Monday, November 4, 2024

Post-Impressionism reflects our inner thoughts and feelings

Post-Impressionism reflects our inner thoughts and feelings 

"Post-Impressionist art is known for its bold colors, expressive images, and symbolic elements. Artists in this movement often used thick paint applications, called impasto, and painted from life. They also emphasized geometric or distorted forms, and used unnatural colors that they attributed with strong emotion." Internet quote

Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

Strange colony of seaweeds on coral reef, AVR 

"Queer forest in the deep,
often seen in our sleep."

Rainbow seen on broken glass, AVR

"Fragmented rainbow, its arch gone,
 ROYGBIV ceases to be one."
 
Radiance from the bottom is brighter than the sky's, AVR

"Glow coming from below,
from the heart or volcano."

Mountaineering conquers the self more than the mountain, AVR.

"Mountain to conquer,
fear, pride and anger." 

Danaus butterflies escape winter in the North, 
converge, then return in Spring, avr. 

"Monarchs, yet heed Nature,
 in a great adventure.

Reproductive cells under the microscope, AVR

"Sparks of life unseen,
each carries a gene."

Fish of the same fins get together, AVR

"School of fish,
unity missed."

Edge of a forest scene one morning, AVR

"Fishing but not the catch,
under an holy arch." 

"Post-Impressionists believed that a work of art should not revolve 
around style, process, or aesthetic approach. Instead, it should place 
emphasis on symbolism, communicating messages from the artist's 
own subconscious."

Remnant of a local Niagara Fall, AVR 

"Dry waterfall,
after the Fall."

Replica of Archaeopteryx in relief painting. 

"Archaeopteryx risen,
to modern day chicken." 

Emerging lotus from a pond at sunrise

"Glow in the murk,
sun in the dark."

"Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... 
It also includes the inner pictures of the soul." 

Photo-Essay: LEANING TREE SKELETON

 Leaning Tree Skeleton 

                                            Dr Abe V Rotor

Leaning Tree Skeleton across the Highway.  
Photo taken by the author 2024
  
Write an essay, 4 pages bond size, double space 10 font aerial, 
describing the following:
  • Ambiance of the scene. 
  • Socio-economic conditions of the place
  • Probable time and season the photo was taken
  • Management and discipline
  • Ecological implication
  • Danger posed by the leaning tree
  • Is the tree dead, or just being deciduous?
  • General recommendation 
School and community paper as assignment, special project, or workshop topic.  You may add a verse or two.  How about writing some lyrics and melody of a song - acapella or with accompaniment?  ~

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Environmental degradation is the most serious global abuse

 Environmental degradation is the most serious global abuse

Environmental degradation is the most serious global abuse, not only in pursuit of actual human need, but his unending want of affluence apparently of no end. The earth is slowly choking with deadly gases, its surface defaced and stripped of natural cover, man-made materials dumped on land and water, in fact its geography has changed and continues to be modified directly and indirectly by man.

Dr Abe V Rotor

A child's allegory of  Fishing on the Moon at Doomsday 
by Mateo M Rotor 9, author's grandson 2022. 

1. What withheld the world to shift to alternative energy was the cheap fossil fuel, virtually oozing from the ground and flowing through pipelines around the globe to feed the industrial boom and millions of cars as affluence rose to the point of ostentatious and frivolous living.  But each car’s exhaust is a miniature volcano, erupting daily, worse than a Mt Pinatubo (Philippines) and Mount St Helens (US) combined.

2. The air accumulates gaseous materials and particulates, building acid rain that turns  soil acidic and unproductive, defacing valuable works of art (historical relics and artefacts), causing illnesses heretofore  unrecorded in medical books, and triggering other diseases as well, including the resurgence of ancient diseases like tuberculosis.   
 
                     Thinning of the ozone layer over Antarctica. Ozone hole has been detected over the Arctic.  

 3. The ozone layer, a protective blanket against radiation from space is being thinned by CFC and other gases.  A hole at the southern hemisphere as big as continental USA, exposes millions, particularly children, in Australia and New Zealand to ultraviolet rays, a major cause of skin cancer.  A smaller ozone hole is building up over the Arctic region. 

4. Gases in the atmosphere trap heat from escaping, thus solar heat together with heat generated by the earth and man’s activities collectively contribute to global warming at an alarming rate.  Climate change has been the cause of climatic adversities (typhoons, tornadoes, drought, blizzards), erratic weather, and other unexplained atmospheric phenomena. 

5. In Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” the world is getting warmer and warmer at a geometric rate, far exceeding any period of the history of the earth except in its early formation.  Warming is traced to increasing amount of CO2 in the air, the principal gas of combustion mainly of fossil fuel that runs agriculture, industry, transportation, and  illuminate whole cities around the world.  

6, The failure of timely shift to alternative fuel even as fossil fuel sources are dwindling, even as alternative energy is available, even as population demand tremendously increased in the past one hundred years, has grave consequences which we are feeling today, and this is just the beginning - fuel shortage, high cost of living, increasing inequity leading to mass poverty.

7. Environmental degradation is the most serious effect, not only in meeting actual need, but unending want of affluence apparently of no end. The earth is slowly choking with deadly gases, its surface defaced and stripped of natural cover, man-made materials dumped on land and water, in fact its geography has changed and continues to be modified directly and indirectly by man. 

8. Reminiscent of the Dust Bowl of the Dakotas in the US in the early 20th century are similar desertification cases, farmlands becoming wastelands due to excessive farming and poor management, such cases include the Sahel region (Africa) struck in the 60s by extreme drought, farmlands around the shrinking Aral Sea (Russia), the source of irrigation now only a measly fraction of its original size.  AERIAL PHOTOS A comparison of Aral Sea in 1989 (left) and 2014 (right)

9. We don’t have to go far.  Our own Laguna Bay, bigger than the Sea of Galilee, is dying, its once pristine blue water as I saw it in the sixties as a UPLB trainee in a lakeshore barangay, Gatid, Sta Cruz, is now shallow and muddy as siltation and pollution from homes, farms and industries from four surrounding provinces worsen by encroaching  settlements and fishpens clogging the lake – indeed a desecration of the lake’s beauty as described in Rizal’s celebrated novel, Noli Me Tangere. 

10. All over the world lakes and rivers are dying: Lake Chad of Africa, Aral Sea of Russia, tributaries of Mississippi in the US, Nile in Egypt, Yangtze in China, Mekong in Vietnam.  Who would believe that odor of methane and hydrogen sulphide from the polluted harbour of Hongkong is the first to greet passengers even  before landing on the sprawling modern airport? So with tourists on reaching the deck of the 100-storey Sears Tower on Lake Michigan in the US. ~

Bad air over New Delhi, typical in other big cities like Beijing, New York and Metro Manila

Friday, November 1, 2024

Children's Books: Nature and the Classics

Children's Books 
 Nature and the Classics*
 Living with Nature Center 
San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

"Write, read Classics about Nature, and vice versa;
Reach for the highest level of arts and philosophy." - avrotor

*The word classics is derived from the Latin adjective classicus, meaning "belonging to the highest class of citizens." The word was originally used to describe the members of the Patricians, the highest class in ancient Rome.

Dr Abe V Rotor

“We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.” –Albert Einstein

"There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter." –Rachel Carson

 
"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living" - David Attenborough
 
“I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.” –Anne Frank

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." –John Muir

 
“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.” –Langston Hughes

 
"If you wish to know the divine, feel the wind on your face and the warm sun on your hand.” –Buddha

“The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.”- Zeno


Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Wikipedia

References: The Living with Nature Series (2 Volumes) by AVRotor, Unversity off Santo Tomas; Living with Folk Wisdom, Light from the Old Arch, AVRotor (UST), Living with Nature in Our Home and Community AVRotor (Sadiri Publication, 2023) 

The World in his Paint Brush

                                The World in his Paint Brush

Dr Abe V Rotor
 
Markus 2 author's grandson paints a mural 2015, QC

"Freedom in imagination, young as he is, while grownups yearn for expression outside the confines of art; who is the master then? Yet, the path that he takes is rough and uncertain, sans model and determination he'll miss his aim." - A V Rotor

"Nothing, indeed, is more dangerous to the young artist than any conception of ideal beauty: he is constantly led by it either into weak prettiness or lifeless abstraction: whereas to touch the ideal at all, you must not strip it of vitality." - Oscar Wilde

"It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression." - Henri Matisse

Halloween Moth

 Halloween Moth

Dr Abe V Rotor


You can't hide behind mask;
it is no longer Halloween;
with thin lips and sleepy eyes,
I know where you've been. ~

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Anecdotes: We are all storytellers. Everyday we love telling and listening to stories.

Anecdotes: Everyone is a storyteller
Here are examples of anecdotes of fine qualities from famous men and women.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Lesson: We are all storytellers. Everyday we love telling and listening to stories. Stories come in anecdotes, fables, parables, folklores, humorous quips, and simply short accounts of an experience or about the surroundings. But how good are we in this art of story telling? Our aim is to hone this talent and to express it well.


Jose Rizal and the moth. He wrote My Last Farewell with the symbol of the moth which singed into the flame – martyrdom. Abraham Lincoln, Father of American Anecdotes. (See Anecdotes of Lincoln in this Blog)

Left: Ernest Hemingway, novelist and short storyteller, Nobel Prize awardee. Guy de Maupassant, French short story writer. His works are wide read in school in different languages.

Camilo Osias books were extensively used in the elementary schools during the Commonwealth and Post Commonwealth Period. Story telling is an art. Strive for the “state-of-the-art of story telling”

It is characterized by
• Witticism
• Humor
• Inspirational, positivism
• Informative and educational
It is a combination of these elements that make a good story, depending on the topics and application.
Application
• As a speaker/ resource person
• Presiding in meetings and conferences
• Informal gatherings /parties
• Writing, news, features
• Broadcasting – radio and TV
Stories are used as tool in
• Driving a point indirectly, diplomatically
• Hitting the nail on the head, so to speak
• Friendly advice and reminder
• Admiration of a person, institution or place
• Tapping a shoulder in words, kudos, congratulations

A good story / anecdote is never
• Moralism (Even a homily should strive not to proselytizing
• Criticism, esp. on persons
• Bulgarism – kind words, discreet, dignified
• Familiarism – not all too familiar topics
• Fatalism – bato bato sa langit syndrome
• Propagandism – like politicizing
Selected Anecdotes of the Great

Christopher Columbus waited for seven long years for the King of Spain to decide on his plan to search a new land West. The King of Portugal refused to help him. Henry the VII refused. Charles VIII of France also refused. All hopes gone … then the queen of Spain through Juan Perez her chaplain, sent money to buy clothes and hose, to see the Queen. Queen Isabella received Columbus. Condition to be promoted to Admiral and entitled one-tenth of all the wealth, He was refused. A messenger overtook him. And Columbus once more went to the Court . Got the nod of the King and Queen but actually cost them nothing. Port of Palos under displeasure for unpaid taxes and liable of heavy fines. Palos was ordered to provide Columbus his needs. Three ships and men from the town. Came the Pinzon brothers provided Pinta, Nia and Santa Maria.

Magnetic North – is not the true north, and its direction varies from different places on the earth’s surface. But Columbus told the worried crew that it’s not the compass that is wrong but the north star which moved from time to time. And the sailors were satisfied – and they headed into the unknown. It took five long weeks to see land. West Indies (Columbus believed it was part of India) part of Cuba.

David Livingstone – After 4 and 1/2 years no news about him, thought to have been dead, a young man by the name of Stanley was sent by an American newspaper. There at Ujiji, he found Livingstone. Stanley took off his hat.

“Dr, Livingstone, I suppose?”

“Yes,” he said with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly and shook hands. It was one of the most famous meetings in history.

Dr David Livingstone telling stories to natives in Africa about David the boy. Everyday for 6 weeks Goliath was challenging the Israelites to a duel. David arrived carrying food for the soldiers. David was not afraid and said, “Who does this great boaster think he is?” His brothers scolded him. But Saul the king heard him. David offered to fight Goliath.

"But you are not even a soldier."

"Back home I took care of my father’s sheep... fought lions, bears. I chased and killed them."

"But put your armor first." It was too big and heavy. David took his staff and sling, picked five smooth stones from a stream, and walked confidently to meet Goliath.

It was Goliath's last laugh of his life.

Florence Nightingale – In the night hours, sometimes long after midnight, Florence used to walk through the quiet wards to see that all was well, carrying a little lamp to light her way.

Such was her love for her patients. And soldiers loved, even the rough soldiers, used to kiss her shadow as she passed. Thus she was called The Lady with the Lamp.

Florence Nightingale tells stories of courage and hope to wounded soldier in a hospital.She received the highest award from Queen Victoria – a diamond brooch with “Crimea, Blessed are the merciful” engraved on it. ~

Napoleon Bonaparte took the crown from the hands of the Pope and he crowned himself as Emperor of France Dec 2, 1804 church of Notre Dame. He owed the crown to no one except himself. His mother shook her head and murmured, “If only it lasts.”

After a series of victories, even after the battle of Trafalgar (combined Spanish and French fleet defeated by Nelson), he tried to govern all of Europe.

He met his defeat at Waterloo in the hands of the Duke of Ellinton. Today, Waterloo is the inevitable downfall of a person.

Joan of Arc did not use her sword. Sher led the attack on New Orleans with shining armor and banner, and rallied the French forces. On seeing her army, the English soldiers were terrified - The Maid, The Maid! Believing in witchcraft, they fled headlong.

Wounded by an arrow in the shoulder at Tourelles after New Orleans, the French soldiers retreated, until she reappeared. And the French won.~

Joan of Arc kneels before an angel that urges her to liberate France from the English invaders.

NOTE: These anecdotes were purposely contracted as outline for speech or similar presentation. The reason is to discourage reading before the audience, and allows spontaneity and flexibility in telling the story.