Fishing Village - Sketch from a Bridge

Sketch by DBM Usec Mario Relampagos 

with verse by Dr Abe V Rotor

Fishing Village in Catbalogan pastel, by Mario Relampagos, Samar 1986

The art of on-the-spot sketching

lives not in the lens;

artists create, the photographer 

loses that divine sense. 

And yet the world finds the ease

of viewing like breeze

passing by, nil of impressions

the make real artists.     

Devolution - Reverse Evolution of Living Things

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

The Earth is shrinking, orphaned like this Rock Pool. Painting by AV Rotor

ll 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.

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. 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.

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

Carrying Capacity/Productivity = Biotic Potential divided by 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 point to devolution of life as a biological phenomenon. x x x

Freshwater Ecology: Ponds and Mudflats (Placenta of Terrestrial Life)

Freshwater Ecology:

Ponds and Mudflats (Placenta of Terrestrial Life)

Dr Abe V. Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog 



  Hut by a Pond 
A pond is a transient environment. Unlike a stream, river, or lake, it has feeble currents or none at all. It is surrounded by thick vegetation which, advances towards the pond as it grows older. As the pond fills up with sediments and muck, and its bottom gradually drains, higher plants become progressively abundant.


In a shallow pond the forces of wind and convection keep the whole volume of water in circulation so that at any depth the temperature is fairly uniform and the amount of gases, notably oxygen and carbon dioxide is equally distributed.

The relatively large ratio of surface to volume of ponds make them most susceptible to weather and climatic changes than large bodies of water. Because of their small size they are also susceptible to changes in physiographic conditions like erosion and deposition.

Like any community a pond grows, passes a relatively stable mature phase, and ultimately dies. This basic ecological cycle is a result of interplay between organisms and their environment. Organisms live in an environment where they are adapted, and remain in the most stable area or niche which spells out their success as population and members of an interacting ecosystem.

The physical nature of the environment consequently determines what types of organisms can settle successfully. Temperature, rainfall, altitude, soil conditions and other environmental factors decisively influence the kinds of plants that survive in a given place. Vegetation in turn, as well as the animals, has selected effects on the kind of biotic community in that region. Organisms gradually alter the local conditions. Raw materials are withdrawn from the environment in large quantities, and metabolic wastes are returned together with dead organisms, but of another form and in different place, thus resulting to re-distribution and alteration of vast quantities of substances.
mudflat picturesThis means that later generations of the original organisms may find the altered local environment no longer suitable for themselves so that the members of the community must resettle elsewhere or die out. Later a new community of different plants and animals arrive and settle down. Again this new community will alter the area according to its own specialization. Hence, it is said that the living and non-living parts of the environment are vitally interlinked, that changed in one produces change to the other.

As a typical ecosystem, a pond relates a classical story. Most ponds must have originated during the last ice age when the moving glaciers scraped out giant sinks. Others have been known to originate from a portion of a bay or lake that was isolated by a sandbar by the action of waves and wind. Pirated rivers may also form into ponds. Most of the newly formed ponds may be wiped out days, months or years later, by storm or silt deposition. But a better-protected pond survives the drastic geologic fate. It must somehow face the slow process of ecological succession through which continuous dynamic processes take place that will ultimately lead to the accumulation of organic matter and silt.

On the functional aspect of ecological succession, like in any transient communities, the progressive increase of organic matter which fills up the pond will lead into a heterotrophic conditions which means that the dependent organisms (heterotrophs) will increase in proportion to the increase of the producers (autotrophs). These favor aquatic and semi-terrestrial organisms, and therefore, biological diversity.

The living bed of terrestrial life is the fertile bottom of the pond - the mudflat, which intermittently comes out to dry, a cycle that incubates eggs of many organisms, allows spores and seeds to germinate, and dormant organisms to become active.

The mudflats are exposed and submerged at intervals depending upon the amount of water that enters the pond from the tributaries upstream and from the surrounding watershed. As the remaining aquatic zone further shrinks and the water flow meanders along the bottom, wider mudflats are formed.

No zone in the pond is richer in variety and in number of living things, and no types of interrelationships could be more complex, if not deceiving or unknown, than the aquatic zone where life continues on in some most amazing and mystic ways. There are evidences that these dynamic changes shall go on until the pond has completely transformed into a terrestrial ecosystem, despite such threat of pollution which may have already marked the face of the pond.

But nature proves flexible with change. Normal changes would simply be dismissed by Nature’s own way of adjusting the role of its own creatures. Changes shape the conditions of the environment; that in turn, determine the organisms that fit better into it.

The bottom of the pond is directly affected by the amount of water and by water flow. It is the recipient of silt and other sediments from plant residues from the surrounding watersheds and from the immediate shoulders of the pond. The decreasing area occupied by water may indicate the age of the pond, and the changes which, undoubtedly lead towards an irreversible transition from aquatic to terrestrial state.

Typical of old ponds and lakes, the aquatic zone considerably decreases with the lack of water supply and by the steady deposition of silt and decomposing plant remains- not to mention the garbage and other wastes thrown into the pond by unscrupulous residents in the area. The black, spongy and fertile are an envy of many plant species and consequently of the dependent animal organisms. From time to time pioneer plants venture for a try to settle every time terrestrial conditions begin to prevail. But in many parts of the old exposed bottom left by the receding water, terrestrial plants can not settle down because time and again the water immediately submerges the previously baked flats to become once more a slosh of mud that readily shallows a wader to his knees. And so the outcome of the battle turns to the advantage of the aquatic plants- Eichhhornia (water hyacinth), Alternanthera, Jussiaea, Nymphaea and Pistia (kiapo) and of course to the ever-present thick scums of blue-greens and green algae with their co-dependents. Ipomea,(kangkong), the adventuresome Brachiaria (para grass) and other grasses on the other hand are pushed back to safer limits where they wait for conditions to favor another invasion, that is when the mudflats shall come out to the sun again.

The story of competition between the two groups continues indefinitely and all the while the sluggish water meanders against the shoulders of the pond and etches the old bottom. But all along, sediments pile on the bottom until small isolated “islands” are formed in the middle of the water zone. The isolation of these islands can not be for long, so their barrenness, for the dormant seeds under the warm rich soil suddenly come to life and together with air borne seeds and spores, and the stranded shoots and tillers, which make these islands “small worlds” themselves.

No place in the aquatic zone is absolutely for a particular species. However the dominance of a species can be noted from one place to another. For example, the pseudo-islands in the middle of the aquatic zone may be dominated by Brachiaria, while the lower part of the pond where water is usually deeper, harbors the remnants of the once dominant Eichhornia. At the headend, the old bottom may be covered up with grass, except in places that may be occupied by Jussiaea repens, a succulent broad-leaf and a water-loving species.

Any decrease in area of the true aquatic zone a corresponding increase of the immediate zone. Terrestrial plant species continuously pursue the reclaimed flats. Ipomea and Alternanthera species appear at the front line of the invasion while the grasses stand by. The logic is that the former can better withstand the conditions of the waterline. Their roots bind the particles of silt and humus, which are suspended in the water, and when the plants die, organic matter is added, thus favoring the terrestrial species take over. It is as if these benefactors are robbed at the end by their own beneficiaries.

The aquatic and shore zones are more or less homogenous as far as their principal plant species are concerned. This could be explained by the fact that the newly established zone (aquatic zone invaded by plants) is but an extension of the shore zone, and was it not that the shore zone a part of the aquatic zone?

Hence, the close relationship of the two zones can be readily noted, although they can be divided by alterne. This demarcation is not steady as shore vegetation spreads out into the water zone.

The phytoplanktons composed of countless green algae, flagellates, diatoms, desmids and a multitude of bacteria are the precursors of the food pyramid. They form the broad base of a pyramid structure. Simplified, the phytoplanktons make up the larger group, on which the zooplanktons depend. Insects and other arthropods lead the third group of organisms, while amphibians fish and reptiles make up the fourth. The farthest link is made up of the decomposers, which ultimately produce organic matter and humus upon which phytoplanktons and plants depend live on. The food chain web is characterized by mutualism, parasitism, predatism, saprophytism, commensalism, and decomposition – all of which link all organisms into a greater whole, the ecosystem.

In the pond, the rooted as well as the floating plants and the phytoplanktons are the “producers”. They support the herbivores (insects and fishes), and they add organic matter when parts or the whole of their bodies die. Zooplanktons generally feed upon the phytoplanktons, although some are dependent upon organic matter and humus. Small fishes, crustaceans and insects eat the zooplanktons in turn,, and these will be eventually eaten by carnivores. If not eaten, every plant and animal eventually die and decompose, its protoplasm reduced to the basic materials that green plants needed for growth.

The shores progressively widen following the drying of the mudflats. This area is usually dominated by grass, followed by crawling and viny plants, such as those belonging to the morning glory family (Convulvolaceae). Shrubs on the farther edge of the pond join annuals. During the rainy season the shores are waterlogged. The soil is black and it emits methane and ammonia gases, which show that anaerobic decomposition is taking, place. Muck is the product of this slow process. The soil is rather acidic but many plants tolerate it. High ferrous content can also be noted as rusty coloration, a characteristic of waterlogged soil.

Towards the end the shore becomes dry. Vegetation changes follow a dynamic pattern, the grass producing numerous secondary stalks, which become thick and bushy. The broad-loaf species tend to grow in clumps or masses. Some plants in the slope zones descend to join some plants in the shore zone, some are forced into prostate growth. Along the water line the grass is tall and verdant green. Meantime the trees close in. The tree line advances to the edge of the pond a soon the pond will die. ~

Emptiness in Amihan

Dr Abe V Rotor

"When Amihan blows in the cold Siberian wind,

vacation ends with the last footstep of guests, 

their loneliness preserved in this emptiness, 

         their pain relieved - that, we can only guess." - avr

Former PAGASA Meteorologist and GMA forecaster Nathaniel "Mang Tani" Cruz, explains in his daily broadcast the movement of the Cold Front which brings into the country the chilly wind, also known as Siberian High, during the months of November to late January.

                             Empty porches and verandas.

                                 Eerie and quiet walk atop an Antipolo hill in Rizal.~

   

Contemporary Paintings III

There are times an artist feels he has ran out of subject. Wrong. He is simply adamant in trying new techniques and style which lead him to new subjects.

Painting by Dr Abe V Rotor 

Waterfalls through the mountain. 

Surreal?

Yet real if the heart is full and hale. 

Bouquet - when too much to count.

admire them instead on the mount.

A whirlpool of fish in frolic with the current,

subject of modern art and the Internet.

Chromosomes gone hauntingly wild,

spawned in the lab

now a Frankenstein’s monster child,

a genie at large.

The Two Worlds of the House Sparrow

The Two Worlds of the House Sparrow

Dr Abe V Rotor

   House sparrows (Passer domesticus)  frolic in a pool left by rain. 
 Photo Credit: Google, Wikipedia

Gordiun (or Gordion), that's how we call this bird in Ilokano, almost a password for us kids in our time with slingshots worn necklace style, our pockets bulging with carefully picked gravel stones. We were soldiers of fortune when the gordiun is fat at harvestime, and how we relished it grilled in today's term, and how we raided its nest and took its young. 

Passer birds are a product of co-evolution in rice territory - their life cycle jibes with that of rice - the traditional varieties that stay in the field for the whole monsoon season. And then comes October.  By then they number to hundreds, thousands over the horizon. What makes it worse is the gordiun is related to the maya, equally if not more destructive. raiding ricefields about to be harvested, stealing  grains from the mandala and the garung - a giant circular basket to keep threshed palay as buffer stock in today economic term. 

That's why our old folks allowed us to carry this deadly improvised weapon, traced to the history of David, with the enemy a hundred times more than a single Goliath - more elusive, more mean, more intelligent. 

Like its counterpart in the rodent world - the rat - the gordium has likewise learned to live with humans, but never, never allowing itself to be domesticated - unlike the cat and the dog.  Not the gordiun, not the rat as well - two stubborn co-inhabitants in man's dwelling. And the wonder of it all is that they can adjust to modern living, and in fact to today's postmodernism.  They live in cities among high rise and shanties, the rats on garbage, and the gordiun on food waste and pest.  

We were the Mark Twain kids of the fifties - the likes of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.  Like them we were abandoned by time - shall w say, age - and ambition and industrialization and exodus to the city. We have surrendered our weapons, so with the adventure and fun we were supposed to hand over as heritage to our children and the younger generation of today. 

Pavlov is undoubtedly correct when we talk of the resilience of instinct, its ability to cope with fear, deprivation and aggression for the sake of survival of the species as a whole. That's how the gordiun - and all animals for that matter - succeed in adapting to the changing environment. 

But there is something strange going on, not anticipated by the great psychologist, similarly Darwin did not foresee the impact of modern science and technology: the steady annihilation of species to the point of extinction. In fact hundreds of species of the estimated millions have permanently perished, and more in accelerated pace will follow suit.

I look back as my Gordiun - the one that refused domestication, the one that played the most skillful hide-and-seek game, the most challenging target of our slingshots, the one that lives  up to 20 years among humans - not in the forest though, the one that never migrates in neither habagat or amihan - unlike the migratory birds of the north coming down south and returning after winter. And the one that is the symbol of joy and being carefree, yet the epitome to bonding as family and community. 

House sparrow (left) with another scavenger bird waiting for an opportunity to glean the table in an outdoor restaurant in HK Disneyland, 2017

I have long dismissed the gordiun's destructiveness , and in fact explained to farmers and housewives, they do more good in housekeeping - picking morsels, ridding the place of vermin.  They are part of the food web and therefore help in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem. They are insectivorous and predators, and they keep weeds population down that would otherwise compete with our crops, by eating their seeds during the off season. It is for this matter that their dispersal all over the world in all continents except Antarctica was assisted by man because they are excellent biological agents.  In general we have learned to accept them, as they have learned the same.  

A change of human attitude crept in when the gordiun's population has dropped from the flock we used to watch and admire, the chorus of songs though inferior to the canary, and by their very presence alone that keeps us company. This is what is happening all over the world because of pollution, global warming, loss of habitat, pesticides and the like.

I watched a gordiun lost its way and ended up in our sala trapped.  It was raining hard and I said, you can stay here.  Restless, it rammed against the wall and ceiling, then perched nervously on the curtain looking at me long and hard.

Suddenly I became a boy once more - this time without the dreaded slingshot around my neck.  I parted the curtain and out it flew to join its flock. ~  

"I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet* I could have worn."

- Henry David Thoreau

*Mark of distinction worn on the shoulder to show rank in an organization; shoulder strap showing military rank or social standing.

Painting Manual: Pangarap Art World Travelogue through Drawing and Painting

20 Drawing and Painting Exercises 
Dr. Abe V. Rotor

Pangarap Art World: A Travelogue through Drawing and Painting, is a sequel of  workshop manuals designed to teach basic drawing and painting techniques  to  children of school age and young adults.

     
 Volume I, “Handbook for Drawing and Painting” has been in use since summer of 1990.  Its emphasis is to tap the latent talent of children, while Volume II, “Art and Values: Cultivating Creativity, Skills, Values and Personality through Art”, as the title implies, is values oriented. It was introduced in 1998 for the second Nestle Philippines summer art workshop and the fourth workshop for the National Food Authority. 

Country Scene in acrylic by the Author

      
 The approach in this third volume is unique.  The participants go through an imagined itinerary that takes them to different places and introduces them to experiences which they are likely to encounter in life. There are twenty exercises to be accomplished as class work or home assignment, fifteen (15) are designed for individual work, while five (5) are for group work..

     This manual provides the needs of a summer workshop which is conducted for at least ten sessions, with three hours per session. Ideally one exercise is done in the classroom, and one is given as home assignment. An on-the-spot session can also make use of a number of exercises from this manual, such as  Flying Kites, Inside a Gym, and Market Day.  Each exercise will be graded and at the end of the workshop, the participants will be rated and ranked accordingly.  The top three graduates shall be awarded gold, silver and bonze medals, respectively.

    

      Computation of grades is based on the Likert Scale, where 1 is very poor, 2 poor, 3 fair, 4 good, and 5 very good. The general criteria are composition, interpretation, expression, artistic quality and impact. The details of these shall be discussed by the instructor at the onset of each exercise.

      Like the other two manuals, the author offers this volume a respite from cartoons, advertisements, entertainment characters, programs filled with

violence and sex,  computer games, and  the like, which many children are  overexposed via media and computers.  It is his aim to help create a more wholesome culture where certain values of a growing child and adolescent are developed and nurtured.  Art through this means becomes principally a vehicle for development, notwithstanding the gains in skill acquired.

       For each exercise, the instructor shall explain the requirements and procedure with the use of visuals and through demonstration. If there is need for group interaction he shall also serve as facilitator-moderator. He shall choose the appropriate music background for each exercise to enhance the ambiance of the workshop. 

       With brush and colors one can go places and create scenarios as vivid as what a pen can do.  It reminds us of the masterpieces of  Jules Verne which he wrote many, many years ago, notably “Around the World in Eighty Days”.  More than fiction we embark on a trip for life, real and inevitable. The pleasures await us, so with difficulties and hardships. The journey takes us closer to Nature and appreciate her beauty , it leads us to meet people and learn how to be a part of society.  Here we plan our lives, make things for ourselves, enjoy success, face failure, and at the end we  return to reality once again. Our journey takes us back to our loved ones, and  with an Angelus prayer on our lips we  draw a deep breathe of gratitude.

     Thus one can glimpse from the outline of our itinerary that Part 1 introduces us to the natural world, while Part 2 integrates us into society.  The last part  provides a window through  which a growing child and an adolescent see the other side of their present world, the real world  in which they  will spend the rest of  their lives. All aboard!

Exercises

1.      Views from an Airplane                             

2.      Sunflower Field                                                         

3.      Riceland                                                         

4.      Rainforest                                                      

5.      Hut by a Pond on a Mountain                                   

6.      Waterfalls                                                       

7.      Inside a Cave                                                             

8.      Fairy Garden  .                                                 

9.      Lighthouse at the Edge of the Sea     12

10.   Sailing                                                                         

11.   Camping                                                          

12.   Flying Kites                                                  

13.   Inside a Gym                                               

14.   Market Day                                                   

15.   Shanties and Buildings                           

16.   Building a House                                     

17.   Making an Aquarium                             

18.   Typhoon                                                                                                        

19.   Building a Bridge                                    

20.   Angelus                                                  

Exercise 1-  Views from an Airplane

Leaving our world down below and seeing it as a miniature.  How small it is!  Rather, how small we are!

        As the airplane we are riding on soars to the sky we lose our sense of familiarity of the places below us.  Then our world  which we left behind appears as a miniature. And we are detached from it.

        What really is the feeling of one flying on an airplane?  Nervous and afraid?  Excited and happy?  Most probably it is a mixed feeling.  Now let us imagine ourselves cruising in the sky one  thousand feet up. We get a clear view below. The most prominent are the landscapes.  See those mountains, rivers and lakes, the seashore.  See the infrastructures – roads, bridges, towers, parks, and the like.  Next, buildings, schools, the church, houses, etc.  Imagine yourself to be above your hometown or barangay..

          This is an individual work.  Use Pastel colors and Oslo paper.  You have thirty minutes to finish your drawing.  Let us play “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and “Up, Up and Away”.

Exercise 2 - Sunflower Field

Lessons in radial symmetry, uniformity, and unity; farm life and scenery.

        The sunflower has a central disc, surrounded by a ring of bright  yellow petals which resemble the rays of the sun. But the most  unique characteristic of the sunflower is that it faces the sun as it moves from sunrise to sunset.  Because of its “obedience” to the sun, botanists gave the plant a genus name, Helianthes, after the Greek sun god, Helios.

        Draw a field of sunflowers. Central Luzon State University in Munoz, Nueva Ecija, is the pioneer in sunflower farming.   Imagine yourself to be at the center of sunflower farm. It is a bright day.  Walk through the field among the plants as tall as you. Examine their long and straight stem and large leaves. Touch the large flowers, smell their sweet and fresh scent. Observe the bees and butterflies visiting one flower after another.   Make the  flowers prominent in your drawing.  Remember they are uniform in size, height and color, and they are all facing the sun. Make the sky blue with  some cloud to break the monotony.

        You are given thirty minutes to complete your work.  Use pastel colors on Oslo or drawing paper.  Fill up the entire paper as if it were the whole field and sky. You may draw butterflies and bees. And you may draw yourself as you imagine yourself in a sunflower field.  Here are suggested musical compositions for music background. “Humoreque”, “Minuet in G”, “Serenata”, “Traumerei”,  “On the meadow”,   “Spring Song”,  “Ang Maya”.

Exercise  3 - Riceland

Lessons on the Central Plains, birthplace of agriculture and seat of early human settlement, rice granary of the country, where typical farm life is observed.

        Rice, rice everywhere with few trees, no mountains, except Mt. Arayat.  The wind sweeps over the plains and make waves and soothing sound. Suddenly a flock of herons and maya birds rise into the air.  Herds of cattle lazily graze. Their calves are playful and oftentimes get lost.  You hear both parents and calves calling one another.  There are carabaos which like best areas where there is water and mud to wallow in..

        Because we are in the Philippines we do not have zebras, lions, tigers and leopards.  These animals live in Africa and on the vast plains of North America.  We are going to draw a Philippine scene instead.  We have our Central Plains where we grow rice.  Here the farmer plants when the rains come and harvests towards the end of the monsoon.  His hut in the middle of his field is made of nipa and bamboo.  It is small.  Beside it are haystacks that look like giant mushrooms.  Children help on the farm, they mature and learn to live with life earlier than city kids. 

  

        Draw a typical ricefield scene in Central Luzon.  It is like Fernando Amorsolo’s seceneries of rural life where there are people planting or harvesting rice.  A carabao pulls a plow or cart, a nipa hut is surrounded by vegetables, haystacks or mandala dwarf the huts and people around. It is indeed a typical scene that gives an excellent  background for our native songs and dances like Tinikling. Ang Kabukiran song fits well as a background music for this exercise. Let us play Nicanor Abelardo’s Compositions. Filipino composers like Padilla de Leon, Verlarde, Canseco, and Umali excel in this field.

Exercise 4 - Rainforest

A lesson on different kinds of plants and animals living together in a forest, the richest ecosystem in the world, their organization, adaptation and relationships.

 

          As we enter a tropical rainforest, the trees become taller and denser, grasses disappear, and shrubs and vine plants called lianas take over their place.  In the center of the rainforest are massive trees several meters high. Their trunks are huge, it takes several persons to wrap a tree with their arms stretched.  Sunlight is blocked, except rays seeping through the green roof.  We imagine we are inside the forest of Mt. Makiling in Laguna.

          We walk through the forest by first clearing our way with a bolo. Be careful, the ground is slippery.  In the rainforest, rain falls everyday, in fact anytime,  from drizzle to downpour.  That is why it is called rainforest.  Be careful with wild animals and thorny plants.  Do not disturb them, just observe them. Look for reptiles like lizards and snakes, amphibian like frogs and toads, fish swimming in a stream,  birds singing up in the trees, insects of all kinds, animals like deer and monkeys.

        Draw a cross section of a forest showing the different creatures.  Show their interrelationships. For example a snake eats frogs, frogs eat insects, insects feed on plants.  Observe the trees are of three levels.  We appear very small standing on the ground floor of a seven-storey natural building that is the forest.  Joey Ayala’s compositions on nature fit best as background music in this exercise. Why don’t we try  some songs of  Pilita Corales and Kuh Ledesma which are appropriate for this topic? “Sierra Madre”, for example.

Exercise 5 - A Hut by the Pond on a Mountain

Lessons of peace, tranquility, and of  unspoiled landscape; feeling of being on top of the world.

        The title alone tells a story.  It is picturesque.  Here one imagines himself to be in a simple hut made of wood and stone and grass which shelters a woodsman or a hunter on Mt. Pulag in Benguet which is the second highest mountain in the Philippines after Mt. Apo.

       There are no houses, buildings; no road, except a trail.  The trees are gnarled and stunted.  They are  covered with ferns, epiphytes and mosses which make them look haunted.  Feel the great comfort the hut gives you after a long day hike, and how soothing is the cool and clear water of a pond nearby. There are  water lilies  growing on the pond. Their flowers are red, orange, white and yellow. Sometimes a breeze come along, followed by drizzle, then everything is quiet.  Enjoy stillness.  It is a rare experience to one who has been living in the city. 

         Draw first the mountain top where a pond and a hut are found.  There is an faint trail which is the only way. The trees are dwarf and sturdy. They are bearded with mosses. Mist will soon clear as the sun penetrates through the trees, and makes a prism on the mist and dewdrops. Selections from the sound track of  “Sound of Music” provide an ideal musical background.

 Exercise 6 - Waterfall

This exercise makes us reflect at where a river abruptly ends.  The energy and scenery of  a waterfalls stir our imagination and make us think about life.

         Here we follow the river.  It meanders, then at a certain point it stops.  But it does not actually end here.  As water seeks its own level the river drops into a waterfalls and continues its journey toward the sea. We think of Pagsanjan Falls in Laguna or Maria Cristina Falls in Mindanao.

As we stand witness to this natural phenomenon, we are awed by its strength, it roars as it falls, sending spray and mist that make a prism or small rainbow. It pounds the rocks, plunges to a deep bottom before it becomes placid as if it has been tamed, then resumes to flow, seeking a new course toward its destiny.

Look around.  Trees abound everywhere and make a perfect curtain and prop of a great drama. The background music is a deafening sound. And it is just appropriate.  Be part of the drama.  Be still and capture the scene.  You have thirty minutes to do it on Oslo and pastel colors. Let us play heavy music from Beethoven, and Ryan Cayabyab.  Toward the end of the exercise let us have a  Rachmaninov or  a Listz composition. 

Exercise 7 - Inside a Cave

Looking back at the past, the home of our primitive ancestors, window of early civilization, and study of a Nature’s architectural work.

Have you ever been inside a cave?  Jules Verne wrote a fancinating novel, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.  Look for the book or tape, or find somebody who had read it. It is a story of three daring men who traveled down a dormant volcano and explored a huge cavern, a world in itself inhabited by strange creatures of the past.

This exercise leads us to a cave in Callao, Cagayan, or Tabon in Palawan. On the face of a cliff are openings.  We enter the biggest one.  It is dark and scary.  We hear bats, dripping water, and the wind making its ways through the cave. We see tiny lights like hundreds of distant stars.  These are crystalline calcium deposits, phosphorescent materials, and glow worms. They cling on the stalactites which are giant teethlike structures hanging from the roof of the cave. The stalagmites are their counterpart rising from the cave floor.  When both meet, they form pillars of many shapes and sizes. See that beam of light coming  through the roof?  It is a window to the sky.

Now draw the view from here and show the main entrance which frame the stalactites and stalagmites, and the seeping beam of light coming from the opening at the sky roof.  You have thirty minutes to do it. Play a tape of  Johann Sebastian Bach as background music. Robert Schumann’s symphony fits  as well.

Exercise 8 - Fairy Garden

Introduction to fantasy, richness of imagination, and familiarity of  make-believe stories.

        This exercise relies principally on fantasy.  We are in fairyland. What kind of garden is this?  It is a garden made by our imagination and dreams. It is a garden in the world of Jonathan Swift’s second book, “Gulliver in Brodningnad”, where Gulliver was a dwarf in a land of giants where everything is big.

        Imagine yourself a dwarf among mushrooms, mosses, grass, and insects. But here everyone is friendly, you imagine you can even ride on an  ant like in “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!”, if you have seen the movie.

        Here harmony of nature and creatures is at its best.  There are no cars, buildings, highways and skyways.  The amenities in life are very simple. Nature is left alone in her pure state.

    

        Use  Oslo paper and pastel colors. Draw a part or section of that garden in your imagination. Do not draw the whole panoramic view.   Include  the things that make that garden in your imagination, one that belongs to fantasy land. “The Last Rose of Summer’” by Flotow fits well in this exercise. How about Schubert compositions? Ballet music like, “The Dying Swan”?  Let us try these for background music.

Exercise 9 - Lighthouse at the Edge of the Sea

Lessons in the wild, where Nature can be at times angry and cruel to those who do not take heed of her warning.

      

          Here we are at the end of the land, and the beginning of the vast ocean.  We stand on the coral reef and stones where we are safe from the angry waves. Above our head is a tall structure, strong, painted white, and on top of it is a strong light which guides seafarers  at night, keeping away from dangerous rocks and shoals. This is an old lighthouse in Calatagan, Batangas.

          Draw the waves breaking on the rock at the foot of the lighthouse. Give life to the sky. Put some moving clouds, some sunset colors.  This is a sign of bad weather.  There are sailboats leaning with the wind, their sails distended.  They burst in different colors and designs, breaking the gloom. Other boats lay in anchor, their sails lowered, while others have been carried to higher ground.  The shore is deserted now, except a few fishermen securing  their paraphernalia in their anchored  boats. Let us play Antonin Dvorak Jean Sibelius and other Scandinavian compositions.  They have a special touch that creates the ambiance for this topic.

Exercise 10 - Sailing

Pure joy of adventure at sea, freedom riding on the wind and waves, a test of courage and endurance

        Have you ever gone to sea?  Have you ever ridden a sailboat or banca?  I am sure all of us have.  For those who may have forgotten it, or were very  young at that time, here is a way to relive the experience. Let us have a rowing song as background., “Like Volga Boat Song”, or  music about  rivers and sea, like “Over the Waves”, “On the Blue Danube”.

        Let us go sailing in Manila Bay. Sailing is both pleasure and competition.  Get your boat, and organize yourselves into a crew. Be sure you are ready when the race starts.  Other sailboats are also preparing for the race. You can not afford to be left behind.  The wind is building now.  Is your sail set?  Do you have enough provisions?  Water, food, first aid kit, fuel, tools, map, flashlight, and others things.  Review your checklist.

        Group yourselves into 5. Assume that you are in your boat moving with other boats.  This is the perspective of your composite drawing.  Draw on illustration board  using  pastel or acrylic colors.  You have the whole session to finish it.  Ready, set,  go!

Exercise 11 - Camping

A test of survival, a life without parents and home, gathering around  a bonfire, and counting stars.

        Let us go camping like boy scouts and girl scouts. Let us go to a summer camp.  Check the things you bring.  Do not bring a lot of things, only those which are essential will do.  You do not want to carry a heavy load, do you?  Besides camping has its rules.  Read more about camping. Let us play “Moon River”, “You Light up my Life”, Tosselli’s “Serenade”, and   Antonio  Molina’s  “Hating Gabi”.

After this we play “Nature Sounds” which are recorded sounds of frogs, birds, waterfalls, and insect.  To fully appreciate these sounds we will observe complete silence while we all work.

        Like “Market Day” and “Flying Kites” (Exercises 10 and 12), this is a group exercise.  Group yourselves into 5.  Set your camp,on Tagaytay Ridge overlooking Taal Volcano.  From this imagine view   there are tents are of many colors and designs.  There are big and small ones, round and triangular in shape.  There are tents set under trees, tents in the open, along a trail, even on hillside.  There is a central area where a large bonfire has been set.  Around it are people singing, dancing, telling stories, others appear cooking something on the embers. Why don’t you join them?

        But first, finish your drawing.  Use pastel colors or acrylic on one-half illustration board.  You have the whole session to do it.

Exercise 12 - Flying Kites

Reviving an old art and outdoor sport; taking part in a friendly and festive competition.

       It is summer time.  It is also kite flying season.  When was the last time you flew a kite, or saw a kite festival?

Flying Kites mural by AVR

      Well, this is your chance.  Let us see if you know how a kite flies.  First of all, a kite must be light and balance, and with a string and fair wind, it rises and stays up in the sky.  Notice that the wind keeps the kite up as if suspended in the sky.  This where the art of aerodynamics comes in.  You learn more about it in books and tapes about kite flying.

          Here we go.  This is a composite exercise.  Just like in Market Day (Exercise 10) you will group yourselves into 5 up to 7 members.  Plan out your work.  Kites come in many shapes, figures, designs and colors.  No two kites are the same.  Be sure your kites fly against the wind, and only in one direction.  Do not let them get entangled.  Your setting is a park where there are people watching and cheering.  Kite flying is both a festival and a competition. There are prizes at stake. The setting is in San Fernando Pampanga.  Here beautiful Christmas lanterns are also made. Saranggola ni Pepe gives an excellent musical background. Let us play Fredericka Chopin and imagine the light notes from his composition blending perfectly with the flying kites. Use pastel or acrylic on illustration board. You have the whole session to complete your work.       

Exercise 13 - Inside a Gym

A  lesson on sportsmanship, physical fitness,  will to win, humility in winning and dignity of losing.

        It is sports season.  Intramural! We are in a sports center. Join the  parade of athletes, go with the beat of lively music, cheer with the big crowd.  The gymnasium has  covered courts, swimming pools, and arena. Competition is in basketball and other ball games, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, fencing, martial arts like aikido and taekwando,  darts, and many more.  We are in Rizal Coliseum.

          This is composite drawing. Group yourselves into five to seven members. Each one imagines himself a player in his favorite sport.  Draw at least three kinds of sports.  Complete your work by including the crowd, other athletes, and the festive atmosphere.  Play some marches.  Get a tape of the Philippine Brass Band.

        Plan out you work as a group.  Present your finished work in class.

Exercise  14 - Market Day

A place where people meet people, the pulse of our socio-economic life, where all walks all of life converge.

 Market Day,  by Fernando Amorsolo

Everyday is market day in Divisoria, Baclaran, Pasay, Balintawak, and many public markets and talipapa in the city.  In the province, Market Day comes maybe once a week, and when it is on a Sunday, the market comes alive after the mass.

Here we are going to meet people, we meet the common tao. We are among them.  We are going to draw a complex scene.  Here are the things we are going to put in our drawing. Let us play a lively tune, “Gavotte” and Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”.  Because Amadeus Mozart music is light, let us have one or two of his compositions toward the end of the exercise. 

1.  A noisy crowd, people, people everywhere.

2.  People selling and people buying.

3.   Stalls and stores, carinderia, vendors and hawkers.

4.  Wares, commodities, goods, services

5.  Tricycles, jeepneys, trucks, carts

6.  Festive moods, decors, colors, antics.

   This is a group work.  Each group has 5 to 7 members.  Use one-half illustration board.  Before you start, each group must convene its members and plan out what to do.  Then it is all yours.  You are give the whole session.

Exercise 15  - Shanties and Buildings

Lesson on contrast – between beautiful, high rise buildings and ugly shanties; between affluent and poor, modern and undeveloped  communities.

          It is ironic to see high rise buildings as a backdrop of shanties in Pasig and  Makati, our country’s business capital.

          It means there are very rich and very poor people living together in one place.  It reminds us of  Charles Dickens’s “Oliver Twist” and the Bastille before the French revolution.  These are stories about inequality, and where there is inequality, many social problems arise, such as unemployment, disease and epidemic, drug abuse and problems on peace and order.  Play the tapes, “Les Miserables” and  “Noli Me Tangere, the Musical”. We  can use these also in other exercises, like Typhoon and Angelus.

          Here we stand  viewing the dwellings of the so-called “poorest among the poor” which  line up the sidewalks and  esteros.  They are found  under the bridges, on vacant lots, and even on parks and shorelines. What a perfect contrast they make against the skyscrapers!  This view is what you are going to draw.  In each sector, include the inhabitants in their  own lifestyle.

Exercise  16 - Building a House

A step-by-step follow-me exercise in building a house, making it into a home and ultimately a part of a community

         This is quite an easy exercise.  But  it  needs analysis and imagination.

Your score here will greatly rely on the interpretation of the theme.  That is why you have to pay attention as we go through the step-by-step process.  Do not go ahead, and do not lag behind either. Draw spontaneously as we go along. Our musical background is “Home Sweet Home” a classical composition you must have heard in “The King and I”. Let us also try the  music of Leopoldo Silos, Buencamino, Abelardo and  Mike Velarde Jr. in this exercise.

Let us start.

1.      First put up the posts

2.      Put on the roof.                                                                                                 

3.      There is a floor, maybe two, if you like.

4.      The walls have windows.

5.      Stairs meet the door

6.      Extension for additional room, kitchen, etc. as you wish.

7.      Think of the amenities for functional and comfortable living.

8.      You are free now to complete your house

9.      Make it into a home. 

10.  Make it as part of a community

          The proof if you really made it good is, “Do you wish to live with your family in the house that you made?” Let us see.  Exchange papers with your classmates who will correct and score your paper.  What is your score?

           Exercise 17 - Building an Aquarium

           An exercise on doing things ourselves, following basic rules in maintaining life and  keeping environmental balance.

        An aquarium is “ a pond in glass”.  We can build one in  our backyard or in our house.  It may be large or small depending on the kinds of fish we want to raise as pets. 

      Why this exercise?  We want to try our hands not only in making things, but to play a role as guardian of living things. Can we make a stable and balanced aquarium?  Are we then good guardians? Is so, can we say to our Creator we are  good keepers of  Earth?

                   Each one will make his aquarium, using pastel colors on Oslo  paper.  Be guides by these components or parts of an aquarium.

1.      Clear water.

2.      Sand bottom with rocks

3.      Light

4.      Aquatic plant

5.      Fish, one up to three kinds (Your pet)

6.      Snails and scavenger fish 

7.      Air pump to supplement oxygen and filter the water

      Describe in class the aquarium that you made.  Let’s play “Life Let’s Cherish”, “Fur Elise”, and Peter Tschaichowsky’s  songs and waltzes as background.

 Exercise 18 - Typhoon!

Preparedness, learning to deal with disaster, lending a hand.

           PAGASA Bulletin:  Signal No. 3  And it is going to be a direct hit.

           List down the things to do.  Imagine you are in one community.  Choose your members, five to seven per group.  Prepare for the coming super typhoon.

          When you are through with your list, pause for some time and let the typhoon pass.  Do not go out during a typhoon.  Stay at home or in your safe quarter.  If it is direct hit, the winds will reverse after a brief  calm.  The second part is as strong as the first. Think of Typhoon Yoling or Typhoon Iliang which had more than 100 kilometers per hour wind at the center. (Music background from Gustav Mahler, George Bisset, the Spanish composer and violinist, Sarasate,  and  Igor Stravinsky’s “The Firebird” and “Fireworks”).

           The typhoon has passed.  What happened to the community.  Did your preparation help you face the force majeure?  Draw the scenario of the typhoon’s aftermath. Imagine yourself  a boy scout or a girl scout, or simply and good citizen.

Exercise 19 - Building Bridges

Reaching out, connecting places and people, building friendship and love

          After the typhoon many roads and bridges were destroyed.  Our houses may have been destroyed, too. 

          There is a different kind of destruction that you and I must prevent to happen in our lives by all means destruction of relationships.  Our teachers tell us that a broken house is easier to repair than a broken home.  Aristotle always reminded the young Alexander the Great, “ It is easier to make war than to make peace.”  Relationships endure as long as the bridges connecting them are kept strong and intact.  And once they get destroyed, do not lose time in rebuilding them.

          Let us reflect on the illustration below. There are bridges washed away by the typhoon and flood.  You are going to rebuild them.  Analyze and imagine that these bridges are not only physical structures.  These are bridges to reach out  a person in need, to share our talents, to say sorry, to comfort, to congratulate, to console, to amend, to say what is right, to befriend, to stand for a cause, and many other virtues.  With these, - perhaps even by our very intentions alone -  we are also building a bridge with God. 

        With a solemn music as a background (“Meditation” from “The Thais” by Massenet), complete the outline on the attached page and be guided by the aforementioned scenario.  Take your time.  This is an exercise in meditation. Show and explain your work in class.

Exercise 20 - Angelus

Time for reflection and retreat, retirement for the day, time with the family, thanksgiving

          This is the end of our travelogue.  We come home from our journey at last.  It is Angelus.  It is a time to put down everything and to thank God for the day – for our journey.

          It is time with the family, with our parents, brothers and sisters. It is time to say the Angelus Prayer. Let us pause for a moment and meditate. Isn’t it wonderful to be alive?  This is God’s greatest gift to us.

          With a background music from “Messiah” by Georges Friderick Handel, “On Wings of Song” by Felix Mendelssohn  and Toccata and Fugue  by Johann Sebastian Bach, compose the scenario of a family at Angelus  Let us have also our own Nicanor Abelardo’s “Ave Maria”.  This is a highly individual exercise.  Work in complete silence. You have all the time in  this session.

Workshop References by Dr. A.V. Rotor

·         Light in the Woods (Photographs and Poems), 90 pp Megabooks, 1995

·         Nymphaea: Beauty in the Morning, 90 pp., Giraffe Books, 1996

·         Light of Dawn, 80 pp, Progressive Printing, 1997

·         4 . Handbook for Drawing and Painting (Revised 1997),  Vol. 1 photocopy

·         Art and Values 20 exercises, 1998, photocopy.         

·         Experiential Approach to the Study of Humanities, 6 pp Philippine Echoes

·         Teaching Art and Values in Children, 6 pp. Philippine Echoes

·         Ebb of Life: Essays and Poems (Photocopy)

·         Reflections on Dewdrops (Manuscript) with Megabooks

·         Violin and Nature, one-hour cassette tape of popular and semi-classical

               compositions accompanied by sounds of  Nature, 1997.

          Light from the Old Arch, 2000 UST

          Living with Nature Handbook 2003 UST

          Humanities Today: An Experiential Approach 2012 C&E Publishing Co.