Neil Gaiman art contest winners

Here are the winners of the Neil Gaiman art contest held in conjunction with the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.

All three plus other selected artwork can be seen at the North Court of Rockwell Power Plant Mall.

First place: Boundaries by Elle Battung. Medium: Paper


Second place: Together with Barnabas by Marie Franz Canares. Medium: Canvas, Acrylic, Coffee


Third place: Hole by Rea Uypitchitig (thanks Lyn!

I think this one won the People's Choice award This tied for second place. You read about the author's account about the event here.





Armageddon by Lyn (uh, what's your last name nga pala? Hehe.)

Here are some of the other works I found interesting:






The Other Mother by Melanie H. Lim


Peek-A-Boo by Kamille Anne U. Areopagita

Congratulations to the winners! Neil Gaiman himself chose the winners.

Note: I am not affiliated with the organizers of the event, Rockwell or Neil Gaiman (though I wish I was for the latter hehe).

K+kkk+K Ayos! Order in Chaos

I was fortunate to be able to attend the opening of "K+kkk+K Ayos! Order in Chaos," the first exhibit of the De Guia family: filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik and his wife, artist Katrin de Guia and their sons Kidlat Jr., Kawayan and Kabunyan.

The exhibit is at Rico Renzo Galleries and Caffe (N. Garcia formerly Reposo St., Makati City) and will run until January 5, 2010. It features bone sculptures from Katrin, photographs from Kidlat Jr., ceramic mosaics from Kabunyan, collages by Kawayan and various woven sculptures from Kidlat Tahimik.

Kabunyan De Guia and Kidlat De Guia


"The Scream" by Kabunyan de Guia


One of the sculptures by Kidlat Tahimik


Collage by Kawayan de Guia

5th Annual Sculpture Review

On Saturday, my friend Elise and I, on a whim, passed by the 5th Annual Sculpture Review in Megamall. I saw one familiar name among the list of artists, Agnes Arellano, whom I've heard mention from another artist, Datu Arellano.

"I'm Just A Rambling Man" by Lirio Salvador


"Google Earth" by Michael Cacnio


"Call Center Revolution" by Anna Varona (I like this one. The hands move counter-clockwise)


"Seacock #1" by Tito Estrada (Elise loves the colors)


There's one that I wasn't able to take a picture of, a sculpture of Manila in the future, made out of aluminum. It's mounted on the wall on the right side of the entrance. It's a really clever work.

The exhibit runs until tomorrow.

News: RP team 3rd in art ‘Olympics’

RP team 3rd in art ‘Olympics’

By Vincent Cabreza
Inquirer Northern Luzon

BAGUIO CITY—Not bad for this team of artists whose pleas for funding went largely ignored by politicians and corporations, whose members spent an extra night at a South Korean airport for lack of hotel money, and who had one member briefly detained there for carrying a bloodstained knife.

That’s just “chicken blood” from some previous home-cooked dish, the detainee said, before finally convincing authorities to let him go.

Despite this series of unfortunate events, the Philippine delegation to the 3rd Delphic Games held on the resort island of Jeju, South Korea, gave brilliant performances in what was considered the “Olympics” of the art world.

The 17-member team, mostly composed of Cordillera-based artists, placed third overall out of the 44 countries that competed in the games held on Sept. 9-15.

Ifugao woodcarver Ernesto Dul-ang, 60, bagged the gold medal in sculpture for transforming, under time pressure, a 150-cm block of wood into a human figure pouring water from a pot.

Winning the Lyra Award (a special prize given to collaborative works) was a group of Filipino puppeteers headed by EV Espiritu, who wowed the audience with a shadow play dealing with the environment.

The Delphic Games are all about “peace engendering competition of the arts,” according to German founder J. Christian Kirsch, who drew inspiration from the original Greek competitions of 582 B.C.

The first games were held in December 2000 in Moscow with the participation of 27 countries. The second was held in September 2005 in Kuching, Malaysia, with 21 countries taking part.

The event serves as the artistic counterpart of the Olympic Games, said Divina Bautista, a Filipino co-founder based in Baguio.

Dul-ang was given three days to finish the sculpture and often had difficulty communicating with the Korean organizers whenever he requested equipment to speed up his work.

On the third day, Dul-ang recalled, the statue was still without a face, prompting him to ask the team’s videographer Joel Arthur Tibaldo to be his face model.

Earlier, percussionist Ruel Bimuyag served as Dul-ang’s model for the body, while Baguio-based painter Rishab produced sketches that helped the sculptor come up with the best composition.

Continue reading

Despite their win, I can't help but feel a bit sad with this piece of news. Here we have a group of really talented artists, but very little support can be found. These are artists who really need backing more than the so called "National Artists" that's been such a hot issue these past few weeks.

I've met Rishab before, during our STS project. He and Jordan Mangosan, who was the topic for our study) each did a portraiture of me when we went to visit them in Tam-Awan Village. I was just kidding when I asked them for a portrait but to my surprise, they were game.

Cordillera artists have a special place in my heart. :)

I protest!

A news article at the Philippine Daily Inquirer about Carlo J. Caparas now a National Artist for Visual Art and Film sparked comments from the Filipino blog community. Not surprisingly, these comments were in protest of the win.

I don't really have much to say about this, except that I'm against it and will stand behind those who protest it. I believe that there are far more worthy artists out there who deserve the title. Here are a few blog entries that also air the same sentiments. I will edit this to add more later.

Gerry Alanguilan "A Questionable Victory"
- Gerry has long aired his views about the praised heaped upon Carlo J. and fought for the recognition of the artists who worked on the komiks that Caparas produced. His blog entry lists several good reasons why the win isn't just, and if you care to browse back in his archives, you'll find his other related posts.

The Marocharim Experiment "In protest of Caparas as a National Artist"

The worst part about this is that the masses don't and won't care because the bottomline is they get entertained.

LRT Art 2009

Commuters of the MRT and LRT line may have noticed some posters a few months ago calling for entries for the LRT Art contest. Filipino citizens age 18 and above were enjoined to participate in the contest with the theme “LRT at ang Buhay Pinoy”.

I don't know how many entries were there, as I wasn't able to find any press release or news item about the results. However, selected entries may be seen at the LRT Cubao station. I'm not sure if this is the formal exhibit, as there are ropes cordoning off the commuters from the paintings (although you can still see most of them).

Here a few of the entries. I even found one artist on DeviantArt, but I don't know what his work looks like.

I love this one. It's Pinoy superheroes heading home after a busy day.




This one feels like Grand Central Station


This one's really nice too. It looks like a photograph.


There were a lot of beautiful works there, some were very creative and thought provoking; some very avant-garde and imaginative (see the superheroes one), while some were very much traditional and realistic. There were two paintings there though, that looked so similar that it was obvious that both artists used the same reference picture (one that was used as an LRT publicity picture, methinks).

Head on over to the LRT Cubao station to take a look at these works. However, you have to get past the turnstiles for that. If in any case the exhibit would formally open, I suggest you wait for that.