Sunday, March 17, 2024

Evolving Art Series 1 to 15: ART AND NATURE IN OUR POSTMODERN WORLD

Evolving Art Series 1 to 15
ART AND NATURE IN OUR POSTMODERN WORLD

Dr Abe V Rotor


1. Capture Ephemeral Nature through Painting
2. Palette Board Speaks of Neo-Darwinism Evolution of Life
3. Living Prism in the Deep
4. Global Warming is creating a new Art Movement
5. Techniques in Impressionistic Paintings
6. Two Faces of our Planet Earth Chandelier
7. Evolving Art, ad infinitum
8. Make your own transforms for teaching and decoration
9. Two Paintings: Secret of the Heart and Innocence in Nature
10. Nature Paintings Revival
11. Nature's distress call through art 
12. Nature's Message in Cryptobiology 
13.  The Eye in the Coral Reef
14. Capture and Enshrine Nature in Murals
15. Composite Wall Mural of Nature - A Glimpse into Our Living World

Evolving Art Series 1
Capture Ephemeral Nature through Painting
Dr Abe V Rotor

 
Remnants of termites mounted on apocalyptic background painted 
in acrylic by the author.  On display at Living with Nature Center,
San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

High rise in ruins cower
to time, pest and weather,
their grandeur gone forever.
Will man ever remember?

Cave entrance reminiscent of Tabon Cave in Palawan, 
relief painting in acrylic by AV Rotor. 

Stalactite on the guard, 
stained by a fiery past;
home of man long before
he became an outcast.

Profile of a human face on our Milky Way galaxy, 
acrylic painting by AV Rotor.  

Images of human abound,
in living colors and sound;
 serendipity or providence,
captured as evidence.  

Treetop convergence in acrylic by AV Rotor
 Living with Nature Center

Trees make a community of their own,
they talk, sing, embrace each another;
designed by nature after they're sown,
living in unity and harmony together.

Microalgal colony in a pond in acrylic by AV Rotor
  Living with Nature Center

It's a world of the minutiae,
thru the microscope we see,
 but a shade of its entirety, 
much less its diversity.

Tree skeleton clinging on a rock cliff, by AV Rotor
 Living with Nature Center

It's counterpart of the sacred Cross;
let's save Mother Nature at all cost.

 
The Last Deer, wood carving against a dying waterfall 
mural by AV Rotor, Living with Nature Center

"Two symbols on the wall,
neither the fairest of all."

Edge of land and sea, detail of a wall mural by AV Rotor.
Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

"It's a reflection of a scenery,
      opposite of a sweet memory." ~

Reference 
Philippine Literature Today
Copyright 2015 by C & E Publishing, Inc 237 pp
Abercio V Rotor and Kristine Molina-Doria

Evolving Art Series 2
Palette Board Speaks of
Neo-Darwinism Evolution of Life

Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor
Speleology and tourism, what a combination;
though both exploit the secrets of the past,  
trace the beginning of human's civilization,
and Plato's allegory of the escaped outcast.    

 Linnaeus, if alive today, would wonder, 
how he missed in his study 
organisms posthumously emerged  
from science and technology.  

 
 Coral reef of deceiving beauty, 
red for warning, black for death;
white as skeleton; blue-green, 
invasion of the primitive scum
that once ruled the early earth.   

If you can decipher what life forms these are, 
you must be an artist, like Picasso or Matisse,
masters of abstract art - not the ideal, the real, 
the form and order of God's creation remised. ~   

Evolving Art Series 3

                    Living Prism in the Deep

Painting and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

Living Prism in the Deep in acrylic (24” x 43”) 2017

Sunlight splits into colors, the rainbow,
     through droplets hanging in the sky,
the deep among seaweeds where fishes play,
     letting time and the world go by.

Oh, how the seasons come and go at ease,
     ephemeral in our lifetime,
yet fullest in awe and wonder and joy,
     in the living prism in our prime.

In the golden years as the sun sets down,
     and into the deep its last rays soon die,
lingers, flickers the light saved by the day
     into beautiful dreams to live by. ~

 Evolving Art Series 4

Global Warming is creating a new Art Movement
Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor
Coral Reef Deforestation. Eye of the Coral Reef.  

When the sea rises and buries the shoals and sandbars,
the sea grass and coral reef;
when the sun bears hard on the fringes of sea and land,
requiem hums eerie and grief.   
Oh, Art - what gift do you bring in suffering and lament,
but catharsis however brief. 

Mountain Desertification 

When the wind hot and dry sweeps over hills and mountains
all day long, freezing cold in the night;
and rain after a long absence brings gales and hurricanes;   
the landscape turns into a pitiful sight.  

What movement can a artist recall in the long history of art? 
too far out romanticism and classicism;
realism lost to the lens, impressionism to varied abstract art -  
welcome Dali-Miro'-Ernst surrealism.  ~

  Is it Summer or Autumn?
Global warming is destroying the orderly march of seasons, 
worst it is destroying the setting of this magnificent drama of nature.  

Neither!

Summer is when the sun is brighest
to nourish the plants into full bloom;
the fields transform green to golden, 
haystacks growing like mushroom.

Autumn is when the wind gets chilly,
birds in the sky migrate southward,
among stars and kites and fireflies,
and trees wear their brightest ward.

Neither!       

Never again will summer or autumn 
come, the march of seasons gone
where once Paradise stood proud,
prouder a rational wandering son.

  
Mutation (Mutilation) by Genetic Engineering

Genetic engineering has put into man’s hands the path and nature of evolution, creating heretofore unnatural organisms leading to speciation (species formation) under the dictate of the new science.  Here,  the god in man is taking over God’s power over creation.  In this painting one can subjectively identify organisms fused into an unorderly fashion yet revealing basic identities. 

It's a riddle, shocking, senseless and cruel,
seeking answer not only to what but why;
an elephant, a hog, a bull, save your guess,
science knows no limit like the endless sky.

neither direction nor purpose, obedience 
to sacredness of creation nor of humanity.
Frankenstein's regret too late to destroy
what he created, a fiend to life's sanctity.   

It's a riddle, more than the Sphinx's threat,
the key to safe passage in ones journey;
move over robot, we may say to strangers,
yet strangers we are seen too, by many.   

Where now leads the path of evolution 
of millions of years to what all the living
are today? Move over Darwin, Mendel et al;
your time is up, it's genetic engineering!

Did man destroy Eden on purpose then?
knowledge and disobedience on one table,          
then to build and to destroy are also one;
beauty in his eyes and heart insatiable. ~     

Evolving Art Series 5

    Techniques in Impressionistic                                Paintings

Dr Abe V Rotor

Acrylic painting on glass in three dimensions: seaweeds, fish and the deep. There is apparent movement, yet there is peace among the creatures living in co-existence. Step 1: dark background. Step 2: fish and other red colors. Step 3: seaweeds, transferred from separate impression. Step 4: details like air bubbles. Step 5: fixing with lacquer spray. Step 6: framing, or "edging" (liston)

Mural (5 ft x 10 ft) acrylic. Repetition has a powerful effect - it serves as boundary yet gives a sense of depth a feeling the viewer is at the edge of a forest. The source of light however, is from inside the forest. Step 1: stretch canvas on 2"x 3"x 10' kiln dry lumber. Step 2: use white latex to seal canvas surface. Step 3: use palette for the trees. Step 4: dub premixed yellow and blue for vegetation. Step 5: details like flowers, sunbeam, and red to break monotony. Note: Don't use fixative, let the painting as is, just protect it from direct sunlight.

Fiery flowers emerge from below to meet the sun, only to wither soon after the bees have done their chores. Wither, one by one, younger flowers succeeding, a cycle of life and life giving, progenies born one after another. How could you paint such a cycle but by impressionism? Impressionism leaves much of what is to be said. For the mind is richer where it is left with space to explore, and meaning to seek. It is not easy to depict a phenomenon on a single canvas when it takes immeasurable time and innumerable stages to complete. Step 1: start with the flowers, large and unarranged. Step 2: apply thick dark green and light green in ascendant strokes, heaviest at the base. Step 3: Add flowers at the center to give focus. Step 4: add light green ascendant lines as foliage.

Hazy, light and soft to the eye and touch. How is this done in contrast with the still life previously explained above? Here the colors used are first mixed with white on the palette, never on canvas. Choose the hues and keep the contrast low so that the boundaries are smudged, with pleasing effect. There is a tendency to end up with muddy appearance. Maintain restraint, give that "cloud nine" look. It fits well on a wall where peace and quiet reign. It invites relaxation. ~

* Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities. Wikipedia

Evolving Art Series 6 

Two Faces of our Planet Earth Chandelier 

Indigenous Chandelier by Dr Abe V Rotor 

The Pristine Face of our Planet Earth in acrylic
on wood scrap by the author 2020

The Defiled Face of our Planet Earth in acrylic
on wood scrap by the author 2020

Light in the air, swaying with the wind;
     Heavy in the air dull, still;
Pristine, natural in the absence of man, 
     Defiled, dead, can't humans feel?

Indigenous art, ecological in message, this piece of art tells to viewers looking up to this hanging parol and chandelier.  No candles, no light, no chime, except the natural radiance and music of the pristine face of our Planet Earth.   

So rare today this happy face beams, so commonplace the sad face shrouds cities where more than half of the world's population of 8 billion souls are ensconced in the so-called Good Life, the "ultimate" aim of civilization.   

What is the Good Life in the current Corona Virus pandemic? Good life in global economic depression?  Good life in widespread poverty?  Good life in inequity and injustice?  Global breakdown of institutions, from marriage and family, threatening to destroy the pillars of human society?  

What is Good Life with the Israel war in Gaza?  Russian war in Ukraine? And in other critical spots, civil wars and drug wars, notwithstanding?  Cities burgeoning into metropolises and megapolises?  Growing widespread depression leading to suicide?  Hopelessness spreading among the young and old alike?   

What is the Good Life in a "floating continent of garbage" twice bigger Texas, thrice that of France? Unabated rise of sea level as a result of continuing global warming? Acid rain ruining productive farms? Radiation emanating from  transmission and communication towers, and from millions of computers and smartphones?  

What is the Good life in science and technology gone wild?  Good life in the explosion of knowledge, grain and chaff mixed up? Good life in erosion of values? Good Life in the failure of governance - local, regional, global?  

We have yet to learn from "the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome," and the Dark Age that enveloped the world thereafter. We have yet to learn from the Renaissance that followed a millennium after.  If only man's rationality can save him from his own destruction. ~ 


Evolving Art Series 7
Evolving Art
(ad infinitum)

Art works and verses by Dr Abe V Rotor 

Splash Painting

Who needs brush and canvas?
Only colors, if you must.
On the floor, just splash, splash,
to create stained glass! 

Noah's Black Dove 

I found a fossil entombed,
   of a story in driftwood. 

  
Duck Head  Figurine
 
Once hunted on water and in air,
now figurine, a grim reminder.   

 
Broken Jar  Alive

A lease for life indeed
through art we bid;
talent put to the test
at its very best.
 
Driftwood Trophy

Why gold or silver a trophy:
why not remnant of a tree,
 shells forgotten and empty,
to wake us up to reality?
 
 
Driftwood Table Decor

Wasteland in the hall,
  a dreaded scene,
   aftermath of the Fall, 
of man's first Sin. ~

Evolving Art Series 8 

Make your own transforms for teaching and decoration

Museum of Natural History, UPLB 
Mt Makiling, Laguna 
Dr Abe V Rotor
 Replica of whale attracts teachers on field trip.  On the left is a painting of the blue whale
 Giant outline of a damsel fly and a butterfly

 Scorpion on the wall; wooden exoskeleton of insect.
 Modern sculptural representation of an insect's exoskeleton 

 
Fairy tale mushroom; anatomy of a tree

 Sowbug, a relative of the insect - a terrestrial crustacean
A representation of a "new" species of  lizard.

  Evolving Art Series 9  

Two Paintings: Secret of the Heart and Innocence in Nature 

Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

SECRET OF THE HEART

Painting in Acrylic (13.5" x 13.5")

Hidden, the heart throbs
     in deep silence;
two nails embedded,
     unseen in pretence
of living, loving, caring,
     the highest art, 
filling the five chambers
     of the heart.  

INNOCENCE IN NATURE

Painting in acrylic (17.5" x 21.75") 

Abstract over realism can you paint innocence,
     move over classics, you are too pure
to be true, and impressionism too assuming,
     with apologies to Monet's azure sky.  

Oh! abstract indeed is a child's innocence,
     buds in early spring, grains ripening;
heart of a true friend, pledge of real love,
     growing in the passing of time. 

Colors are mere symbols, wanting to behold,
     the magnificence of mind and heart,
triumph of the human spirit over our frailty,
     the most challenging of all art.~  

 Evolving Art Series 10 

Nature Paintings Revival

             Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor


Grass in acrylic (18" x 21")

Sway with the breeze, 
dance with the wind;
Greet the sun with dewdrops clinging;
In summer turn golden, and bow,
And die sweetly to feed the world.


A LOVELY PAIR IN A BOWER
Painting in acrylic (11.5" X 16")

Let the world go by in their bower,
lovers blind to the busy world,
away from the maddening crowd;
fleeting moment is forever,
to this pair in their lair.

Wonder in our midst who we are,
blind to each other, but the world,
strange this crowd we are in;
where's this lovely pair,
where's their bower?

SYMBIOSIS Pisces and Echinoderms
Painting in acrylic (8" X 10")

Distant in phylogeny, yet live they together
in one community we call ecology,
ever since the beginning of our living world,
millions of years ago before man was born
to rule, to reign supreme over all creation;
wonder what Homo sapiens means
to true peace and harmony
beyond his rationality.


TOO SOON THE BUD OPENS Painting in acrylic (12" x 17")

You come in springtime and autumn,
too eager a bud ahead of your time;
what promise of life awaits tomorrow
from where you've broken through?

Whichever path you take from now,
you'll miss the adventure of youth
in summer, and stillness of winter,
Oh, how could you live to the full?

"For having lost but once your prime,
you'll always tarry," so says a poet;
"It's now or never," so sings a bard,
and I, I've neither a poem nor a song.

SEA URCHIN Painting in acrylic ( 11" x 13.5")

You're all made of spikes,
I can't see the real you;
in your invincible armor
in any view.

Wonder how many of us
live like the urchin
in silent, unknown ways
and never seen.

ART OF THE CATERPILLAR Painting in acrylic (11” x 14”)

Caterpillar, when you are gone
two things come to mind:
the butterfly you have become,
and the damage you have done
and left behind.

Art, art, whatever way defined,
the subject on the wall,
or dripping on the floor,
art, art you aren't hard to find
after all. ~

WEANING Painting in acrylic (8” x 10”)

A trio in adventure weaned out
of their nest too soon;
to explore the world beyond,
like the Prodigal Son.

What lies in the deep and dark
cavern with many eyes,
but monsters real or imagined
lurking for a prize.

It’s inevitable stage of life,
all creatures undergo;
weaning - crossing the bridge
and cutting it, too.

FISH SWARMING Painting in acrylic (9” x 17”)

I’ve seen jellyfish swarming,
plankton in coral reefs glowing;
a myriad fireflies mingling
with the stars, linking us all
to a Supreme Being. ~

                                     Evolving Art Series 11

Nature's distress call through art
Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor
 
Satellite image of the Earth showing the major biomes - forest, coral reef, grassland, tundra, savannah, being consumed by wildfire and desertification, both induced by man's unscrupulous activities.  

Water pollution and global warming are destroying our coral reef, and consequently its productivity as an ecosystem.  Destruction of the coral reef is likened to the destruction of the rainforest.  Intrusion of settlements and farming on waterways and shorelines which we call reclamation exacerbates the loss of this ecosystem, indeed a requiem to nature. 

 Skeleton of a tropical rainforest after a wildfire.  Deforestation permanently destroys the forest, more so with the deleterious effect of slash-and-burn or kaingin farming on the  clearing.  As a consequence the soil is stripped away by erosion, siltation and flood.  Production falls below the marginal level, and ultimately the land is abandoned. Rivers dry, floodwater causes tremendous damage to life and properties of unimagined proportion - a fact that is happening today in many places of the world.  

      
           Where have all the Gardens Gone?
             Insipient stage of a dying garden
     
     Final stage and consequent death of a garden.
        Acrylic paintings by the author, 2015

Where have all the gardens gone,
the butterflies and honeybees,
dancing and riding on the breeze,
dewdrops sparkling in the sun?

Where have all the children gone,
reminiscent of old Pied Piper,
lured to a new land somewhere,
and never again to be found?

Where have all the ladies gone,
in "loves-me-loves-me-not" game,
though lose or gain it's the same,
flower and love knitted as one?

Where have all the good life gone,
Nature's gift to the living world
bound by a collective accord.
Lo! to man the lost prodigal son. ~

Evolving Art Series 12 

      Nature's Message in Cryptobiology

 Cryptobiology is the study of cryptids, creatures around which myths exist but whose current existence has never been verified. Some famous cryptids include bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, Abominable Snowman, the Kapre,* and not the least, the biblical Dragon.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Cryptobiology items on display at the Living with Nature Center,
 San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Organisms are alike or different.  It's biological and natural, but man has taken evolution into his hands, playing the role of God through science and technology, creating Dolly the Sheep, and many more Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs.  

Strange creatures when we first see them, tame them the second time around, re-creating them next on film and on screen in the likes of Godzilla and King Kongand now through robotics and make-believe versions for more entertainment and profit. 

We are changing the conditions of life on earth, polluting the air, land and water, in effect modifying the way organisms live through induced mutation, forced migration, disturbing their natural interactions in the food web, worst their very existence as species.   
 
Dimorphism in Nature

  Phenomenon, not the least,    
past and present,
plant or animal or protist,
same though different.     

Sea Urchin Tree

Take a close look at the thorny cherry;
it's a sea urchin, part of tree,
a hybrid creature you may not agree;  
a living specimen to see.  

Womb of a Tree

Si Malakas at Maganda in Philippine mythology
is a popular folktale and children's story;
the tree as habitat in the realm of biology, 
now twisted into false and horror movie.   

*Kapres are said to dwell in big trees like acacia, bamboo, and the balete. Some say they are the spirits of trees, protecting them in effect.

                                     Evolving Art  Series 13

 The Eye in the Coral Reef

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog (avrotor.blogspot.com)

The Eye in the Coral Reef, Acrylic Painting by the author 2015

The eye! The eye!
among the corals watching.
conscience of the sea,
over Homo sapiens fishing.


It never winks, it's alive,
guarding against man's folly,
whose eye, not of man,
disgraced guardian of the sea. ~

Evolving Art Series 14  

Capture and Enshrine Nature in Murals

Capture sweet memories of nature,
relive, enshrine;
capture time, brief as it may -
it's yours and mine.

                                            Murals and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

     Living with Nature Mural, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Wall mural at EA  Apartelle, San Vicente, Ilocos SurI

NFA Farmers' Museum, Cabanatuan NE

Agoho Trees and Pond, SPUQC

              Author poses with his work, Forest Stream, SPUQC

Capture nature in murals,
as big as screen;

capture creation from imagination
as it has been;

capture sunrise and sunset,
and the moonbeam;

capture the breeze passing over
a lovely stream;

capture the lilies in the pond rising
with the sunbeam;

capture the clouds becoming nimbus
before the rain;

capture the rivulets from the hills
writhing in pain;

capture the creatures talking,
sing and scream;

capture the essence of the gods
into a theme;

capture silence away from where
you have been;

capture the throb of the heart
away from sin;

capture the world in a grain of sand,
pure and crystalline;

capture nature through the arts,
classic and fine;

capture sweet memories of lost nature,
relive, enshrine;

capture time, brief as it may -
it's yours and mine. ~

Floor-to-wall-to-ceiling mural at author's residence
 San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.

 
Make-believe Seashore scape mural painting by the author at his residence, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

Reference: Don’t Cut the Trees, Don’t
Abercio V Rotor and University of Santo Tomas, Copyright 2010

Evolving Art Series 15
Composite Wall Mural of Nature
A Glimpse into Our Living World

 Wall Mural Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature Center
San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Wonder how our world looks like when the sky, land and sea are combined into one piece like a jigsaw puzzle, the trees becoming part of the sky, the clouds merging with the sea, the mountains and hills flowing down the valley, and all things living and non-living are arranged into one peaceful network. 
 

The deep sea and the vast sky are but one, as fish and birds merge yet distinct and free in their own habitats, the sun and other elements of life keeping them in unity and harmony through homeostasis a biological phenomenon we may never fully understand.   


And when we find silence in its deepest expression, it is the breeze passing, birds chirping, crickets fiddling, gecko calling, mist turning into dewdrops, or the silence on the distant hills and meadows, that inspire man to create his greatest compositions in colors, music and literature, albeit a child drawing the clouds, or sailing  on a stream with a leaf adrift.   
\

The waterfall roars and settles down into a stream, joins a river, taking with it many a laughter, sweat and tear, yet it brings new life to fields and pastures, wakes up seeds and flowers, and down it continues its journey to the estuaries, shores and the sea like a returning child, only to be reborn into cloud and rain, onto the watershed where it begins as a waterfall again.  


Rocks may appear lifeless at first, yet they are the precursor of life itself, the birthplace of algae, fungi, and their special symbiotic kin the lichens, and soon they soften and exfoliate into soil.  The lowly moss settles down, followed by ferns and lianas forming a prototype forest, which through time, evolves into a true forest, a transformation in biodiversity and ecological evolution beyond our lifetime, yet  many generations in the future benefit out of the process and ultimately its final state as an ecosystem. 


More than knowledge and subsequently wisdom in some ways, lies the lighter side of human nature that takes us into a realm of happiness and joy, a state of the mind, which we have the capacity to share with others, thus earning for us the role as disciples of creation, and therefore protectors of Mother Earth.   


How little do we understand the mystery of Creation no mortal could possibly share, even with the genius of man we extoll to be the apex of rationality.  Now and then we are reminded of our frailty, our folly and lofty dreams, to conquer darkness in the way we attempt to fill the emptiness of our lives, offer the fullest reverence to the One responsible of everything in our world and the whole universe, through the arts in its holistic expression, the Humanities. ~