Lotus

End-of-November bloom

Poetry

Our Deepest Fear
by Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear
is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness,
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually who are we not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people
won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine as children do.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And when we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

Joy Mallari @ Pinto Art Gallery

Pinto Art Gallery invites you to its fourth quarter exhibitions for 2006:

Joy Mallari
"Ulinig" @ Gallery Shop & Gallery 2
"Manibalang" @ Gallery 1

LA-based visual artist and painter Joy Mallari returns to the Philippines after a series of successful international exhibitions the last 10 years. For her homecoming solo show, the artist will feature two simultaneous painting exhibitions highlighting her artistic concerns of the last decade, as well as introducing her latest ouvre on the subject of identity and intervention.

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Upgrade: Young Contemporary Artists Series V.1

Marina Cruz
Anton Del Castillo
Ian Quirante
Tatong Recheta Torres
CJ Tanedo
Rodel Tapaya
Juanito Torres

This exhibition collectively features seven young emerging artists and their unique take on two-dimensional art. It represents a diverse group with specific concerns, using iconographic and figurative methods in conveying personal worlds and visions.

The exhibitions open on 26November, 2006 @ 3PM. Pinto Art Gallery is located @ 1 Sierra Madre St, Grandheights Subd, Antipolo City.

Anna Varona @ Ayala Museum

Anna Varona mounts “Color, Light and Shadow,” which opens on November 14, 6:30 p.m. at the MuseumSpace, second floor of the Glass Wing of Ayala Museum, Makati Ave. corner Dela Rosa St., Makati City.

In her 2nd solo exhibition, the artist features new figure paintings as well as still life of familiar objects – fruits, glass, flowers and pottery – done in oil on linen or Ampersand Gessoboard panels. Varona continues to develop her artistry in harnessing light and shadow to create varying color intensities, bringing out nuances of mood and texture in her subjects.

The works are on view until November 28. Curated by Jojo Ballo. For information, please call 757-7117 to 21.

Vignettes

Last Sunday, two unexpected visitors showed up at Pinto - Mark Justiniani and Joy Mallari (to the great surprise of Dr. Cuanang and Andy Estella). Mark and Joy are both visual artists living in L.A. Both came back, after a long hiatus, to the Philippines, for a brief visit. (Joy will be having an exhibition of paintings @ Pinto this November 26. Mark will be part of a group exhibition at the Art Center in Megamall this coming February.) They bring with them a wealth of experience, and a different set of eyes, eyes that have seen everything under the (artworld) sun.

Pinto curator Riel Hilario was also there, as well as other artists and French visitors. Over Dalandan juice and Turon, discussions about art inevitably took place, discussion that eventually became dialogue, as each person sought to understand the process by which his own art takes place, and by which art in general is viewed and understood.

I then realized that the moment of creation (where all Art becomes manifest) cannot be known - it can only be understood after the work is complete. The artist's place isn't to think - it is to do, to immerse himself in the moment of creation, totally and inspite of doubt, fear, anxiety and worry.

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We're way behind in the field of new media and new processes. In Singapore, they're looking into getting all artists of every persuasion to collaborate, hence the emergence of the title "Creative" - an all-inclusive noun for people working in design, urban planning, painting, theater, sculpture, film, fashion, sound art, etc. The collective FARM is basically working to create SYSTEMS for creative people to work together. Imagine that.

*****

Poetry

The Chance to Love Everything
by Mary Oliver

All summer I made friends
with the creatures nearby ---
they flowed through the fields
and under the tent walls,
or padded through the door,
grinning through their many teeth,
looking for seeds,
sweet, sugar; muttering and humming,
opening the breadbox, happiest when
there was milk and music. But once
in the night I heard a sound
outside the door, the canvas
bulged slightly ---something
was pressing inward at eye level.
I watched, trembling, sure I had heard
the click of claws, the smack of lips
outside my gauzy house ---
I imagined the red eyes,
the broad tongue, the enormous lap.
Would it be friendly too?
Fear defeated me. And yet,
not in faith and not in madness
but with the courage I thought
my dream deserved,
I stepped outside. It was gone.
Then I whirled at the sound of some
shambling tonnage.
Did I see a black haunch slipping
back through the trees? Did I see
the moonlight shining on it?
Did I actually reach out my arms
toward it, toward paradise falling, like
the fading of the dearest, wildest hope ---
the dark heart of the story that is all
the reason for its telling?

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A photo of the rosette nebula, below:

"Do not they consider that the heaven and the earth were once joined together and then we clove them asunder." - The Qur'an