Children's Art: "The greatest masterpiece and the greatest story ever told."

Children's Art: 

"The greatest masterpiece and the greatest story ever told."

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” – Pablo Picasso

Dr Abe V Rotor

LIVING with NATURE CENTER

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Let the wind blow, the grass grow, the mist settle down;

guide a child, brush and colors in her hand, reign

over a beautiful realm we grownups have given up long ago,

never to return, yet yearning, to be children again;

We pass this way but once - and again through our genes,

in tender hands and heart, we've lived not in vain.

 

“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.” – Pablo Picasso

 

“Why do you try to understand art? Do you try to understand the song of a bird?” – Pablo Picasso

 

I watched a child paint the floor of our house.

I gave her all the things she needed,

then left to attend the chores of the day.

What had she done in my absence?

I almost forgot all about the whole thing.

That always happens to a busy person.

I returned, apologetic. She didn't say a word.

She was still busy painting without respite.

I studied her paintings on the floor.

Suddenly I felt I was talking to myself.

Me, an artist of many movements:

realism, romanticism, to postmodern.

And she, the artist of peace and harmony,

naturalness and simplicity.

Here's the greatest masterpiece of the world.

and the greatest story ever told. ~

“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist” – Oscar Wilde

Evolving Art (ad infinitum)

                                                             Evolving Art 

(ad infinitum) 

Art works and verses by Dr Abe V Rotor 

Splash Painting

Who needs brush and canvas?

Only colors, if you must.

On the floor, just splash, splash,

to create stained glass! 

Noah's Black Dove 

I found a fossil entombed,

   of a story in driftwood. 

  

Duck Head  Figurine

 

Once hunted on water and in air,

now figurine, a grim reminder.   

 

Broken Jar  Alive

A lease for life indeed

through art we bid;

talent put to the test

at its very best.

 

Driftwood trophy

Why gold or silver a trophy:

why not remnant of a tree,

 shells forgotten and empty,

to wake us up to reality?

 

 

Driftwood Table Decor

Wasteland in the hall,

  a dreaded scene,

   aftermath of the Fall, 

of man's first Sin. ~

Halloween - celebration with the dead, ghosts and spirits, in 5 Articles

Halloween - celebration with the dead, ghosts, and spirits

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

"Good and evil for once their boundary open,

     so with that of heaven and hell we implore;

take the backseat apostasy, paganism alive!

     make haste, before Hades closes the door."  - avr

Part 1 - Dialogue with the Dead

Part 2 - Dead Tree Walking

Part 3 - We are Living in Parallel Worlds 

Part 4 - Halloween Moon: Anatomy of a Dream

Part 5 - Bangongot! Sleep Paralysis

Part 1 - Dialogue with the Dead

   The evil spirit comes for a visit. 

   

Merging of the real and imaginary. 

   

Dialogue with the dead. 

Remember our dead beloved, the unsung, unknown;

     catch up with time for our failed expression,

prayers unsaid, love denied,  gesture unrequited -

     day of the souls to amend our infraction.    

Transported to the land of the dead. 

 Treat or threat.

   Whose party? Where have all the people gone?

 

 

            Masks or real faces?

   Faces, faces, young and old,

  fair and coy and bold;

masks, masks, masks we are told,

sans feeling, and cold. 

    

The dead takes center stage. 

Come let's visit Dante's Inferno, and Milton's world,*

     call on Frankenstein,** his monstrous creation;

travel to Transylvania, track the undead Dracula;   

     join the dead, their ghosts in celebration. 

Good and evil for once their boundary open,

     so with that of heaven and hell we implore;

take the backseat apostasy, paganism alive!

     make haste, before Hades closes the door.   

* Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, epic by John Milton
** Frankenstein, novel by Mary Shelley

                    Part 2 - Halloween: Dead Tree Walking

"I came from Paradise lost;

would you walk with me?"

Limb of a dead tree resembling a headless human figure

I am the ghost that walks from a forest before;

I am the conscience of man sleeping in its core.

I am the memory from the distant past; 

lost among the throng, living in the dust. 

I came from Paradise lost, orphaned by the first sin; 

the hands that cared for me can't now be seen. 

I long for a heaven, too, a gift of being good and true, 

but if heaven is only for man then I did serve him through. 

But I am a ghost now. Would man join me for a walk 

to tell the world the story of a once mighty oak? ~

               Part 3 -  We are Living in Parallel Worlds 

Can a person simultaneously exist in two - or more - separate places 

or occasions? 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

"Sir, I saw you at the Cultural Center yesterday," Ellen greeted me that Monday. "You were in barong talking with guests during the cocktail."  

Honestly I wasn't.  I wasn't even aware of the occasion. Politely I replied, "It must have been another person."

"Kayo po, sir.  Sigurandong sigurado ako." (It was you, sir. I am very sure.)

Ellen has known me for  twelve years as a professor, she was secretary to the college president at SPQU. 

Well, the matter just died naturally.  Such friendly gesture strengthens camaraderie, and builds quaintness in the workplace.   

So you think you saw a friend walking. In the church a devotee has a familiar profile. You call the name of someone in the crowd. He doesn't respond.  You think he snubbed you. You say that's my former teacher in high school. My classmate in college.

There is something that tells you about a particular person.  He becomes an instant acquaintance. Or it may turn out to be the opposite.  Then you start trying to remember where both of you must have met before. You can't recall. Then in your respite you suddenly remember. But now, doubt shrouds your memory.  Strange. 

Or it could be unmistakably a true experience, yet leaves you  doubting at the end.

One time when I was in high school I saw my dad praying in our church.  It was an ordinary morning and it was a custom to pay a visit even only for a short prayer, instead of just passing by. Dad was in deep prayer. He was near the altar. I left him and walked home.

I was surprised to see him meet me at our gate. I was dumbfounded.  

"Were you in church, dad?" 

"No, I'm on my way, son." He looked back and added, "Don't forget to feed the chickens."

Is it possible that a person may exist in two - or more - separate places or occasions at the same time?

Who was the person Ellen saw was me?   Who was the person whom I believed was my dad in the church that morning?  ~

Part 4 -   Halloween Moon:  Anatomy of a Dream 

Through dreams the loaded unconscious finds relief. Information flows out in the form of dreams. Nature has given us a safety valve to maintain our rationality and to release us from the prison walls of memory. 

Midnight Moon, Himlayang Filipino 2009

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

In the dark I called Dad and Basang (Auntie) but I received no answer.

This is a true story.

I went to bed very tired. For the whole day before my birthday I put on extra effort to finalize the manuscript of my forthcoming book which I was going to submit the following Monday. The title is Light from the Old Arch, a compilation of essays I wrote through the years.

It was almost midnight when Cecille, my wife, stirred. “I’ll check what we will have for breakfast.” she said as I stretched my aching back and tired brain and apparently fell asleep.

Soon I found myself in complete darkness. I could not trace my way to switch on the lights and after several attempts, an inexplicable fear crept in, a fear I have never experienced. I was in a strange domain yet it had the features of my home. There was total darkness, total silence.

I called for help. I called Dad. I called Basang. 

My father died in 1981 of old age. He was buried at Himlayang Pilipino. Two years after, my oldest son, Pao who was then three died, and was buried beside dad's grave.

Dad was deeply affected by my Mama’s death during the Second World War. My sister Veny was four then, and my brother Eugene was three. Dad suffered much during the four years of Japanese occupation. We continued to live in San Vicente which is adjacent to Vigan, the capital of Ilocos Sur. The three of us children knew little of the joys of childhood. Our only uncle left to raise his own family in Pangasinan. He seldom came to our old house where he, my dad, and four siblings were born. Uncle Leo was the eldest and dad was the youngest. The rest of the siblings died at a very early age of smallpox which killed many people at that time.

Basang my auntie and nanny took care of me from the time my mother died. I was barely two. She never left our home even when I went to Manila for my studies. She died three years after dad. Manang Veny called me to come home when Basang died. We buried her in the town cemetery close to our departed relatives. Just before she died she gave me an antique narra aparador which I now use in keeping my personal things. In our dialect, she said, “This is the only thing I can give you.”

“You have given me everything,” I said.

Going back to the incident, I called dad three times, then called Basang once. It was a call apparently in fear. I felt helpless and lost. I froze. I could not move. I could not shout. And when I knew no help would come, I struggled. I succeeded in moving my fingers, my toes, until I was free.

Cecille had returned to our bedroom. “Why, you are pale and perspiring? What happened?" she asked, perplexed. She fetched me a glass of water.

“Was I shouting?” I asked automatically. “No,” she said calmly.

“I was dreaming,” I said and told her the whole story.

Dreams are visions of the unconscious part of our brain. That is why they occur in our sleep, when we are not aware of things the way we perceive them with our senses. Dreams are not fashioned by rational thoughts and actions, and therefore we have no power to decide and to act according to that decision. We are entirely under the control of our unconscious mind.

“Even when we are deeply asleep the psyche is still actively producing dreams,” says Carl Jung. “We may not always be aware of these activities, any more than we are aware of our physiological activities, but this does not mean they are not taking place.”

According to Jung we remember only a few of our dreams, yet recent evidences suggest that we dream continuously throughout the night. There in our unconscious mind our psyche is very much alive, performing psychological work such as perceiving, remembering, thinking, feeling, wishing, willing, attending and striving – just as breathing, digesting and perspiring are physiological activities.

But can we choose psychic values? According to Jung, when a high value is placed upon an idea or feeling it means that this idea or feeling exerts considerable force in influencing and directing one’s behavior. A person may place a high value on beauty. Another on power. Or knowledge. On the other hand, there are those who place a high value on wealth, even on sex and vices. These create the themes of our dreams.

This is the realm of our unconscious mind. This is where Carl Jung parted way from his friend Sigmund Freud as he blazed the trail of the psychology of the unconscious, which led to applied psychology - psychiatry. We are governed not only by our conscious mind. We are actually governed in a much deeper and wider sense than we ever think. As we feed the unconscious with conscious thoughts and experiences, so the unconscious feeds the conscious mind. And this cycle goes on throughout everyone’s life, starting in the womb.

Even when we were children, the mind did not lose the information it received. They were deposited. First in the conscious, then deposited in the unconscious part of our brain, which are saved like in the computer. Now, the information is ready at hand to be retrieved. Touch the key and the info comes out on the screen – the screen of our consciousness.

How will this affect our present mind now that we are older? Jung said that the previous information serves as archetype. To better understand how this archetype works in relation to what we think at present, here is an example.

Suppose here is a person who happened to be a witness of a murder with his own eyes when he was still a small child. When he sees a suspicious person, the image of the murderer he saw many years ago flashes. It is the archetype coming alive.

Or take another example. A kindly gentleman comes and asks for a favor. We size him up in relation to people who have the characteristics this man possesses. If our experiences are agreeable, it is likely that we are going to entertain this person.

The images of people, places and events are fashioned in many ways by archetypes. Unlike the computer, the mind spontaneously brings out the archetype that the brain appropriately needs at that moment. This is the basis of many of our decisions – and prejudices.

Through dreams the loaded unconscious finds relief. Information flows out in the form of dreams. Dreams may be happy or sad, fearful or pleasant. Or at intervals of moods and settings and characters, as if information keep on flowing out. Nature has given us a safety valve to maintain our rationality and to release us from the prison walls of memory. Thus the other safety valve is forgetfulness.

Psychiatry is based on this principle. Lying on a couch the patient unloads his burden, fears, and uncertainties. He releases the pressure. Through this process he reaches a state of catharsis. He is relieved. He can now sleep. He can now work again.

People who cannot attain catharsis may suffer of psychiatric problems and may resort to drugs. Do you often wonder why people resort to drugs? Why there are more and more people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol?

Why, many people try to “escape” reality?

By reading this story one is led to think that something supernatural controlled the event and situation. I told Cecille, “Dad and Basang came.”

“Let’s pray for them,” she answered and made the sign of the cross.

I know they did not come; I went to them. It was a special day, my special day.

I realized my fault which lies not so much in not remembering them often, but I have ceased to see them as the models that shaped my life. That was too long ago. I no longer see the lessons I learned from them that are still relevant to my present life. I do not call them anymore in the midst of my problems. I have grown up. I do not seek their intercession and guidance anymore.

It is remiss and folly of not showing true feelings to those we love, living or dead, all because “I am always busy”, and because there will be someday to make up for it. There are always reasons or alibis for failing to offer them prayers, to visit their graves, or just to make those who too, are close to them happy. Oh, there are many, many ways.

Time has changed, and change has polarized our worlds. So with values of old and of the present world. The generation gap syndrome is creeping fast, more so with my own children who too, will have a world of their own in the near future.

There in the dark I called Dad and Basang, their names clear and loud, but my voice just faded without answer, not even its own echo. It was eerie and mysterious. The unconscious was swelling and it found an exit in the dark, psychic energy released in dream. And there as I called them, I realized I was the one who is lost – and found myself again.

This is a true story. ~

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Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) 

with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

Part 5 -  Bangongot!

Sleep paralysis - wiggle your toes, move your fingers, 

don’t give up!

Dr Abe V Rotor

People who have experienced sleep paralysis mistake it as bangongot. It is because of its very nature as a near death experience and it is indeed very scary. I have experienced it myself in a number of times in at least two ways.

Scare to Nightmare. Halloween at National Food Authority QC 2009

The most common frightening experience is when you are dreaming, say of running but you can’t run, box someone but you can’t raise your arm. Imagine you are being chased by a wild animal and you are glued in your place!

There’s one thing you can do: panic and talk incoherently or shout. You wake up tired, panting, perspiring, trying to decipher whether the experience is true or just a dream. It is so vivid that when you are back to your senses you can relate perhaps the whole story.

The other kind of sleep paralysis is more frightening. It is one that may or may not be preceded by a dream. On waking up, you can’t move. You feel totally paralyzed with perhaps only your brain is functioning. Panic seizes you, as you attempt to move but cannot. Frantically you try to move any part of your body. In my experience the first to respond are the fingers and toes, then the limbs, and as blood begins to circulate perked by adrenaline, you find yourself finally “back to the living.”

Sleep paralysis is nature’s way of protecting us during our unconscious moments. Otherwise we become another Hercules who killed his wife and children in his sleep. This safeguard is not absolutely foul proof though. Take the case of sleepwalking and some cases of violence that occur during sleeping.

Remember the popular novel Heidi by Johanna Spyri? The little orphan girl was mistaken as ghost while walking in her sleep. She was so homesick for her grandfather living on the Alps, far away from the city where she was obliged to reside. Our unconscious behavior during sleep is an expression of repressed feelings, such as fears and frustrations. Often, it is the residue of childhood unpleasant experiences.

Well, whatever way there is to assuage you, sleep paralysis, nightmares - or any similar kind - really scares you to death. Just don’t give up!~

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* Halloween or Hallowe'en is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints, martyrs, and all the faithful departed. Wikipedia

ISCC Workshop Lesson Series 4: Importance of People's Museum and Library in Our Times

 Lesson Series 4:  Ilocos Sur Community College (ISCC)

Importance of People's Museum and Library in Our Times 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

Part 1 - Farmers' Museum (NFA Grains Museum)
Part 2 - "A museum will, like any living thing, change and grow.” - Smithsonian
Part 3 - The Art of Diorama: Museum of Natural History, UPLB Laguna
Part 4 - UNP Students Visit the Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

Part 5 -  Relevance of Community Museum and Library Today

 

Part 1 - Farmers' Museum (NFA Grains Museum)

Museum in honor of the Filipino Farmer re-opened after 30 Years.

The ingenuity at the grassroots cannot be underestimated. Farmers' technology developed with the birth of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago, and spread throughout the world to the present time. 

National Food Authority Grains Industry Museum

NFA Regional Office, Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija 

NFA Museum at NFA Regional Office, Cabanatuan City

Mechanical dryer for palay, corn and beans

Prototype two-stroke diesel engine, prime mover for milling.

Donated by the late Bonifacio Tambot, Binalonan, Pangasinan

DIORAMA: The flagship of the Marcos administration Masagana 99, a nationwide

 rice production program that made the Philippines a net exporter of rice in the later part of the seventies to the eighties.

The re-opening of the museum signifies the revival of the original objectives of the museum, which the author envisioned and pursued as its first curator in the early 1980s.  

Featured in the Grains, official publication of the National Food Authority, the NFA Grains Industry Museum with address at the Regional Office in Cabanatuan City (NE) is now inviting students, scholars, researchers, and ordinary folks, even while restoration is on-going. 

The feature story is quoted in part, as follows:  (December 2016 Vol. 44, No. 4), written by Ms Lina G Reyes and Ms Josephine C Bacungan), 

"Old farm tools and artifacts had been sitting quietly, gathering dust at the dilapidated museum of the Central Luzon Regional office in Cabanatuan City. National Food Authority Grains Industry Museum was a brainchild of then NFA Extension Director Abercio V Rotor with a vision to highlight the evolution of the rice industry through various images on production, post-harvest activities, processing, storage and marketing /distribution of rice and other grains .  It was intended to serve as NFA's contribution to the preservation of cultural traditions particularly in the agricultural landscape.  It operated for sometime but was closed down due to lack of funds and trained personnel to maintain it.  But thanks to he history-loving team of Director Amadeo de Guzman and Assistant Regional Director Serafin Manalili, and then Asst Director Mar Alvarez, et al ... "(the whole staff of the NFA regional and NFA provincial offices.) 

Rare Artifacts   

Operated by hand this native rice mill made of wood and bamboo separates the husk from the grain, leaving the grain intact with its bran.

Brown rice or pinawa dehusker made of bamboo and hardened earth with hardwood grinder displayed at the former Farmers' Museum of the National Food Authority in Cabanatuan City.c 1981 

The bran contains minerals, vitamins, oil, and digestible fiber which conventional rice mills removed during polishing. Polishing removes the bran leaving the grain white and polished. In the process, much of the grains is broken, particularly the defective and immature ones chalky and powdery.  It is the bran that gives the nutritious tiki-tiki which is extracted in the final boiling stage in cooking rice. Tiki-tiki was developed by a Filipino scientist, Dr. Manuel Zamora, a cheap and practical source of infant food supplement which saved thousands of babies during the second World War. It was later popularized as United Tiki-tiki. . 

 Biggest wooden harrow (suyod) with a span of two meters, more than twice the size of a typical harrow for upland farming.  



The harrow is of two designs and make. One with iron pegs (left) is used on wet paddy. It serves as harrow and leveler.  The second is made of bamboo with natural and embedded pegs used as harrow for the upland.  

Author demonstrates a rare wooden planter with a sliding wooden block at the middle. The block creates a tic-tac sound to let know the worker is busy on the job, while the deep sound warns birds and rodents to keep away from the newly planted seeds. The block vibrates the stake shaking off clinging soil and dirt before it is thrust to make the next hole. Whoever put this mechanism into multiple and unified uses must be a true genius. 

At the background are naturally shaped hame* made of bamboo.  At the foreground is the mould (cross section) showing the formed hame. The process involved is simple.  The mould is placed atop an emerging shoot.  The shoot grows through the mould and grows to maturity. One or two years after, the bamboo is cut with the mould, and cured and seasoned for durability all in the natural way.  (Hame is a curved harness that fits over the nape of a draft animal like carabao and bullock. Hame for the horse is made of two wooden pieces, padded and clamped together around its neck.) 

--------------------------------------------
All over the world there are similarities, based on a general pattern, save variations for ease and comfort in usage, which we call today ergonomics, Thus primitive farmers were the founders of this new science. Pride in the farmer can be read on face on discovering these simple tools displayed in the museum.   
---------------------------------------- 

Native raincoats made of leaves of anahaw (Livistona rotundifolia), cowhide, and woven bamboo slats, with matching headgears likewise made of native materials.  Foreground: Sleds, one made of bamboo (left) and the other of wood. 

These sets of mortar and pestle in different designs came from different regions of the country, principally for dehusking palay into rice, and making rice flour. Other uses include  cracking beans such as mungo, and grinding corn into grits and bran. 

Photo below was taken just after the inauguration of the Museum (1982). The author (left) shows new collection to Dr Romualdo M del Rosario (in barong), deputy director of the National Museum, who helped in setting up the museum. 

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The ingenuity at the grassroots cannot be underestimated. Farmers' technology developed with the birth of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago, and spread to many parts of the world. The commonality of inventions is more on function, rather than scientific explanation, the latter serving as basis in improvement and diversification.

Rice Industry Showcase
The Farmers' Museum of the then National Grains Authority, now National Food Authority, was put up in response to the administration's thrust in food self-sufficiency.  It was during the time the country gave emphasis on developing cultural pride as a nation and people, as evidenced by the expansion of the National Museum, the putting up of the Philippine Convention Center, and the National Art Center on Mt Makiling, among others, during the administration of the late President Ferdinand E Marcos. The Farmers' Museum occupied the right wing of the Regional NFA Building in Cabanatuan City for two decades, until it closed down.  It was once a pride of the agency, the centerpiece of visitation by foreign dignitaries, convention participants, tourists, professors and students, and most especially farmers who found the museum not only as a showcase of the agricultural industry, but as a hallmark of their being the "backbone of the nation." AVR   

There are six dioramas, four of these are shown in these old photographs. A wall mural meets the visitor on entering the museum.  Indigenous farm tools and implements are lined on the foreground.  The dioramas are grouped at the center of the cubicles.   

 Rice Industry Dioramas 
                           
                            One of the six dioramas, Rice farming on the Banaue rice terraces

Rainfed (sahod ulan) farming dominates the uplands and hillsides. 

Good harvest depends on generous amount and distribution of 

rainfall during the monsoon. Since ancient times festivals implore 

providence for bountiful harvest. This practice still exists especially 

among the  minorities like the Yakans.  

World famous rice terraces in Banaue in the Cordillera have been declared World Heritage by UNESCO. Rice farming on the terraces is as old as the terraces believed to be as old as the Pyramids of Egypt, and much older than the Great Wall of China. Science is still studying the sustainability of these terraces. 

 The Encomienda System dominated agriculture during Spanish rule over the

 islands for more than three centuries. The friars and Spanish officials were the encomienderos, similar to hacienderos.   Although the system underwent land reform, it still persists to this day under corporate umbrella such as the case of Del Monte pineapple plantation. Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac still retains some features of the system.                          

                  

This mural was destroyed when the wall it was painted on had to undergo 

major repairs.

                               

How primitive are farmers' tools and implements? The animal-drawn sled predates the wheel cart, and has not changed since its invention thousands of years ago.  It is still used in the remote countryside. 

 

Brain coral for shelling corn raises eyebrow to the city bred.  Biggest iron bar scale (timbangan), probably is another item for the Book of Guinness. 

“Education is the lifeblood of museums. Museum education has the power and the responsibility to do the challenging inner work of tackling tough topics and turning them into teachable moments... If we truly believe in the power of cultural institutions to impact communities and engage authentically with social justice issues, if we believe in museums’ capacity to bring about social change, improve cultural awareness, and even transform the world, than we must also believe that our internal practices have an impact, and must act according to the changes we seek.” ― Monica O Montgomery

“Closing a museum to save money is like holding your breath to save oxygen...” ― Nanette L. Avery 

Part 2 -  "A museum will, like any living thing, change and grow.”

“A visit to a museum is a search for beauty, truth, and meaning in our lives. Go to museums as often as you can.” – Maira Kalman

Dr Abe V Rotor 

                    “I paint flowers so they will not die.”– Frida Kahlo

Monet in Paris Museum, Brisbane Australia

Isn’t a museum something concerned with antiques and the things of the past?” A colleague once asked me.

“No, no.” I sounded defensive. Then I began scanning his thoughts. There I saw the image of past civilization and institutions. No wonder he was telling of the Egyptian museum, the Aztecs in the Mexican Museum, the American Indians in the Smithsonian, the Renaissance Gallery, and the dinosaurs in the Chinese Museum in Beijing. All these have long lost their glory and now they are remembered in glass cases and fossils. Then my thoughts turned to SPCQ. Why a museum on its 50th anniversary? My friend flashed a devilish smile.

He played the devil’s advocate; I played the student’s role. He raised the mercury, so with my enthusiasm. I did my assignment. There are museums like the giant Smithsonian Complex and the provincial Manitoba museum in Winnipeg that do not only focus on the past. The space museum projects man’s lofty dreams to conquer space. Hirshorn is a gallery that is both subjective and prospective, veering from the traditional and classic. The Tel-Aviv museum features a documentary of the Iran-Iraq war. The trend of museums today is to link the past and the present, and beat the path for the future. In no other time in history have museums tried to project the fullest breadth of human accomplishments and potentials. They exude a touch of reverence to the Creator, reflecting his faith in the institutions which he built in spite of their imperfections, and man’s glory and admittance of failure – all these point out to one thing: that he is the most special creature that ever lived.

I remember Dr. Dillon Ripley’s words. “ if it is truly active and reflective of its own time, a museum will, like any living thing, change and grow.”

Dynamism lies in keeping abreast with the times - our fast changing modern times, when man in the last two centuries alone, has discovered more things than what all his ancestors probably did.

Humble Beginning of a Museum

In the mind of Dr. Ripley, of course, is one of the magnitude and prestige of the Smithsonian in which he had long been the curator and director. Or those of the internationally known institutions like the Chicago Museum of Natural History, or the Vatican Museum. Then there is Rikj Museum of Holland and the great Louvers of France. Name a country and you will see the finest of her culture in the native land’s museums. But the entire thing has had its early beginning - most probably like how the SPCQ museum got started.

The question is that, “How can a newly born show its worth?” But who does not love a baby? The baby itself is love. He holds the key of idealism in this world of ours. The great promise of God in man is mirrored in his smile and innocence. And he has all the potential that this world would be better to live in with him, as he grows, as he lightens the flame of idealism which in many of us adults had long been extinguished. The SPCQ museum is a baby that rekindles our heart, that tells us that this world will go on despite its imperfection – because we know how to start life again, though the rebirth of faith and hope. 

Note: Excerpt from an interview with the author during the inauguration of the SPCQ Museum in 1994

 

 

 

Queensland Museum of Natural History, Brisbane 2023

 

Seven Sisters, sculpture by Julie Lluch Dalena, detail; Life size icons 

at Museum's entrance greet visitor. Former SPUQC Museum 

 

           Rare starfish. Spines make a fine wind chime. Porcupine, endangered                                                                         indigenous animal

 Part 3

 The Art of Diorama: Museum of Natural History,

UPLB Laguna

  

A diorama is a miniature three-dimensional scene, for example, in a museum, in which models of figures are arranged against a background.

1. a miniature three-dimensional scene, in which models of figures are seen against a background

2. a picture made up of illuminated translucent curtains, viewed through an aperture

3. a museum display, as of an animal, of a specimen in its natural setting

4. cinema - a scene produced by the rearrangement of lighting effects Collins English Dictionary

Philippine Eagle lords over the vast landscape atop Mt Apo, its home. Fewer and fewer sightings tell us the bird may soon join the list of extinct animals - if we don't protect its remaining population estimated to be less than a thousand

The idea of a diorama is likened to a showcase in a mall. It is an enclosure of glass, multi-dimensional so that the viewer enjoys a natural panoramic scenery - foreground and background, ground and ceiling, and a spacious center view for the main subject. From one side to the other, and back, the viewer finds freedom of vision to explore the whole diorama.

Natural history dioramas gain attention to naturalness. The stuff animals look real, a pond reveals the secret of its bottom. Water always looks fresh and invigorating. Trees and the whole vegetation retain their freshness. Depth of field leads the eye to the farthest point disappearing in thin air.

Emphasis is given to interaction of the living with the non-living world, the interrelationships of organisms in food chains and food webs, and by the flow of energy from one organism to another.

A diorama artist is multi-skilled: he is a sculptor, a painter and an architect. Above all, he is a scientist who understands the working of biology and ecology. He must be a naturalist, and being one, must uphold the philosophy of reverence for life that makes man the custodian of creation.

The Museum of Natural History is an educational center with a sprawling natural setting - Mt. Makiling, a tropical rainforest reached in three hours from Manila. It is a world-famous center of studies and researches in agriculture, environment and many related sciences, including humanities.

I recommend the place for a whole day educational field trip. An itinerary includes the Mt Makiling Botanical Garden, tour of UPLB campus (agriculture and forestry) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Special lectures and guided tours may be arranged. Packed lunch under the trees is a rare experience. Nature photography, is at its best - so with on-the-spot composition (drawing, musical sketch, poetry).

“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.” – Michael Crichton

The Hornbill is another endangered Philippine bird. The first and last time I saw hornbills was in the seventies at the tip of Luzon along the treacherous Patapat road joining the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley. They are a closely knit family moving on the forest canopy. Their call is heard far and wide. It is resonated by their big hollow bills and echoed by big trees and cliffs.

Cave bats in a simulated habitat. Being nocturnal, the bats hunt from flying insects in the dark locating their prey through echolocation, the principle of the radar.Their droppings make a huge guano deposit mined for agriculture.

A rare rodent that lives on trees in Palawan, the last bastion of rare 

animal species, among them the porcupine, mouse deer and anteater.

Nesting pigeons keep vigil for intruders and predators. Masters of camouflage they blend with the surroundings and remain extremely quiet and still at the sign of danger. But when imminent, the mother bird stealthily dashes to another place and decoys away the attention of the enemy.

Instead of a diorama, the actual skeleton, and replica, of a whale are displayed for anatomical and morphological study. In the Smithsonian the blue whale, the biggest creature that ever lived on earth spans the length of a hall the size of a typical chapel.

Tree mushroom garden

A cluster of nature dioramas, each an ecosystem pristine and unspoiled.

Centennial celebration of UPLB, pictorials at the museum's lobby.

                           Author and wife are among the countless visitors.

“The best introduction to art is to stroll through a museum.

The more art you see, the more you’ll learn to define your own taste.”

– Jeanne Frank

      Part 4 - UNP Students Visit the Living with Nature Center                  San Vicente, Ilocos Sur     

                                                                          

 

Students in fine art at the University of Northern Philippines visit 

the author's family art gallery, museum and reading center.

 

 

Representative works of the author showing conventional and modern art.

 

 

Lighter moments at the Art Gallery and Botanical Garden (arboretum and fishpond)

            

                                                                         

The Green House 

(Side Gate and Street Corner Views}

“It's a fort of green trees around,

that buffer against noise and wind,

filter dusts and glare of the sun,

residence for austere living” - avr

 

Integrated Children's Workshop at the San Vicente Botanical Garden , San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.

On-the-Spot Workshop at the Botanical Garden and Arboretum 

"Take time out from TV, computer, malling;

life's so dull, busy yet empty;

The left brain's overworked, the right idle,

growing up is a sad story." - avr

"Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another. Never confuse movement with action. The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice." - Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

A visit to an 18th century Basi wine cellar 

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

 

Original basi wine cellar and jars (burnay) date back to the

 18th century across six generations of continuous operation, 

interrupted only by the Second World War for five years. 

 

The cellar attracts researchers, students and tourists for its historical 

significance with the Spanish Galleon Trade, and technology of 

the old folks in making basi and its related products, principally 

vinegar (sukang Iloko).  

By now this jar of basi is 13 years old.  Unless opened, it remains longer 

in aging. The general rule is, the longer wine is aged, the more mellow it 

becomes.  It's not really so.  There are other factors to consider like 

damaged clay cap and leaching.  And there's the basic rule that "only 

good wine mellows with age" (So with man, they add.) 

Crystalline golden color and pleasant wine aroma meet the happy

connoisseur after the desired aging period is reached (at least two 

years in the case of Rotor Basi). Fresh and direct from the jar, the 

harvest is bottled, sealed and labelled (as shown below), according

 to customers' specifications intended for an occasion like

 wedding, Christmas, exhibit, and the like. 

House guest picks a fruit wine of his choice,  Fruit wine making 

follows the basic fermentation-aging process in basi making.

There are 20 kinds of fruit wine developed in this cellar from different 

fruits growing locally like macopa, aratiles, duhat and guyabano. 

Green Tunnel to the Living Room

(Floor-Wall-Ceiling Mural) 

"When life becomes unbearable living in a jungle of concrete;

when pressure of work is taking its toll and you may be the next,

don't tarry, reach out for the green tunnel." - avr 

 

Listen to the sea in a conch, dead the creature maybe;

Wash away your worries and anxiety.

For life is real, yet in scenes like these, is but fantasy;

It is how we live that holds the key. 

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, 

but in rising every time we fall." -Nelson Mandela

 

Modern art works by the author: Relief still life in acrylic, palette knife 

and hand painting; double-surface aquarium scene in acrylic on glass. 

 

 

Experimental paintings on glass by the author. Top left, clockwise: Telescopic view of  red sun under a huge tree; school of fish (How many fish can you count?); cinders after a brush fire; red seaweeds (Porphyra or gamet Ilk) under a magnifying lens.

 

Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.

— Berthold Brecht

 

  

Expressionism - gateway of Impressionism to Abstract art

 

 

Discreet Nature in four views (Left, top, clockwise: Microscopic Volvox; juvenile seaweeds; meadow comes alive after the first rain in May; fungal mycelia on hamburger 

Vincent Van Gogh was both an impressionist and an expressionist. At the time, he would have considered himself to be an impressionist. Today, however, Van Gogh is considered one of the pioneers and founders of the expressionism movement.

 

Keyhole perspective appears to viewers in natural frames.

 It has a magnifying, as well as telescopic effect.

   

 

Details of wall mural painted by the author.  Left, a pair of kalaw or hornbill birds perched across a forest stream; upland landscape showing young hikers 

dwarfed by trees. 

 Conventional or traditional art gives a true picture of Nature as seen by the naked eye, viewed either as landscapes or ecosystems with details and special effects as influenced by the elements, season, and place. 

Green Tunnel 

Mural and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor

When life becomes unbearable living in a jungle of concrete;

when pressure of work is taking its toll and you may be the next,

don't tarry, reach out for the green tunnel;

when the air is filled with smog and you hardly can breathe;

when crime grips the street, you feel you're no longer safe,

don't tarry, reach out for the green tunnel;

when you are losing your friends and you feel sad and lonely;

when you are no longer enjoying the so-called Good Life, 

don't tarry, reach out for the green tunnel;

when you ponder over the promise of afterlife as a tunnel, too; 

when there is time on earth to seek its living counterpart,

don't tarry, reach out for the green tunnel;

when you shall have found your way to this heaven on earth;

when and where man once found peace and contentment,

look back, but revere this green tunnel.

Exit door from the art gallery.

Country life mural graces the second floor of San Vicente municipal hall.  

                               

Students in fine art at the University of Northern Philippines visit 

the author's family art gallery, museum and reading center.

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

an artist once you we grow up.” – Pablo Picasso

 

Homage to an 18th century icon of the Resurrection.  

 

Books are  the greatest treasure of mankind;

reverence the greatest in heart and mind. ~

“It’s not a museum. It’s not a place of artifacts; it’s a place of ideas.”

– Jeanie Kahnke

*Abercio V Rotor, Ph.D. is the award-winning author of Living with Nature Handbook (Gintong Aklat Award 203), Living with Nature in Our Times (National Book Award 2006), and radio instructor of People’s School on Air (Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid, Gawad Oscar Florentino Award for Development Communication on radio). He is also author of other books in essays and poetry, and textbooks in Humanities and Literature. Dr Rotor is a professor at UST, a former director of NFA and consultant of the Philippine Senate. He is married to Cecilia A Rojas, CPA, MBA, CESO3, with whom they have three children: Matthew Marlo, Anna Christina, and Leo Carlo. The family hails from San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. 

Part 5

Relevance of Community Museum 

and Library Today

Original title: Books - the Greatest Treasure of Mankind

Dr Abe V Rotor

Author inspects books for his home library in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.

 

Author's Note: Expand your home library by linking it with online libraries here and abroad. A simplified digital system would make access easier and wider, and for purposes of saving old books electronically, among other advantages. Create a conducive-to-learn  "library" ambiance with properly arranged and catalogued materials. (Internet photos) ~

Books, once the privilege of a few in pre-printing machine era, each page painstakingly handwritten, each book a well-kept treasure.

Books, the authority, the final say, unquestioned, un-refuted, else any one rising contrary faces punishment, including death or damnation.

Books, the diary, the ledger, the document of conquest and discovery, of battles fought, often in favor of the writer and party.

Books, the novels that carry the greatest stories of all times are called classics, for which they are regarded timeless for their universal values.

Books, the epics of Homer, stories of the Grimm Brothers distilled from oral literature passed through generations to the present.

Books, written ahead of their time - Galileo's astronomy, Darwin's evolution, Martin Luther's Protestantism ignited dis-pleasured of the Church.

Books, bedtime stories, baby's introduction to the world, legends and fantasies that take young ones to the land of make believe.

Books, the record of ultimate scholarship, are the epitome of the greatest minds in

thesis and dissertation, theories and principles.

Books, the precursor of the Internet, the framework of the i-Pod, Tablet, Galaxy, and other gadgets that man becomes a walking encyclopedia.

Books, the progeny of the earliest forms of writing like the cuneiform, hieroglyphics, caves drawings, etchings, scrolls of the Dead Sea.

Books, that gave the idea and structure of the Wonders of the Ancient World, and the significance and belief for which they were built.

Books, that grew with knowledge, brought new schools and movements in arts and philosophy, in unending search for truth.

Books, the most widely read, the Bible; the shortest, Albert Einstein’s e=mc2, and book-to-cinema versions of Spielberg, Lucas, Cecile de Mills et al.

Books, the greatest treasure of mankind, its collective attributes as humanity, the very stimulus of man's rationality to rise above other creatures - and himself.

Books, that brought about man's disobedience to his creator, playing god, and questioning if god made man, or that man made god.

Books that enlighten man to care for the environment, guide the young and future generations to a better future, and lead man to save his own species from extinction.
-----------------
Author's Note: Herein below is one of the lists of top 100 books of the world. There is no standard for comparison, only preferences by different sources. However, there are books that consistently appear in many lists.

100 Most Influential Books Ever Written
by Martin Seymour-Smith

Note: This list is in chronological order. I've gotten e-mails from people who complain that there are too many religious books on the list. Say what you want, but you cannot deny that religion has been influential in human history. I'm sure that's what Seymour-Smith had in mind

1. The I Ching
2. The Old Testament
3. The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
4. The Upanishads
5. The Way and Its Power, Lao-tzu

6. The Avesta
7. Analects, Confucius
8. History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
9. Works, Hippocrates
10. Works, Aristotle

11. History, Herodotus
12. The Republic, Plato
13. Elements, Euclid
14. The Dhammapada
15. Aeneid, Virgil

16. On the Nature of Reality, Lucretius
17. Allegorical Expositions of the Holy Laws, Philo of Alexandria
18. The New Testament
19. Lives, Plutarch
20. Annals, from the Death of the Divine Augustus, Cornelius Tacitus

21. The Gospel of Truth
22. Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
23. Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Sextus Empiricus
24. Enneads, Plotinus
25. Confessions, Augustine of Hippo

26. The Koran
27. Guide for the Perplexed, Moses Maimonides
28. The Kabbalah
29. Summa Theologicae, Thomas Aquinas
30. The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri

31. In Praise of Folly, Desiderius Erasmus
32. The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli
33. On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Martin Luther
34. Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais
35. Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin

36. On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs, Nicolaus Copernicus
37. Essays, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
38. Don Quixote, Parts I and II, Miguel de Cervantes
39. The Harmony of the World, Johannes Kepler
40. Novum Organum, Francis Bacon

41. The First Folio [Works], William Shakespeare
42. Dialogue Concerning Two New Chief World Systems, Galileo Galilei
43. Discourse on Method, René Descartes
44. Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes
45. Works, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

46. Pensées, Blaise Pascal
47. Ethics, Baruch de Spinoza
48. Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
49. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Isaac Newton
50. Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke

51. The Principles of Human Knowledge, George Berkeley
52. The New Science, Giambattista Vico
53. A Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume
54. The Encyclopedia, Denis Diderot, ed
55. A Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson

56. Candide, François-Marie de Voltaire
57. Common Sense, Thomas Paine
58. An Enquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
59. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon
60. Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant

61. Confessions, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
62. Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke
63. Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft
64. An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, William Godwin
65. An Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Robert Malthus

66. Phenomenology of Spirit, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

67. The World as Will and Idea, Arthur Schopenhauer
68. Course in the Positivist Philosophy, Auguste Comte
69. On War, Carl Marie von Clausewitz
70. Either/Or, Søren Kierkegaard

71. The Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
72. "Civil Disobedience," Henry David Thoreau
73. The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin
74. On Liberty, John Stuart Mill
75. First Principles, Herbert Spencer

76. "Experiments with Plant Hybrids," Gregor Mendel
77. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
78. Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, James Clerk Maxwell
79. Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
80. The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud

81. Pragmatism, William James
82. Relativity, Albert Einstein
83. The Mind and Society, Vilfredo Pareto
84. Psychological Types, Carl Gustav Jung
85. I and Thou, Martin Buber

86. The Trial, Franz Kafka
87. The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Karl Popper
88. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, John Maynard Keynes
89. Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre
90. The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich von Hayek

91. The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
92. Cybernetics, Norbert Wiener
93. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
94. Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff
95. Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein

96. Syntactic Structures, Noam Chomsky
97. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, T. S. Kuhn
98. The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
99. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung [The Little Red Book], Mao Zedong
100. Beyond Freedom and Dignity, B. F. Skinner

Source: Seymour-Smith, Martin. 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1998. © 1998 Martin Seymour-Smith. List from the Internet ~