Children's Adventure with Nature through Art

Children's Adventure with Nature through Art

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

"Lolo, can you teach us how to paint and draw?"

That was the start of an adventure with nature;

So I led the children as a guardian would do,

but more on what to learn about life in store. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Instructor

“Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist 

when you grow up” – Pablo Picasso. 

  

“The urge to draw must be quite deep within us, because children 

love to do it” - David Hockney

  

“If you hear a voice within you say, 'You cannot paint,' then by all means paint, 

and that voice will be silenced” – Vincent Van Gogh.

  

“Art is the colors and textures of your imagination”

- Meghan, Los Cerros Middle School, 1999

    

"Lolo, can you teach us how to paint and draw?"

That was the start of an adventure with nature;

So I led the children as a guardian would do,

but more on what to learn about life in store.

For once the children set their cellphone

aside one weekend, for the adventure.

With pastel colors, they went to the field,

entered the forest, helped the sun rise.

They climbed the mountains and hills,

followed the stream flow out to the sea.

They flew with the birds in the blue sky,

met white doves come down to rest.

They drew a scary scene and entered;

with black birds and strange creatures.

Real and make-believe scenes mixed up,

where they have never been before.

Few creatures in the wild they encountered

on the field and forest - what are they really?

They missed the parrots, the eagle begging

for rescue, other endangered animals.

Aren't trees home of wildlife and ferns,

orchids, vines and other epiphytes?

Seasons are always open to meet nature,

what did they choose other than summer?

Have they found Nature's beauty and joy?

A gust of wind came passing, whispered:

"Living with Nature is a lifetime experience

every day, a most rewarding adventure."

Open the Book of Creation, I told the children

live BY, FOR, WITH Nature as you grow up.

"No, we don't need more sleep. It's our souls that are tired, not our bodies. We need nature. We need magic. We need adventure. We need freedom. We need truth. We need stillness. We don't need more sleep, we need to wake up and live."

- Brooke Hampton

Art enthusiasts from the neighborhood attend drawing 

session with the author as guide and instructor at the 

Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.

“We must teach our children to smell the earth, to taste the rain, to touch the wind, 

to see things grow, to hear the sun rise and night fall – to care.” – John Cleal.

Author poses with his young students on art at the Living with Nature Center.

 “Let me ask you something, what is not art?”- Author Unknown ~

Triumph Over the Ebb of Life

  Triumph Over the Ebb of Life

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” - Victor E Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Dr Abe V Rotor

Ebb of Life wall mural in acrylic by the author at his residence, 

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. 

Feature a person you personally know who triumphed in the midst of crisis. Cite his achievement and the lesson which we derive from him and his experience.

When suddenly we see a shooting star we grasp something to wish for. But before our thoughts are organized our lucky charm is gone.

 

There are times we search the sky for a speck of moving light, a wish ready at hand.  But the stars, thousands of them simply hang on flickering, and none of them falling out. When we are in this situation we must be in the Ebb of Life.  What is this strange land?

Soon enough we realize we are orphans of the universe.  An orphan often talks to himself, for there is no one else around.  He thinks and feels that the world has shrunk.  It is indeed a lonely place.

But this is the place where Michelangelo single handedly made his masterpiece, the huge paintings of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  In solitude and meditation he saw God, His angels and saints, and he made them models of his art.

It is here where Dr Jose P Rizal wrote the famous Noli Me Tangere which ignited the Philippine Revolution.  He saw meaning in the death of a moth that singed into his lamp -  to become the symbol of martyrdom.     

Helen Keller, in her solace of total blindness wrote, If I were given three days to see, a moving essay which made people see the world better.  Frederick Handel composed The Messiah, the greatest religious composition ever made, without food and sleep for days.

Robert the Bruce, the great Scottish hero hid in a cave and learned his lessons on persistence and strategy from a spider while waiting for a chance to escape his pursuers.  Later he formed a huge army which defeated the English army, the latter to grant Scotland full independence.

What could have happened to Dantes, the count of Monte Cristo, in the novel of the same title by Alexander Dumas if he simply gave in to despair in the dungeon? From an old fellow prisoner he found wisdom in facing the harsh realities of life – and a secret of a hidden treasure. He escaped from prison, and with tremendous wealth, succeeded in avenging his plotters.  At the end of the story, he realized that revenge does not bring true peace.

Helen Keller

Here are other men and women who capitalized on the ebb of their lives to emerge with great achievements:

·         Victor E Frankl – Europe’s leading psychiatrist, founded a new theory, logotherapy, while detained in a Nazi concentration camp during WW II. He became the most significant modern thinker in the field of psychotherapy. His book Man’s Search for Meaning sold more than two millions copies.

Victor E Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

John Milton wrote Paradise Lost when he had normal eyesight and Paradise Regained after losing it. His works comprise the greatest epic poem in English literature, a profound exploration of the moral problems of God’s justice, through the poet’s genius in fusing classicism and innovation, narrative and drama.         

Captain Scott, the great English explorer, had already reached the South Pole, and was on the way back to camp when he and his team were caught in a blizzard. In freezing cold, He managed to write, “Had we lived, I would have had a tale of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman.  These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.”

·         Albert Schweitzer – philosopher, medical doctor, writer, teacher, philanthropist, musician, rolled into one, stands tall among the world’s greatest humanitarians. Instead of enjoying fame and the comfort of high society, he chose to spend most of his life in a remote village in the Dark Continent – Africa - healing the sick, spreading the gospel, fighting ignorance through education, and bridging the civilized and primitive world.

·      Florence Nightingale renounced “good life” in her native country, England, to join volunteers to serve in an army hospital during the Crimean War. It was extremely dangerous for women to be at the battlefront, but she persisted and brought to the eyes of the world the importance and dignity of the nursing profession. The Lady with a Lamp making her rounds among the wounded and sick to the wee hours became the symbol of nursing. 

                                                                                   Florence Nightingale

    Mahatma Gandhi, one-man against the British empire, underwent extreme personal sacrifice - from humiliation to self-impose fasting – until India was granted independence.    

There are many men and women who labored under great pains and odds, who rose to significance and fame.  And there are even more who lived and died like the Unknown Soldier.

Mahatma Gandhi, Man of the last Millenium

Young Darwin was a disgrace to his prominent family. He chose to be a naturalist defying his father wish to become a doctor. He suffered much at sea for nearly five years as a naturalist, lived in complete isolation because of his radical view of evolution which is contrary to the Doctrine of Creation. He was ridiculed as a monkey for this Ascent of Man, other publications of the same concept of evolution, notwithstanding.

Great works, great deeds, are distilled from hardship and misfortune.  They bring out the best in a person.  Often the battle is but our own, and the enemy is us, yet the victor is us, too.

It is no wonder that if we look up long enough, and think of the enormous reserve in us waiting to be tapped, while keeping faith in the Almighty to whom we owe it, all the stars will hang on shining and twinkling as if to tell us we are not orphans of the universe. ~

“Life is a dance between heaven and earth, the ebb and flow of life.” - Maurice Spees

Acknowledgement: Photos from Internet., Wikipedia, Google

Bonsai is Nature's Art

 Trees for Peace

Bonsai is Nature's Art

Natural bonsai is Nature's art, that has for centuries inspired man to create miniaturized landscapes that fulfill his yearning for a connection to nature.

Dr Abe V Rotor

  

 Manicured bonsai tamarind trees. Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand

When I saw the tamarind bonsai, it flashed into my mind the story of a wise man from the Orient who was asked, "What tree lives the longest?" to which he confidently answered, "The bonsai."

About the same time a scientist from California was asked of the same question. To which he replied with scientific authority, "The Sequoia."

For a long time the world debated about the issue. I found myself a fence sitter in my college days. Until I became a biologist.

Centuries old bonsai trees grace many parks and homes in China, Japan and Korea, the origin of the art of dwarfing plants into what we know today as bonsai. They are of course minuscule to the giant Sequoia or redwoods in western United States which stand twenty to thirty storeys high.

Some of these trees were already bearing cones at the time of Christ. That's more than 2000 years ago. So these trees held the record for a long time. Until...

The record gave way to gnarled dwarf trees, among them the Bristlecone, living on windswept rocky shores in the Mediterranean and other parts of the world where conditions of survival are extremely difficult.

Which brings about the puzzle - what really is the key to longevity?

I examined the tamarind bonsai in Thailand. Why they are pampered with care! By man, under the rule of monarchy.

I read extensively about the redwoods. Why they are pampered by nature! They dominate the ground, space and sky. They are the monarchs of the forest.

And neither gives the convincing answer to the puzzle.

 

It is because the longest living tree, the Bristlecone (PHOTOS), is left all by itself to fend itself against the extreme conditions of the environment.

This strengthened by belief that natural resistance is the key to survival and longevity. It is natural resistance that enables the organism to survive and to live long. And here are the premises.

1. Controlled growth reduces need for food, water, space and nutrients.

2. Metabolism is slowed down when these requirements for growth and development are placed under restrictive control.

3. Extreme conditions "temper" organisms. Tempering is hardening of cells, tissues and organs, basically the protoplasm.

4. Tropisms are likewise honed under extreme conditions. Roots penetrate deeper to reach the source of water. Phototropism encourages the plant to reach out for the sun, chemotropism triggers survival tools such as chemical secretion. Latex and resin are protective substances.

5. On the cell level, slower cell division lengthens life. Fast multiplying cells are shorter lived than slow multiplying ones. Chromosomes get shorter every time the cell multiplies, their telomeres shrink every time the cell divides. This leads to faster senility and early demise of the cell. These premises I believe, hold the key to the so-called "green thumb" in the bonsai expert.

These premises are found in the giant Sequoia, although its size is deceiving. The truth is that the old Sequoia, like the bonsai, has reached virtual dormancy. Any organism in a state of dormancy or torpor undergoes very slow metabolism, which contributes to long life.

  

Beside, the Sequoia (PHOTOS) has other advantages in its natural habitat. It produces resin as a survival tool sealing off its attackers and healing the wound that they inflict. Here too, the Sequoia exhibits natural rejuvenation. It can recover from injuries to a point that a new tree may grow from the trunk and roots of a fallen one, like a tiller arising from its parent. It is natural tissue culture. Which leads us to the question, When does longevity end, when does it start?

I examined the bonsai tamarind trees and made reference to these factors. Well, I estimated their age to be about two centuries or so. Which is confirmed by the history of the Grand Palace. I compared them with the two bonsai tamarind trees at home which have shrunk into two-foot shrubs. An kindly old lady entrusted them under my care fifty years ago. Under natural condition tamarind grows into a very large tree.

This comparison points out that organisms of the same species don't only grow into different sizes in nature - they are actually controlled. More food and they grow fast and big, probably lanky and weak. On the other hand, starved them and they will become dwarf. Hardened and tough, and they live long.

On hind sight, does this hypothesis apply to animals? To humans? If so, then deprivation and exposure to adverse conditions - and not a bountiful life - is the key to long life.

Indeed, longevity is a mystery. ~

Our Green Planet in Five Views

                            Our Green Planet in Five Views

Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor

Green Planet, acrylic on wood, by AVRotor, 2021. On display 

at San Vicente Botanical Garden, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

These quotations by world renowned authors, leaders, and environmentalists, inspired me to paint Green Planet and other Nature paintings. - avr

1. “Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.”—John Ruskin 

2. “What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on.” —Henry David Thoreau

3. “The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for.” —Ernest Hemingway

4. “To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.” —Helen Keller

5. “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

                           

Valley Stream in acrylic by AVRotor

6. “The Earth is what we all have in common.” —Wendell Berry    

  7. “Away, away, from men and towns,

To the wild wood and the downs, —

To the silent wilderness,

Where the soul need not repress its music.”

—Percy Bysshe Shelley        

Hidden Cave Entrance in acrylic AVRotor 

8. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead

9. “One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.” —Leo Tolstoy

                          

                                       A Piece of Eden in acrylic AVRotor 2021

10. “The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share.” - Lady Bird Johnson

11. “The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for use by future generations.” —John Paul II

12. “Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.” —Jimmy Carter

13. “Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.” —George Washington Carver

14. “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make.” —Jane Goodall

                         

                               White doves soar through the treetops, AVR 2021

 15."As I walk with Beauty

As I walk, as I walk,

The universe is walking with me,

In beauty it walks before me,

In beauty it walks behind me,

In beauty it walks below me,

In beauty it walks above me,

Beauty is on every side."

       —Traditional Navajo Prayer

Animals light up our world

 Animals light up our world 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Strolling by the pond she's greeted  

     with quaint sound and stare;

a member she soon felt in return 

     to some crumbs to share. 

Can fish sing lullaby, too?

     Oh, how I wish they do, 

and be babysitters too,

    for baby and fish in duo.  

     

This faithful errant though over eager,

      his job done just too well;

to earn admiration from his master

     to say, all's well at the end. 

Hug a bunny when the sky's gray,

     or at the end of a hard day;

Talk to her, she can understand

  more than those in a band. 

    Greeting a boar in its pen,

     a wall away to the open:

freedom and duty,

     fate and destiny.  

A wild pigeon submits to friendship

     but briefly in a cage;

freedom she seeks by an ancient gene

     that will never age.   

An errand walks by a carabao herd

      on lazy stream and hour;

a bread she carries for her grandmother;

      fairy tale is true after all. 

Where skill above risk builds confidence,

     takes the two to places they go;

What kinship master and pet do make, 

     heads turning to admire and to awe. 

Animae, triumph of art and technology,

     birth of many a queer specie(s);

biodiversity of imagination and fantasy,

    enigma of truth and reality.

King Kong, false image of the kind, 

     shy and the sublime animal,

misunderstood by evolution 

     for not being rational. 

A sled on to the moon,

     airplane and ship aboard;

a travelogue for kids

     to conquer the world.

Resurrection from Armageddon

     from poison and waste it hid,

this ba-ug frog a prodigal son 

     of man's folly and greed.

A new world bigger than their shell they greet,

     yet shrink and hide in it,

not when alone and happy, or abandoned

     but when failed to compete. 

 

A living factory works under our feet,

     its product glistens in the rising sun:

detritus for the garden and farm.

     Who really has the Green Thumb?