Family Art Workshop on a Weekend (Article in Progress)

Family Art Workshop on a Weekend 

Dr Abe V Rotor

“The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.” – George Santayana

("Nature is one of family's masterpieces." - avr)

A peaceful weekend with nature with paintbrush and canvas, in acrylic, 

Rotor family residence, July 18, 2026, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Weekend - a choice a family makes, whether extended work or leisure.  If leisure, is it rest or play, indoor or out there in the field, picnic or some kind of activity that hones the right brain through creativity and imaginative pursuits conducive to growing up of children, in strengthening family ties, and reaching out to others in leisurely but educational activity?  

Weekend - freedom from work and school, day of prayer or biblical Sabbath the Creator set for man reverence and thanksgiving, silence and solitude, in many ways the world over across different faiths and religions, with a common denominator - peace and contentment. But would a weekend just pass by with little remembrance and sense  of accomplishment, else to forgetfulness and boredom its end?  

Weekend - after mass they came for blessings of lolo, lola, tita, tito, the traditional way, wrinkled rough hands pressed on the forehead of the younger, familial hugs and surprises, friendly banter among the young - what a Sunday morning to a family and clan! Thereafter, aside from simple snack and cheerful conversations, comes a most important idea. Why not a family art workshop?

Weekend - a day of nature - Mother Earth, the provider of all things, we humans and other creatures need, nature entrusted to man as guardian, the subject of this painting.

Where do we begin, but look around?  Land, water, sky in harmonious union; blue sky with clouds and birds passing; waterfalls meet the sea through streams and rivers;  wildlife, pasture, mountains, forests, valleys, ad infinitum.   

Author poses with members of the Rotor clan 

with their finished artwork.

 

Young artists putting some final strokes.

"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew."- Marshall McLuhan

(And artists are at the helm to capture all things beautiful and wonderful. - avr)

Effective Teaching Through Transforms and Dioramas

 Effective Teaching Through Transforms and Dioramas 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature - School on Blog

     

        Mural of a Forest Stream, UP Museum of Natural History, Laguna

 

Exoskeleton of insects and other arthropods showing plates and segments. UPLB Museum of Natural History, Mt Makiling, Laguna.  Right, cross section of a typical mushroom, also showing the diversity of mushroom and relatives under Phylum Mycophyta.

When Dr. Anselmo S. Cabigan, a colleague in the teaching profession and a long time friend, showed me the works of his students in biology using nails, paper clips, tin can, buttons and anything one can pick around, to make a giant paramecium, which in nature is actually a microscopic one-celled animal, I thought it is a very good idea, a practical educational tool.

                                   Dileptus, a relative of the Paramicium, a protist 

                                           (Courtesy of Dr Anselmo S Cabigan)

Transforms stimulate both hemispheres of the brain, and they make the students become more aware and sensitive to the things around them. Imagine a series of nails glued along the periphery of the paramecium. It is a perfect illustration of cilia that the organism uses for locomotion, and to think that nails have another purpose and have nothing to do with biology. 

Short of saying that this approach is ethnic art, in many ways the students feel at home in the learning process. It is indigenous and simple. It makes use of discarded materials. It is dollar saver because we can do away with imported models that are expensive and may not even apply to local conditions.

Many materials around us are waiting to be transformed into something useful if we know how. 

 

                  Giant stone frog guards a pond at UST Botanical Garden.

Toy as Transform
As a child the author loved making toys and playthings out of simple things and without spending a cent. For example, a wooden thread reel makes a fine road buggy self-propelled by rubber band that serves like the spring of an old fashioned watch. There is no need of battery and there is no such thing as depreciation. Well, it is because it has few parts and there was no direct cost involved.

The invention fascinated the kids in the neighborhood. Soon they had their own buggies and engaged in racing, of course a shade of the Tamiya toy race car. The invention may not be worth patenting, but with exorbitant price of cars and spiraling cost of fuel, there is good reason to think of re-inventing the wheel.

Mini diorama of a mountain or Alpine biome,
former St Paul University QC Museum.

                         Cross section of a tropical island (Former SPUQC Museum)

Sow bug model, Museum of Natural History, UPLB, Laguna

Damselfly model, Museum of Natural History, UPLB, Laguna

Examples of transforms:

1. Transforms in chemistry are models of atoms of elements and molecules of common compounds. These can be made of styropore, plastic and paper materials, better still wood.

2. Size, distance and positions of the planets in the solar system can be conveniently shown in a transform that is perhaps the most common project in general science for high school.

3. In geology, soil profile, cross-section of the earth, and profile of a volcano, are relatively easy to make.

4. Plant morphology, taxonomy and various stages in growth, are popular models to copy.

5. Embryology is best studied with models, so with the human body.

6. In literature, Shakespearean plays provide a wide choice of scenarios to choose from.

7. For history, significant events are re-enacted through transforms. So with the important people in history. The wax museum in Madrid houses life size personalities and fiction characters.

8. Puppet shows are among the first applications of transforms and dioramas. Remember, the scene of “The Lonely Goatherd” in Robert Wise’s “Sound of Music”?

9. The biggest transform, if I call it as such, is the giant bird of Nazca. It is so huge you can only decipher the figure from an aerial view.

10. The boundary of transforms and specimens in many cases is a thin line. Sometimes they are but one. A stuffed bird with simulated environment is a perfect example.

Children don’t learn much from toys anymore.

Today’s toys come handy with a rich variety to choose from. There is no more effort to play a toy, more so to understand how it works. Inside the toy is unknown, a mystery that a child would like to find out and explore. It is the dismantling and subsequent destruction that satisfies his curiosity – if ever at all. Even knock down models do not offer the fresh feeling of success. So with toy models with the computer or on TV.

Seldom does a child today grow wiser and more mature with toys. During my time as a child when one made a toy that works, it was victory. Making toys is learning and a part of growing up. It is earning for oneself a trophy.
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Before, one made his own toy and he knew how it works. Today one unwittingly destroys a toy to find out how it works. Before, the element of function is the test of ones skill, such as in making a top or kite. Today, function is the realm of the manufacturer. Ready-made toys simply cater to the child’s curiosity, and incidentally to his learning. Modern toys create demand through style and sophistication that are not basic to functional design and value.
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Transforms are Evolving with the Times

It is the impact and value of a transform that one must look for. It is the relevance to present day situation that makes these tools valuable. As science and technology progress by leaps and bounds, many educational models have become outdated. For example, in genetics, limiting the model to the structure of the gene, and only to this level, would not sufficiently explain the new science of genetic engineering. One must know the Crick and Watson model and its latest version showing the DNA splitting and re-organizing in order to understand how Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are made.

If we consider transform in its highest form think of simulation. The laws of physics are best illustrated here. Galileo climbed the leaning Tower of Pisa to demonstrate the relationship of mass and gravity. Darwin used transforms and actual specimens to illustrate his theory of evolution. Aerodynamics is studied in wind tunnels and weightlessness in gyroscopes.

Hands-on as compared with the computer is a more rewarding experience. Computers are known for rapid processing, wide coverage, versatility and virtual reality. It has wired the world and shrunk it within the reach of every user of the tool. In fact the box and the user are one, so to speak. But it is this very dependence on the computer that leaves very little room for the user to seek basic knowledge and learn basic skills.

Computers cannot totally replace transforms, audio-visual aids, and other educational tools. In the natural world the senses are very important. They must be honed. They are man’s connection to nature. Development of a skill is an actual activity, and it takes time to perfect it. Values are gained with good company. Innovation emanates where there is necessity. It is like saying necessity is the mother of invention. Feelings are conveyed and shared in a very personal way. Which reminds me of a person who asked the computer what is the meaning of love. The reply was prompt and came in a hundred definitions. Not satisfied, he asked the computer to illustrate the feeling of one in love. To which the machine labored for the correct answer. Finally it gave up and replied, “I cannot feel.”

Not with transforms. One must use fully his senses, a sixth included - a sense of appreciation that comes from the heart. “It is only through the heart that one speaks clearly,” said the fox to the Little Prince. It is true. True learning comes not only from the mind, but also together with the heart.

Transforms – Eveready Teaching Aid

A geometry teacher appeared at a loss. There was no blackboard; she was holding class under an acacia tree. “All right class, our lesson is about geometric figures,” she said simultaneously taking out a handkerchief. Every student took his handkerchief out, and the simple piece of cloth became a versatile educational tool.

When the author was a farmhand he used to count chicken as they queue out in the morning from the shed. Because there were many, he would position myself at a vantage point to insure he counted them all with a simple devise. By breaking the stick every count of ten, then add the number of breaks when all the fowls are out, it was not a difficult task. Then he would compare his count with the stick he used the day before.

Transforms serve as aids in measuring things where conventional or modern instruments are available. What other transforms of this kind do we know? Have you heard of the Pace Factor? Compute for your pace constant and you know how far you have walked or ran. Use it in determining the length of a corridor or dimensions of a hall or size of a rice field.

The author remembers Fr. Jerry Orbos in one of his homilies. To drive at his message he held a new pair of chopsticks. “You cannot use the chopsticks while the pair is still joined,” he said, and then broke it apart. “Now you can use it.”

Indeed transforms work best in bringing us back to our senses.~
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*Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Melly C Tenorio 738KHzAM 8-9 evening class Mon to Fri

Underworld "I live by the pen and paint brush, and imagination."

                                                        Underworld

"I live by the pen and paint brush, and imagination." - avr

Glass Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature - School on Blog (avrotor.blogspot.com)

Also open Naturalism - the Eighth Sense

Turkey Fish

                                                          Marine Crustaceans

I live by the pen and paint brush,

     and imagination;

I live where no man had lived

     before Creation.

My world sinks into a deep

     submarine;

My world recreates a unique realm

     at its rim.

Where corals and weeds grow

     into a dome,

Where myriads of creatures have

     found a home.

Here there is also conflict

     among niches;

Here there is also want amid

     the riches.

Here creatures live by artful deceit

     and lies,

Here friends and foes co-exist

     with their allies.

What makes this world differ

     from the other?

What makes it orderly

     in disorder?

Do we find beauty in evil

     and its kind?

Do we find too, sin and shame

     in a bind?

Do we find beauty

     in diversity?

Do we find beauty too,

     in monopoly?

The artist's eye sees more,

     but more from the mind;

The artist's eye sees deeper

     than the rind.

I wouldn't wish to live here,

     not in this realm;

I would just paint it, paint it

     like a dream. ~

 

Sea Horse, Grouper Fish

Sand Towers

                                           Sand Towers      

They leave indelible marks to a child to think 

and dream as he grows up.  

Photos by Dr Abe V Rotor

 Wonder what this child think of these monoliths;

 a world of fantasy awaits in his prime;

transported to the land of legends and myths, 

a Gulliver he becomes in his time.   

On a hill of sand and gravel, John Patrick 7, discovered a rare phenomenon: stones perched atop towers of sand.  I explained how rain washed out the sand around each stone, save the sand under.  Each tower appears like a monolith that has its own peculiar shape and size.  When grouped together they are like ruins of the Parthenon in ancient Greece.

The rains had stopped, and on the following day only few of the sand towers remained standing. Like sand castles they leave indelible marks to a child to think and dream as he grows up. ~  

Treasured Memories with Honorable Senators (and Remembering Senator Butz Aquino - Boss and Friend)

     Treasured Memories with Honorable Senators

(and Remembering Senator Butz Aquino

- Boss and Friend)

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Consultant (1989-1993), Committee on Food and Agriculture

Senator Butz Aquino, chairman

Senate of the Philippines

 

Dr Rotor served as consultant of the Senate's Committee on Food and Agriculture with the late Senator Butz Aquino as chairman (1989-1993). The committee stood vigorous against the abolition and privatization of NFA.

Outstanding accomplishments as senator may be gleamed from the bills he sponsored and co-sponsored, namely:

• Cooperative Law of the Philippines
• Magna Carta for Filipino Farmers
• Seed Industry Law of the Philippines
• Law Banning Muro-ami Fishing  
• Law Establishing Carabao Research and Training Centers (Co-sponsor with then Senator Erap Estrada)

Travels with Senator Butz

• Nagpandayan, Nueva Ecija (Cooperative)
• Tagudin, Ilocos Sur (Cooperative)
• Santiago, Isabela (Farmers Forum)
• Samboan, Cebu (Ban on Muro-ami fishing)
• Vigan, Ilocos Sur (Guest speaker) 
• Concepcion, Tarlac (Butz hometown)  
• Tel-Aviv, Israel (alone, sponsored by the Senate Committee)

Anecdotes

• Helping a helpless motorist
• Butz double in a town's restaurant  
• Endless requests into the night
• Defending the NFA in Senate debates
• Visit to Israel 
• Representing Butz in a farmers' forum in Cotabato City
• 13 in a Helicopter at night  (Siquijor to Cebu)
• Twice forced landing on a helicopter at Santa Fe Pass in Nueva Vizcaya  
• Kamaro (fried mole cricket), anyone? 
• Butz and Young Marlo (author's son) on a ranch in Batangas
• Driving at racetrack speed to Tagudin, Ilocos Sur
• Briefing over breakfast at his residence for the day's session
• Outdoor dinner. Getting rid of flies and midges. ~ 

 

In Defense of NFA

The National Food Authority was created through Presidential Decree No. 4 dated September 26, 1972, under the name National Grains Authority (NGA) with the mission of promoting the integrated growth and development of the grains industry covering rice, corn, feed grains and other grains like sorghum, including wheat which we had substantive success on the farm level. 

Agapito "Butz" Aquino Aquino (May 20, 1939 – August 17, 2015) was a Senator of the Philippines from 1987 to 1995, congressman from Makati and a part-time film and television actor. He was born to former senator Benigno S. Aquino Sr. and Aurora Aquino-Aquino. He was the brother of former senators Benigno S. Aquino Jr. and Tessie Aquino-Oreta, as well as the uncle of President Benigno S. Aquino III as well as Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV.

Devolution of Life (Reverse Evolution)

         Devolution of Life (Reverse Evolution)

     “Man has reversed the process of evolution and he has put into his hands the pattern and trends as he wishes, playing the role of his Creator.” - AVR

 Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Destruction of the ecosystems. Photos by the author.

 

Dichotomy of man's future, interpretation by two artists

All living things, past and present, are progeny of evolution and are interconnected in one way or the other. And each one has a place in the phylogeny, the chart of evolution.

Imagine the organisms in countless numbers assigned in distinct groupings scientists call as “kingdoms,” with the ancient ones occupying the bottom, and the complex ones at the top. And each kingdom is divided into sub-groups arranged in the same pattern – from simple to complex members.

1. From the first Green Revolution – the transformation of man from hunter to farmer some 10,000 years ago – man has narrowed down the diversity of crops and animals according to his needs.

2. The loss of ecosystems all over the world as population and settlements continue to expand has not only predisposed species to extinction but caused permanent damage of these natural habitats, that it is virtually impossible to rebuild them back into their original states.

3. Life on earth is threatened by Global Warming which is causing sea level to rise and flood low lying area. On the hand polar ice and ice caps are melting. Global warming stirs climate change which is causing climatic disturbances. There is a increasing rate and intensity of typhoons, hurricanes, tornado, flooding, drought, and the like.

4. Pollution on land, water and air, in increasing levels brought about by industrialization, growing population and affluence of living, has triggered man-induced phenomena that threaten species and life itself. Internet image

5. Rapid population increase, industrialization and affluent living all lead to changing chemistry of the land, water and air. We do not only mix natural elements and compounds; we synthesize them into products foreign to nature. Plastics for example do not decompose, gases from car react to form acid rain, toxic metal run through the food chain and food web, and natural waterways are open sewers. These do not only disturb life; they maim, kill, annihilate; they turn productive areas into wastelands.

6. Man intrudes into the wildlife which continues to shrink. Gone is 80 percent of the rainforests of the world. Ninety percent of the coral reefs have been destroyed by over fishing and by reckless means. The grasslands are shrinking to give way to farming. The sea is being farmed. Islands are now owned by private persons and organizations.

7. Genetic engineering has broken down the barriers that separate species by directly combining genes of different organisms, thereby destroying the identity and integrity of species, and therefore change their behavior and interrelationships.

8. Evolution it seems is no longer a natural process, but one dictated by human intelligence that continues to build from the indulgence on the fruits of the “Tree of Knowledge that makes man as powerful as God,” the very thing that vanished his first ancestors from the biblical Garden of Eden.

Where have all the rice varieties gone?

There are more than 50,000 cultivars of rice presently stored in the Gene Bank of the International Rice Research Institute at UP Los Baños, Laguna. According to IRRI scientists this number represents but a fraction of the possibly rices (the plural of rice to denote distinct genetic variations) of the world since agriculture began some 5000 years ago or so.

Similarly at the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento del Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT) in Mexico the gene bank for wheat and corn faces the same problem as in rice, and if this is the case, it is logical that many varieties and cultivars of field crops we know today are but the selected few that man, the farmer, has intentionally preserved. In short, what these banks as well as those conserved by other organizations, are but the remnant of the world’s naturally occurring genetic pool on the one hand, and those genetically modified by man.

A cursory examination of rice sold in the market makes a short list of about a dozen misleading varieties as sinandomeng, wigwag, intan, which are pseudonyms to attract customers for the likeness of quality with those they have been named after.

To validate this observation through field survey one is likely to find even a simpler classification as upland and lowland rice, or aromatic, glutinous, red rice and the like.

Quaintness of farm life, a thing of the past, painting by Fernando Amorsolo

 

This is the same observation in the former prairies of North America, now the biggest cereal granary of the world extending across the Canadian border covering the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, there are only 10 major wheat varieties planted on the vast plains. For corn, the indigenous varieties are rare to find on the farm. Hybrid corn – a cross of two or more purified varieties – makes up the bulk of corn produced. Hybrids are unstable genetically. In the succeeding generations the lose hold on the genetic vigor of their parents, resulting in drastic decline in yield.

What is the implication of narrowing down the choice of varieties to be planted commercially?

First, it will result in indirect elimination of varieties in the bottom of the list, by displacement by the preferred ones and by neglect on the [art of the farmer in maintaining them.

Second, fewer varieties planted is food security risk. Severe damage to even only one major variety is likely to result in economic disaster.

Third, the narrowing down of genetic diversity disturbs the ecosystem, laying much on man’s care the survival not only of the cultivated crops but other living things in the area as well, thus leading to the further decrease in diversity and population. The loss of diversity in cereal lands applies as well in other areas as evidenced by the following:

• Vegetables sold in the market are limited to those that are salable, leaving out those that are not, and the so-called “wild vegetables” represented by such vegetables as bagbagkong, papait, sabawil, sword bean, and alukong or himbaba-o.

• The kinds of fruits may be counted by the fingers, and like vegetables, only those that are acceptable dominate the fruit stands. Today it is rare to find such indigenous fruits as tampoy, sapote, batocanag, anonang and the native counterparts of guapple and ponderosa.

• Industrial crops are also suffering of the same fate. Take the following:

1. Dipterocarp species of forest trees (narra family) are now endangered. These include apitong , yakal, tanguili, and guijo.

2. Fiber plants such as maguey (Agave family), ramie, kenaf, jute, abaca, have bee vastly neglected since the introduction of synthetics fibers.

3. Today bamboo groves occupy the fringes of wastelands and certain watershed areas. Traditional bamboo areas, like the Dipterocarp forests, are vanishing, so with many of the species and variety of this so-called giant grass.

4. The increasing demand for firewood has decimated many indigenous sources, what with the open exploitation for day-to-day gathering of firewood in marginal communities. These include madre de cacao, ipil-ipil, acacia, and aroma.

5. Even plants of medicinal value are being exploited severely such as quinine for malaria, banaba for kidney trouble, derris for insect control.

6. Seaweeds suffer the same fate as more resorts are put up, aquaculture selective only to those species of major importance are raised, deleterious effects of pollution, notwithstanding.

Agriculture, the Nemesis of Biodiversity Conservation

Whenever a land is cleared for agriculture five consequences are likely to happen. These are

• Direct elimination of plants and animals which interferes and does not constitute or conform with farming practices.

• Breaking up of the food chain and therefore, the disruption of the food web leads to the disorganization of the ecosystem. For example, a swamp converted into riceland will necessarily lose its natural biological and ecological properties. Loss of habitats results in migration or death of affected species.

• Modern agriculture, with the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, is destructive to the ecosystem. Internet photo

Mismanagement leads not only to loss in productivity, as shown in this formula.

Biotic Potential = Carrying Capacity/Productivity over Environmental Resistance

The Carrying Capacity of an ecosystem is dependent upon favorable biological factors (biotic potential), which in turn is affected by the presence of factors that negate them (environmental resistance), among which are lack of water, poor soil condition, and destructive activities of man.

Decreasing productivity therefore, means decreasing biodiversity – which means devolution of life. ~