Part 3: A Visit to an Art Gallery

Part 3: A Visit to an Art Gallery 

Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor 

“To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”

- William Blake.

Prison bars of trees

“I live in a landscape, which every single day of my life is enriching.”

- Daniel Day-Lewis.

Confluence of Nature

“I love nature, I love the landscape, because it is so sincere. It never cheats me. 

It never jests. It is cheerfully, musically earnest. I lie and rely on the earth.”

- Henry David Thoreau.

Mountain stream 

“The soul of a landscape, the spirits of the elements, the genius of every place will be revealed to a loving view of nature.” - Karl Jaspers.

Stairway to the summit 

"The arts and humanities are vastly more important in troubled times." - Jim Leach

Autumn in a forest

“The soul of a landscape, the spirits of the elements, the genius of 

every place will be revealed to a loving view of nature.” - Karl Jaspers.

Dance of the trees   

“Learn character from trees, values from roots and change from leaves”

 - Tasneern Harneed -

Living towers 

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”

- Henry David Thoreau ~

                            

Fantasy landscape

“For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since

 its appearance changes at any moment.” - Claude Monet.~

Waterfall 

“As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can.” – John Muir

 Footbridge and tree

Love is the bridge between you and everything. -Rumi

Heritage Tree

“Water is the driver of nature.” - Leonardo Da Vinci

Brickhouse

“Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it 

only from the vantage point of distance.” -  Charles Lindbergh

Part 2: A Visit to an Art Gallery

 Part 2: A Visit to an Art Gallery 

“Creativity takes courage” – Henri Matisse

Dr Abe V Rotor

Tree against a red sun 

“The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke” 

– Jerzy Kosinski

Porphyra, a red alga

"When I paint, I never think of selling. People fail to understand that we paint in order to experiment and to develop ourselves as we strive for greater heights." ― Edvard Munch

Trees after forest fire

"When I go to an art gallery and stand in front of a painting, I don't want someone telling me what I should be seeing or thinking; I want to feel whatever I feel, see whatever I see, and figure out what I figure out."

 - James Frey

Fruiting bodies of seaweed

"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." ― Marc Chagall

Flower cradle 

"It is only when we are no longer fearful that we begin to create."
― J. M. W. Turner

Phosphorescence 

"The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection." -Michelangelo

Dichotomy

"Whoever wants to know something about me, they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognize what I am and what I want." ― Gustav Klimt

Sun as seen under the sea

Fire and blood

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

 - Pablo Picasso

School of fish among red corals

"There is no must in art because art is free."

― Wassily Kandinsky

Old meat

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” 

– Thomas Merton

Blue fish

"Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons."
― Al Hirschfeld

Red sun in a forest

A field of GMO flowers

"It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see."

― Henry David Thoreau

Nesting fish

“Painting is easy when you don’t know how, 

but very difficult when you do” – Edgar Degas

Two nails

(Imbedded middle left)

“Every artist was first an amateur” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerging cactus flowers

Grass

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain 

an artist once we grow up." - Pablo Picasso 

Part 1: A Visit to an Art Gallery

Part 1: A Visit to an Art Gallery 

Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor

"The whole world is an art gallery when you're mindful. There are beautiful things everywhere and they're free." - Charles Tart

Eyes of a tree

"As I work at my drawings, day after day, what seemed unattainable before is now gradually becoming possible. Slowly, I'm learning to observe and measure. I don't stand quite so helpless before nature any longer." - ― Vincent van Gogh 

Impressions of a live fish on canvas

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things,

 but their inward significance." - Aristotle

Foggy morning in December 

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary." - Pablo Picasso

Morning sun on eucalyptus trunk

"A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art."

― Paul Cezanne

Nipa huts on a hillside 

"To my mind a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful and pretty. There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is, without creating still more of them." ― Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Deer watches kids fishing 

"The sky is the ultimate art gallery just above us." 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inflorescence of balibago 

Nymphaea emerges from a pond

"As humans we look at things and think about what we've looked at. 

We treasure it in a kind of private art gallery." - Thom Gunn

Colorful guppies

Young adventurers in the woods

"My art is for anybody, it's for people who wouldn't go into an art gallery. It's art for the people." - Julian Beever

Onset of summer in the tropics 

Lichens under the lens

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein

 Mudspring burst on Mt Makiling, Laguna 

"Art is never finished, only abandoned."

― Leonardo da Vinci

Humanities - Self Administered Test (True or False, 50 Items)

 Humanities - Self Administered Test 

(True or False, 50 Items)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Co-author, Humanities Today -An Experiential Approach

C and E Publication, 2012

1. The dominant color of the earth as seen from outer space is green.

2. There are six colors of the rainbow that follow a universal sequence whether the rainbow is in the tropics or in the temperate zone, in summer or in winter.

3. It is rare to see a twin rainbow, but if there is one and you are lucky to witness it.  The lower rainbow is wider than the one on top of it.

4. Humanities comes from the old English word humanus which speaks of fine of human culture.

5. Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, both classical socio-political novels.

6. The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde is an example of a tragedy because the happy prince died at a very young age, and therefore missed the opportunity to serve his constituents.

7. One of the standards of a classical work of art is that it is timeliness.

8. Alexander Dumas, Miguel Cervantes, Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo and Jose Rizal have one thing in common: they are writers of powerful novels that move the world so to speak, and changed the course of history.

9. Robert Frost by mistake repeated the last lines of his famous poem On a Snowy Night,

“And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep.”

10. A drawing exercise of fruits like apple, pear, grapes, chestnut, and orange arranged on a table is an example of "still life."

11. Don’t go gentle into the night is a poem which tells us to be vigilant, and that our work is never done; don’t settle for comfort when in trouble and even when there is apparent peace.

12. Shakespearean drama is akin to tragedy; and if it were not for the literary genius of this world’s greatest dramatist, many of his works like Romeo and Juliet won’t pass the Board of Censors today.

13. Biag ni Lam-ang is a local counterpart of Iliad.

14. Juan Luna’s work, particularly Spoliarium is a typical example of Impressionism.

15. Vincent van Gogh is considered the Father of Expressionism, an art movement that preceded Impressionism.

16. Impressionism is an art movement that started in France in the later part of the 18th century, among the pioneers are Paul Cezanne, Pizarro, Monet, Degas.

17. In the poem Fisherboy, the boy being referred to has something in common with Mark Twain’s boys, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, who did not want to go to school.

18. Jose Garcia Villa is a one of the greatest Filipino poet, awarded the honor of National Artist.

19. Nicanor Abelardo is to music as Fernando Amorsolo is to painting. Their masterpieces are considered classics today.

20. Nature takes shape was the basis of a drawing exercise on Landscape. The three basic shapes are circle, square and triangle.

21. When blue and yellow are mixed the color produced in green; blue and red will produce violet.

22. When the primary colors – red, blue and yellow - are mixed in equal proportion the resulting color is black.

23. These are contemporary Filipino compositions: Saan ka man naroon, La Deportacion, Dahil sa isang bulaklak, Pamulinawen, Manang Biday, Matudnila

24. Maestro Mamerto Villaba, tenor; Ryan Cayabyab, composer; and Prof. Paulino Capitulo violinist, are Filipino musicians belonging to the same generation and school.

25. Dr. Jose Rizal’s novel, Noli Me Tangere, has been recently launched in NY in a new English translation published by Penguin Books.

26. Mahatma Gandhi is ranked among the world’s greatest leaders. His weapon: asceticism, love, compassion - a favorite model for biography, cinematography, and political documentary.

27. To become great you must be able to a book for the sake of posterity, like Rizal.

28. The Old man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway which won the Nobel Prize for Literature, ended with the old man, worn out from his battle to land a big fish, and the world rejoiced for his victory.

29. Florante at Laura, masterpiece of poet laureate Francisco Balagtas is an epic.

30. A good work of Art must rise with the elements of spirituality and the universal criteria of intellectual values.

31. Style is unique; it's like finding no two snowflakes exactly the same.

32. Rhythm is found in music, as well as in poetry,

33. Even a free verse has musical qualities, in spite of the fact that it does not follow a definite pattern of rhyme and rhythm and meter.

34. Joyce Kilmer who wrote the famous poem Trees, is a man.

35. In Trees the figure of speech used in personification.

36. Where have all the flowers gone is a song and a poem that condemns war.

37. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want is the opening line of Psalm 23 by King David.

38. Melodrama is like soapbox opera, and telenovela in many respects.

39. Gettysberg Address was originally intended as an oration.

40. The editorial of a newspaper, is considered a formal essay.

41. Soliloquy and monologue are basically similar – a kind of dramatic poetry.

42. The classical model of dance is Ballet, and the greatest ballet music composer is Tchaikovsky. He composed the Dying Swan.

43. Ideally there are 100 players in a full orchestra, with string instruments comprising the biggest group of instruments.

44. Drink to me with only thine eyes and I will not look for wine is the first line of Song to Celia.

45. Our old Spanish churches (PHOTO Church of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur) are a good example of Gothic architecture.

46. The Parthenon of Greece is the greatest architectural work of the classical period.

47. Mona Lisa is considered the greatest of all paintings in the classical period.

48. Renaissance means rebirth or renewal which took place as early as the 15th h century – the model used is Greco Roman.

49. The Philippines was once a part of Renaissance Europe.

50. Calligraphy is the art of writing beautifully while graphology is hand writing analysis.

ANSWERS: 1F (blue), 2t, 3t, 4t, 5t, 6T (it has a tragic beginning and triumphal ending), 7F (timelessness), 8t, 9f (Frost did it for emphasis of theme, and to impart musical quality to the poem), 10t, 11t, 12t, 13t, 14f (romanticism), 15t, 16t, 17t, 18t (posthumous), 19t, 20t, 21t, 22t, 23f (all Filipino, combination of kundiman, native Ilocano and Visayan songs), 24t (although each one has a distinct style, Cayabyab is more recent and versatile), 25t, 26t, 27f (Christ, Buddha did not write any book - others wrote for and about them), 28t, 29f (Balagtasan in romantic and lyrical style - local Shakespearean), 30t, 31t, 32t, 33t, 34t, 35t, 36t, 37t, 37t, 38t, 39f, 40f, 41t, 42t 43t. 44t. 45f (Baroque), 46t, 47t, 48t, 49t, 50t.

RATING
46- 50 Outstanding
41-45 Very Good
36-40 Good
31-35 Fair
25–30 Passed
Below 25 – Learn more about Humanities

The Mystery Child

The Mystery Child*

Dr Abe V Rotor

In a workshop for adult leaders, the instructor asked the participants to draw on the blackboard a beautiful house, ones dream house ideal to live in and raise a family.

It was of course, an exercise, which in the minds of the participants was as easy as copying a model from experience and memory. Besides it is a universal dream to own such a house, and its concept allows free interplay of both reason and imagination. The participants formed a queue to allow everyone to contribute his own idea on the blackboard.

The first in the queue drew the posts of the house, on which the succeeding members made the roof and floor. The rest proceeded in making the walls and windows.

In the second round the participants added garage, porch, veranda, staircase, gate, fence, swimming pool, TV antennae, and other amenities.

Finally the drawing was completed and the participants returned to their seats. What make a dream house, an ideal house? A lively “sharing session” followed and everyone was happy with the outcome, and none could be happier than the teacher who learned this exercise in an international forum.

Just then a child was passing by and peeped through the open door. He saw the drawing of the house on the blackboard. He entered the classroom and stood for quite some time looking at the drawing. The teacher approached him, the participants turned to see the unexpected visitor.

The child pointed at the drawing and exclaimed, “But there are no neighbors!”

In the same village there was a similar workshop exercise, but this time the participants were to draw a community. The participants made a queue on the blackboard and after an hour of working together, came up with a beautiful drawing of a community.

In the drawing there are houses and at the center are: a church, a school, village hall, and plaza. A network of roads and bridges shows the sections of the village. People are busy doing their chores, especially in the market area. Indeed it is a typical village.

The participants discussed, “What constitute a community.” It was a lively discussion and everyone was so delighted with their “masterpiece” that the teacher even wrote at the corner of the blackboard “Save.”

Just then a child was passing by. When he saw the drawing on the backboard through the open door, he entered the classroom. He went close to the drawing and looked at it for a long time. The teacher and participants fell silent looking at their very young guest.

The child exclaimed, “But there are no trees, no birds; there are no mountains, no fields, no river!”

Some days had passed since the two workshops. Virtually no one ever bothered to find out who the child was or where he lived.

Then the whole village began to search for the child, but they never found him – not in the village, not in the neighboring village, not in the capital, and not in any known place.

Who was the child? Everyone who saw him never forgot his kindly beautiful and innocent face, and they pondered on his words which became the two greatest lessons in ecology.

But there are no neighbors!
But there are no trees, no birds; there are no mountains, no fields, no river! ~

* Reprint of article of the same title upon request of Blog viewers. Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-the-Air), 736 DZRB 7-8 evening class with Ms Melly C Tenorio.