Healing Whole. Appreciating What Has Been & What Can Be.

Lost in my own world, my nose was always buried in scary novels, hitting buttons on the PlayStation controller, doing hand written short novels on a notebook or buried in tons of paper, sketching anime for hours.

I’ve never built relationships when I was younger and discovered how little social skills I had when high school came.

I was an irritant. Making sure people heard me when I speak, laughing at the wrong things and saying inappropriate topics at the worst of times. I envy most of my friends for being “alright”. There was no formula to a perfect self when growing up, only experiences and how one was brought up.

Yearning for company and companionship, pleasing everyone seemed like my soul’s purpose. My years after college were the worst as I buried myself in bad drinking habits, wrong decisions, heartaches, lost friendships and a pile of insecurities. I kept looking for anything genuinely real and realized how masked I was and for how long the game of pretend was going on.

Then I’ve met new people, those who saw me in my worst and my best and stayed despite all the bullshit. It was amazing and I realized how living for other people is like breathing clean air. I looked back at old friends and family and realized I’ve never lost them. It was I who walked away.

Now, when I run every morning, I look at faces, smile and build a 1-second warmth of human connection. I call restaurant employees by their first name as long as it shows on their name tag. I say thank you often and let somone know ahead when plans change. I talk to strangers and converse randomly when my attention calls for it. It is rare and quite scary to do that in the Philippines so most people protect themselves. There is always a right place for all of this. But I keep in mind to be kind.

Posting feel good messages, sharing thoughts and ideas and listening to someone, helping family, laughing with friends, scheduling dates, crying when sad, talking to someone I trust, making time for hobbies and building new honest and real relationships. All these were the most basic human actions one can feel good from, yet I had ignored all this as chased something I thought would make me whole.

My mistakes were blessings that pushed me to find what’s not just the good in me, but also the good in others. And now seeing the good in life as well. When you start healing your core, you heal holistically and the people around you feels it. Better yet, they grasp the happiness and share it with others.

My simple advice? Love. Make yourself smile. Make others smile in little ways. Treasure time. Eat right. Get a pet. Exercise more. Read nice things. Feel nice things. Go places. Don’t spend all in one place. Hug someone. Allow to be hugged. Live.

All shots were taken by me using different lomography cameras and we’re collected over the years. Thanks for reading!

Remembering my dear neice who had passed away. Thank you for teaching us how to live better and how death is part of it all. We love you.

Making Death an Art : covering The Collective

Have you ever asked yourself how Elvis really died? Why Marilyn Monroe, of all her fame and beauty suddenly took her own life, leaving her on the carpet floor, looking worst than she had ever been?

Death would take us all. And it is sometimes taboo for others to even talk about it. Leaving this earth and how it will happen is a bitter sweet thought. But these again, are all thoughts and only words. What more if you could see it printed on wood and designed on your bedroom wall?

I write to you now about The Collective. An artist’s haven for music, art, tattoos and new friends. Making my way through a number of people banging their heads to rock music, I had to crane and look for my friend Sarah Gaugler. We were together back in college and went through a lot of mischief, laughs and cries, what have you. It’s college. We’re in Fine Arts. You could only imagine all the fun we’ve been through.

I was in the middle of the music mosh pit when she signaled me to go upstairs. It was a few set of wooden stairs passing by the liquor bar and the bathroom. At the end you’d see a glass door, and beyond that you’d just gawk and stare death right in the face.

The room’s aura was not of dark gloomy images of our fate, but a colorful bunch of mediums translating human passing. Ah yes, Art really has it’s way of expressing those that we do not speak of.

At the farthest space of the room, clay models of skulled Elvis’ were sitting on a silver plate, beside it were other trinkets  that are fashionably expressive for wearing. Necklaces, rings, button pins and even plush toys of our culture’s iconic fictional characters were for sale.

On the walls were also similar versions of classic Hollywood icons.

A primitive rendition of the ape-man and his bones on display. A favorite of mine!

Also inside are a multitude of framed illustrations from aliens with expressive faces. Clowns that seem to have mutated into an unknown creature. Bottle cap pins with classic logos. Shirt versions of local artist with winning designs.

Of death there is also pleasure in all of it. After all, we are only human. Circular plates painted with ladies reaching orgasms were on display.

And of course there are Sarah’s sketches and doodles of women and her recent series on Christ and the Virgin Mary. To see this series you click on this link: http://benzisstreetsnapping.com/2012/08/24/christianity-its-icons-modern-art-by-sarah-gaugler

An assortment of different topics. From death, to lust, to religion. That’s why they called it, The Collective.

Art, since it is all about looking and feeling, has always liked the idea of hidden meanings and provocations. And this has definitely took my views to another level. We can all see our last days on earth as something inevitable. Leaving legacies, lessons and creations. But let us not forget how we’ll live it as we walk on today.

The artists of their own pocket universe have come to see death and all of human makings in lighter, prouder, and original pieces that are definitely for keeps.

Visit THE POCKET UNIVERSE ART COLLECTIVE,  2/F Saguijo Café + Bar, 7612 Guijo Street, San Antonio Village, Makati City

Check out the link here at: http://saguijo.com/

Christianity & It’s Icons : Modern Art by Sarah Gaugler

College. The beginning of a long time friendship with not only of the arts but also of a certain person I can say have reached heights I am truly proud of. Sarah Gaugler, a lover of turtles (as I do) and beings that are out of this world have exchanged her purple pastels for black leather, a fine corset and a microphone.

Indeed from a vocalist of an electronic rock duo with Mr.Tall Dark and Handsome Paolo Peralta, to a hit at galleries, not to mention an awesome tattoo artist, Sarah has truly outdone herself with her religious pieces at Crucible Gallery, Megamall. Her exhibit, Condemnant Quod Non Intellegunt, is extended til August 26,2012. Make sure to pay a visit to see the expert layering of so many curves, her own translation of anatomy and her views of our biblical icons.

Here’s her dialog on her works, unedited:

In Condemnant Quod Non Intellegunt, is celebration of the survival of Christianity and its icons throughout human history. “In spite of its complexity and the manner it has transferred itself into human interpretation, it still succeeds in its original intent to orate the belief that humans were created out of the love of God, and that our purpose is to love one another.”

Religious icons, have been the medium by which humans connect with God, and the concept of holiness. Though these icons have encountered opposition in many forms, like iconoclasm, they have still managed to thrive in modern time. Many neglect the opportunity and possibility of opening their minds to the impressions and impact that Christian religious icons have had on culture and society, throughout human history. Some are so quick to pass judgment and vandalize these symbols and images, without compassion or understanding. I feel that these images should not be abandoned, but celebrated.

These icons have had their involvements, challenges, mysteries, wars, treaties, inspirations, and travels throughout the world for thousands of years, and has affected innumerable lives. Their symbolic power and bearing, reaches an expanse greater than one may not ever completely comprehend in a single experience. My impetus is respect and appreciation for the images that serve as representations of enlightenment and hope, to those in darkness & despair, and respect to the first artists who have had the chance to create the basic universal imagery of these holy representatives of faith.

I want to express my own experience of creating art from receiving inspiration, as the artist, and the opportunity to execute, and share it to progressive viewers. I am desiring that my iconologies be absorbed as symbols of personal inspiration, personal interpretation, or call it what you may-these can simply be constructions made by the use of ink and lines assembled in an considered fashion to depict a pleasant illustration or artwork.”

Condemnant Quod Non Intellegunt, an exhibition by Sarah Gaugler, opens on August 7, 2012, 6pm at The Crucible Gallery, 4/F SM Megamall, Building A, Mandaluyong City. Contact +632 635 60 61 or +63 929 842 40 55 for details. Brought to you in part by The Pocket Universe Art Collective.

Also for those who wants to get inked, pay her a visit at Snow Tattoo, Giujo St., San Antonio Village, Makati. For bookings, contact +639298424055/ snowtattoo@gmail.com