatever the hell that means). Art has thus become an omen for nature and through which we can only see grotesqueness in its representation of its demise or destruction or even its perfection. But as to quote another artist, “grotesque only applies to humans, there is no such thing in the natural world” (Robert Langenegger, Jan 25, 2008 Youngstar) and to which Oliveria exultantly rejoins to such supposition : “In that case, painters are naturally grotesque”. And that’s probably the source of the joy of painting, to be ceaselessly confronted by such.

Truth Adjustment will be on view from March 8 to 27, 2008

Uncertainty. Not the kind that makes you toss in your bed and lose sleep, but the sort that challenges the very core of your being, the sort that transforms your life from being routine to unpredictable and inspiring. These four individuals dare to defy the sacred covenants of conventional art by utilizing mundane and unlikely objects in their works as well as refusing to do what the rest of the world tells them to do: plan ahead.

Lirio Salvador is a Fine Arts graduate in the Technological University of the Philippines. He
founded a band called Elemento, a multi-dimensional art group which specializes in sound art. Sound art involves no scales, but focuses on sound textures and uses noise to its advantage. Salvador creates his own instruments using everyday materials such as bicycle gears, drain cleaning springs and stainless steel tubes. His works look like objects fresh from a science fiction movie, but with more symmetry and a beauty that is quite unexpected of gears, springs and
tubes.

Eugene Jarque has certain similarities with Salvador---he also graduated from TUP with a Fine Arts degree and he also uses metal (in the form of aluminum sheets) in his art. The similarities, however, end there. Jarque also incorporates receipts, magazine clippings, soil, enamel, gesso, sandpaper and ferric chloride in his creations. The dominant color in his works is gray; witnessing his paintings, one is delightfully surprised that there are so many shades of a color usually considered drab and uninteresting.No wonder Jarque was presented with the Cultural Center of the Philippines' prestigious Thirteen Artists Award, which is given only to progressive young artists with integrity, coherence of ideas, consistence and sensitivity to today's social realities every three years.

Another recipient of the Thirteen Artists Award is Mac Valdezco, an Advertising graduate also from TUP. Using strips of paper, cotton strings, cotton tape, shoelaces and cotton rags, she creates biomorphicfigures that are sometimes whimsical and sometimes loud, but one thing is for sure: they are never the same from first glance. Her art metamorphoses before our very eyes and the beauty of it is that we can never catch how and just what it has become.

Another TUP Fine Arts graduate is Jonathan Castro. As a painter, he explores the interweaving of texture, color and tonal patterns through non-traditional painting techniques and materials. He usually presents a series of works that expresses the ambiance of free play and interaction of shapes and lines to convey a range of emotions.

There you have it---we have four artists telling us that uncertainty is not a bad thing. The beauty of their art proves this to be true.

Uncertainity will open on Monday, March 3, 2008 at 6pm. Blanc is located at 2E Crown Tower 107 H.V. dela Costa St. Salcedo Village, Makati City. For more information please visit www.blanc.ph or www.blancartspace. multiply. com call or sms 752-0032/0920- 9276436

by Fr. Adonis Narcelles Jr. SVD

There is a gentle revolution happening in the Philippines. It is neither political nor economic. The revolt happens in the very heart of filmmaking. Its proponents and followers are the numerous film "guerillas" who have finally found an avenue to express their creativity and freedom. There is a breeze of fresh air which invigorates the contemporary scenario of Philippine Cinema. The Filipino achievement in this era of indie (short for independent), experimental and digital filmmaking has come. "Tirador," in winning the Caligari Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 15, 2008, proves that this Pinoy revolution works- in the world of filmmaking.

This "new epoche" of filmmaking in the Philippines brings out a new breed of young and dynamic filmmakers. This is the advent of the independent digital filmmaking. The emergence of affordable and user-friendly digital cameras and editing softwares make this rapid evolution possible resulting to a new film consciousness in the Philippines with a profound interest in festivals abroad, like the 58th Berlin Film Festival. The Berlinale this year was an avenue where the metamorphosis of filmmaking was acknowledge and admired. It was an historical event for the Philippines. This prestigious, glamorous and one of the biggest film festivals in the world recognized the international quality of digital Filipino films. For the first time in the long history of Philippine Cinema that six Filipino films were shown at the Berlinale from February 7 to 17, 2008. Indeed, this Berlinale documents the greatness of this creative spirit present in various characteristics of Filipino filmmaking- experimental, documentary, live musical accompaniment and screening with three projections.

"This is one of the hardest films I have shot." Director Brilliante Mendoza admits the challenges he encountered in making "Tirador" (Slingshot). He spoke before the international audience after the first screening, the European Premiere of his film at the Colosseum Cinema in Berlin on February 9, 2008. He worked on three cameras to shot the scenes in the dangerous areas of Manila, particularly in Quiapo in order to capture the life and operation of poor small-time crooks, the "little criminals" who do dirty tricks to earn money. His guerilla film-making has been recognized around the world. "Tirador" has been shown at film festivals in Toronto, Singapore, Granada, Pusan and in Marraketch where it won the International Special Jury Prize.

Director Mendoza also impressed the judges in Berlin that they awarded "Tirador" with the much-coveted Caligari Award 2008. It is the first Filipino Film to win this award which is given to a film in the Berlinale Category of International Forum of Young Films. It is the most important recognition of a film under this category. This award, given for the 23rd time this year, has been awarded to films which are thematically innovative and stylistically creative.

This award includes an endowment of 4,000 € prize from the sponsors: the Bundesverband kommunalen Filmarbeit, the German Federal Association of 150 cultural cinemas and the film journal "Film-Dienst".

The judges gave the Award to "Tirador" with this reason: "Well-thoughtout paradigmatic sequencing shows daily survival between pickpocketing, gambling, part-time-jobs, arbitrary police acts and corrupt politicians. Dramatic highpoints are blended into scenes of everyday life." Indeed this film blends fiction and reality to portray the life of street criminals who are exposed to crimes, drugs, and abuses. What was originally planned as a documentary film turned out to be a feature film with the local election and the Holy Week as its backdrop. "Tirador" refers figuratively to somebody who makes a hit (tira) which refers to hired killer, drug addict, thief and the like. Director Mendoza workled closely with the film's writer Ralston Joel Jover and even interviewed "little criminals", went to their houses and in places where they do their petty crimes in order to show authenticity in his film which was originally planned to be documentary.

The corruption of politicians and abuses of police officials are also portrayed in the film. The drama of Philippine elections with rampant vote-buying and empty promises of policians were also shown. The movie ends with the little criminals joining the people in a prayer rally in Manila, an event which was attended by senatorial candidates who promised a better life and future for the people.

Director Mendoza was born 1960 in San Fernando, Pampanga and studied Advertising at the University of Santo Tomas. He worked in television and theater before focusing into filmmaking. His fifth major film gathers film legends like Jaclyn Jose, Julio Diaz and several young actors whose films have been shown and recognized in film festivals abroad: Jiro Manio ("Magnifico", Best Children Film at Berlinale 2004), Nathan Lopez ("Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros", Best Children Feature Film and Teddy Award, Berlinale 2006), Kristofer King ("Ang Babae sa Breakwater", Cannes 2004) and Coco Martin ("Masahista", Locarno 2005). His major films which were shown in major international film festivals which include: "Masahista" (The Masseur, 2005), "Kaleldo" (Summer Heat, 2006), "Manoro" (The Aeta Teacher, 2006) and "Foster Child", 2007. Director Mendoza was joined in Berlin by other "Tirador" staff: Producer Ferdinand Lapuz of Centerstage Productions, Script Supervisor Armando Lao and Actor Coco Martin.

Indeed, "Tirador" and the other Filipino films who made it to this year's festival are products of the blooming independent film genre brought about by the prevailing "digital revolution" in the Philippines. Filmmakers are more free to try new tricks and express themselves using unconventional methods. And their efforts and creative achievements are being recognized, if barely at home, then in many international film festivals, like at the Berlinale.

March 5 to 7, TARC Auditorium, UST

*FREE ADMISSION, but only local films are open to the public
(Organized by The Varsitarian, official student publication of the University of Santo Tomas, and Institute of Religion in with UST Journalism Society, UST Literary Society, and Concilium Philosophiae)

March 5, Wednesday
8 A.M. OPENING CEREMONIES
*Registration
9 - 9:30 A.M. A CHILD FROM CHINA (documentary, Aurora Santiago)
*Registration
9:40 - 11:10 A.M. FOSTER CHILD (full-length feature, Brillante Mendoza)
*Lunch break and registration
1 - 3:40 P.M. FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN (foreign film, Lloyd Kramer)
*Registration
4 - 4:20 P.M. SA KAMBAS NG LIPUNAN (documentary, Joey Velasco)
*Registration
4:30 - 6 P.M. ENDO (full-length feature, Jade Castro)

March 6, Thursday
8 - 8:15 A.M. ESTROPA (documentary, Sheryl Rose Andes and Michael Juancho Galang)
*Registration
8:20 - 9:50 A.M. TRIBU (full-length feature, Jim Libiran)
*Registration
10 A.M. - 12:10 P.M. SHADOWLANDS (foreign film, Richard Attenborough)
*Lunch break and registration
1 - 1:15 P.M. AMBULANCIA (short film, Richard Legaspi)
*Registration
1:20 - 2:50 P.M. TRABAHO (full-length feature, Ned Trespeces)
*Registration
3 - 4:15 P.M. ANINO (full-length feature, John Isiah Reyes, UST College of Nursing)
*Registration
4:20 - 4:40 P.M. TUNAY NA BUHAY (documentary, Jasper Chavez Zarzuela)
*Registration
4:50 - 5:20 P.M. LABABO (short film, Seymour Barros Sanchez)
*Registration
5:30 - 7:10 P.M. CHINA CRY (foreign film, James F. Collier)

March 7, Friday
8 - 10 A.M. PAY IT FORWARD (foreign film, Mimi Leder)
*Registration
10:10 - 10:30 A.M. KARSEL (short film, Rianne Hill Soriano)
*Registration
10:40 - 11:10 A.M. TUTOS (short film, Louise Anne Yamsuan)
*Registration
11:15 - 11:45 A.M. UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE (documentary, Anna Isabelle Matutina and Herbert Villalon Docena)
*Lunch break and registration
1 - 2:50 P.M. BARAKO (full-length feature, Manolito Sulit, UST)
*Registration
3:15 - 4:50 P.M. TIRADOR (full-length feature, Brillante Mendoza)
*Registration
5 - 5:30 P.M. SONDA (documentary, UST College of Nursing)
*Registration
5:40 - 7:20 P.M. STILL LIFE (full-length feature, Katski Flores)
CLOSING CEREMONIES

*Registration: first-come, first-served basis (4 classes per film showing)
*20-30 seats will be reserved for guests and walk-in audiences
*Foreign films are exclusively for UST students, professors, and officials
*Audience for each film are requested to be in the venue 15 minutes before the showing starts (for registration)
*OPEN FORUM for films with attending directors (or cast/crew)

RULES AND REGULATIONS

Kindly read the rules and regulations carefully. The AAP shall strictly implement the rules published herein. All members/competitors are required to comply.

GENERAL RULES

1. The 60th AAP Annual Art Competition 2007 is open to all bonafide members.

2. Regular Members may join all five (5) categories.

3. Associate Members 16-20 years of age as of submission date may join only the Special Categories, namely Art Photography and Drawing.

4. MEMBERSHIP AND FEES:

a. Membership should be renewed on or before the date of submission by paying the annual dues. Non-members who wish to join should apply first.

b. Regular Membership is open to artists, Fine Arts students, art enthusiasts and cultural workers 21 years old and above.

c. Associate Membership is open to artists 16-20 years old as of submission date who may be students, art enthusiasts or cultural workers.

d. For bonafide members and applicants, please submit two (2) recent 1x1 photos for the AAP Identification Card.

e. For new members, please submit a comprehensive resume, two (2) recent 1x1 photos for the AAP Identification Card and fill up the AAP Bio Data.

f. Regular Membership Fee is Two Hundred Fifty Pesos (Php 250.00) for both renewal and new membership.

g. Associate Membership Fee is Two Hundred Fifty Pesos (Php 250.00) as well.

h. A participant may join several categories, provided that ONLY ONE ENTRY PER CATEGORY will be submitted.

i. Entry Fee is Two Hundred Fifty Pesos (PhP 250.00) per category.

5. ALL ARTWORKS SHALL BE FOR SALE. Artist prices are subject for review by the AAP Board. The AAP is entitled to a 30% share of the sale value.

6. An entry is considered to be an artistic product of an individual. NO GROUP ENTRIES SHALL BE ALLOWED. All artworks should be the original artistic creation of the participating artist. Non-compliance will result to disqualification of entry or revocation of title.

7. All entries must be SIGNED. Information to be written on the Entry Details Form and attached at the back of entry: artist’s name, address, contact details, category, entry title and price.

8. Each entry should be accompanied by a 5 x 7 (5R) colored photograph of the artwork, with the same information as above written on the Entry Details Form and attached at the back of photo. You may also avail of the services of the AAP Official Photographer for a minimal fee.

9. Entries for the Painting, Mixed Media, Art Photography and Drawing Categories should be framed and have provisions for hanging. Pedestals are optional for entries to the Sculpture Category.

10. SUBMISSION DATE: NOVEMBER 24, 2007, Saturday, from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm. Entries in the Painting and Mixed Media Categories are to be submitted at the GSIS Museo ng Sining at the CCP Complex, Roxas Boulevard, while entries for the Sculpture, Art Photography and Drawing should be submitted at the Kanlunganng Sining, Rizal Park, Manila.

11. All accepted entries will automatically be featured on the 60th AAP Annual Art Catalogue 2007. However, due to limited exhibition space, entries will be pre-screened by a panel of judges. Only entries which pass pre-screening will be exhibited in the above venues.

12. All decisions by the Board of Judges are final.

13. PRIZES:

Major Categories (Painting, Sculpture and Mixed Media)

1st Prize Php 30,000 Cash + Trophy

2nd Prize Php 20,000 Cash + Medal

3rd Prize Php 10,000 Cash + Medal

Special Categories (Art Photography and Drawing)

Best Entry Php 5,000 Cash + Medal

Honorable Mention Awardees will be awarded with Plaques.

14. AWARDING: The Awarding Ceremony will be announced at a later date.

15. EXHIBITION: Exhibition will follow the Awarding Ceremony.

16. RETRIEVAL: Retrieval of non-winning entries will be from January 10 to February 10, 2008 in the same venue the entries were submitted. Painting and Mixed Media entries shall be retrieved at the GSIS Museo ng Sining, while Sculpture, Art Photography and Drawing entries shall be retrieved at the Kanlungan ng Sining. All entries not retrieved within the period shall automatically become property of the AAP.

17. AAP shall not be held legally liable for any damages to entries as a result of the competition or the failure of the participant to follow the rules and regulations.

18. Submission of entries signifies acceptance of the rules and regulations of the competition.

RULES ON ARTISTIC FORMAT AND SPECIFICATIONS

Painting

• Any pigment on ground – e.g. oil / acrylic on canvas, watercolor on paper, tempera on board, etc.
• Dimensions: 30x40, excluding frame. Vertical or horizontal orientation.

Sculpture

• Three dimensional artwork in the round, using any material or technique
• Dimensions: Maximum of 4 feet or within the volume measure of 60 cubic feet. 100 kilos maximum weight.

Mixed Media

• Assemblage, collage, decoupage, relief panel with found objects, etc.
• Dimensions: 30x40with maximum thickness of 6 inches from the wall. Vertical or horizontal orientation. 25 kilos maximum weight.

Art Photography

• Photographs should be original, unpublished and taken during November 2006-November 2007. The participant must be the original author and sole owner of his or her photo entry/ies.
• Dimensions: 11x17or A3 Size. Vertical or horizontal orientation, full color or black and white printed on photo paper. Photographs should be framed and ready for hanging upon submission.
• Medium could either be film or digital, but no entries on disk or e-mail will be accepted.
• Alterations after exposure digital darkroom, painting, airbrushing, paste-on or assembly are not allowed. Creative effects must be done in-camera at the time of exposure, such as multiple exposure, flash fill, light painting, filtration, etc.
• Creative effects or minimal digital manipulation such as enhancement of color and contrast is allowed, but paste-ups and collages are prohibited.
• Person(s) appearing in the photograph should have a signed release form supplied and kept by the artist.

Drawing

• Graphite, pen and ink, ballpen, charcoal, colored pencils on paper
• Dimensions: 21x29 excluding frame. Vertical or horizontal orientation.

For details and inquiries, please call (632) 3030907 or drop by the AAP Office and Gallery, Kanlungan ng Sining, Rizal Park, Manila. You may also post your questions at Pinoy_AAP@yahoogrou ps.com or text (0915)2787469.

A two-day run last month of a rare art exhibit left the public clamoring for another opportunity to view the genius of an "artist of the people's struggle." The event featured some 100 drawings and paintings of a Philippine countryside in resistance, all done by Mindanaoan Parts Bagani.

It was an art exhibit that would have surely sent the big guns of the National Press Club squirming. Now, they can do just that.

Due to popular demand, the works of artist Parts Bagani will again be shown in a four-day exhibit dubbed as "Sining Luwal ng Kanayunan." It shall open with a brief program at 10 AM, November 26, 2007 at Galleria 2, Faculty Center, University of the Philippines, Diliman Quezon City. A forum on art and the freedom of expression is scheduled at 9 AM on November 29, 2007, Recto Hall, UP Facuty Center. Popular artists have been invited to perform.

While most artists bask in the atmosphere of Metro Manila and the big cities elsewhere, Parts Bagani opted to stay in the countryside where he was born. In Mindanao, he experienced the turmoil of conflicting forces, and painted a terrain of warfare. His works show his fluency in imaging an environment that is taboo for many an artist, but of which he has gained a profound understanding.

His art abounds with scenes of resistance even of warriors in repose, of schools in open bamboo structures in the forest, of people singing songs of victory, of battered shoes and the lowly rice pot. But most of all, there are the endless mountains and hills that have become host to the struggle itself.

The exhibit is sponsored by the First Quarter Storm Movement, Tag-ani Performing Arts Society, Asosasyon ng mga Kabataang Artista, Kritiko at Iskolar ng Sining at Kultura (UP ASTERISK), UP Alay Sining, Kabataang Artista para sa Tunay na Kalayaan (Karatula) and the Congress of Teachers for Nationalism and Democracy.

The exhibit is a fund-raising project for the benefit of cancer-stricken UP Prof. Monico Atienza.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is saddened and appalled by
the defacement of the press freedom mural commissioned from the Neo-Angono Artists Collective by the National Press Club.

Absolutely nothing can justify the indignity done to a work of art that, ironically, seeks to honor the Philippine media's struggle for press freedom, a struggle, we would like to stress, that is far from over.

The alterations on the mural were not only an aesthetic outrage, they constituted censorship, an act that should have been anathema to any media organization worth its salt, and made worse by the fact that the message that was censored was one against censorship itself.

The explanations of the Club's officers have only served to bolster suspicions that the defacing of the press freedom mural was meant to please the guest of honor at its unveiling, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

We can see how unveiling the mural would have been a rebuke to a president under whose watch the most number of journalists have been murdered – 53 at last count.

However, to the National Press Club and other colleagues in media, these we have to ask:

When you say the NPC must be "apolitical", isn't this denying the historical fact that the freedom to write the truth was won through political struggles that included media and journalists? That during times of intense political crisis, journalists have taken up the cudgel and fought for the freedom to report the truth?

When you erased the statement of the International Federation of Journalists on
the dangers the anti-terrorism law posed to press freedom, the alibata K – a
fighting symbol – from the arm of a revolutionary leader, or the NUJP from the
banners of protesting media organizations; or when you changed the headline on the abduction of Joe Burgos' son and the faces of Randy David and Juan Mercado, was the outcome a more accurate picture of press freedom in the country?

Sadly, this we have to say:

Ordering the alterations is akin to rewriting a critical yet accurate report to avoid incurring the ire of the powers-that- be or appease a patron. And we, in the media community, know by what word such an act is known by. It is definitely
not truth or ethics.

"A writer is an editor of memory. In writing we make the loves we should have made, wage wars we should have waged. It doesn't always make up for the real
thing, but it does have its rewards."