Cross Stitch Art

I was inspired by Wilma’s photo on giraffes and I thought of the cross stitch I did years ago on the same subject. Back in the nineties, one of the Asst. Vice-Presidents (my boss) of the bank taught some of us to do cross stitching. I was hooked making so many projects some of which I gifted to my close friends. I even joined exhibits before. My eyesight is no longer that good for those small stitches. Here’ s a frame of my own giraffe Wilma. It’s still has pride of place in one corner of our wall.

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One Day At A Time

Let’s go green today.  It’s St. Patrick’s Day afterall. Every year, I blog about this. I have so many shamrocks growing in my garden and every time I see those dainty white flowers, I am reminded of the Irish Blessings book that a friend gave me a long time ago but I lost it during typhoon Ondoy back in 2009. All those books at my night table that were my daily companions back then are gone now.  A few years ago, this same friend gave me another copy, a little older edition of the one he gave me before. I love all those sayings written in that well-loved book.

The quarantine we are having now has been enhanced. It took effect last night.  Suspended work  for some, closed malls, no public vehicles on the road. Josef and Jovy have no work today. I wonder about their schedules thereafter. Nissa works from home and that is three days a week, then down to the office for two days.  She made these lovely oil pastel  paintings over the weekend. She wants to paint on acrylic again but has no canvas.

I remember my own foray on acrylic two years ago, Nissa enrolled me in an art class for my birthday.

Taking everything one day at a time. Hoping this virus would leave our shores for good.

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Proud Tita Here

In case you’re wondering, “tita” simply means an auntie in our language.

Yesterday, Louie, the son of my youngest brother graduated from Architecture. I blogged about my niece and nephews’ achievements several days ago. Since they live across the miles, I’ve always been proud of every good news that I receive from them.

Years ago, Louie sent me one of his pencil sketches  when he was just sixteen years old. I blogged about it here.  That was the start of his leanings to the arts. Taking up architecture in college is another  step ahead.

He took the course in just four and a half years instead of five.

 

He is the awardee for Jack and Carol Corgan Award for 2019 at Oklahoma State University. Noel tells me that those names of the awardees every year since 2014 are permanently posted in their school.

I remember my own blessed time when Nissa graduated from college. She graduated Magna Cum Laude at the Univ. of Santo Tomas where my siblings, my son and I also studied.  She’s now a manager of the bank where she works.

When our kids show outstanding performance in school, we are probably prouder than they are.

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More Gifts

More gifts.

Yes.

Last Saturday, Nissa gave me a lovely red journal from UBX. It’s another addition to my  stash.  Maybe, I’ll get to use them all until I die.  I don’t often write my posts in those blank pages bu I love collecting them. She further gave me a desk calendar featuring  our local artist BenCab. twelve paintings on Mother and Child. One painting in each month.

Mother And child, Acrylic on Canvas, 2006

 

Mother’s Love 1, Ink on Paper, 1977

Mother and Child, Acrylic on paper, 1994

These are just three of the featured paintings in the calendar.  Benedicto Reyes Cabrera more popularly known as BenCab  is one of our National Artists and  is widely held as a master of contemporary arts. When you see  reproductions  of  artworks like these every day, you are somehow inspired.

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Crazy Friday

It’s one of those  relaxed and lazy days of the week.  I asked Josef if he could accompany me to the newly opened library in our town and he readily agreed. I told him bringing the car was probably a mistake because of the horrendous traffic. Such common daily routine of  everyone ….traffic. He had all his IDs laminated while I waited at the library to talk to their assistants there. There is no licensed librarian yet and most of the volumes on the shelves were donations from the National Library.They have a sizable collection of National Geographic and several children’s story books, various local publications of food mag, travel and leisure. I had a good time chatting with the library assistants and I promised that I would donate some fiction/non-fiction books to add to their shelves. Finally, we have a modern and lovely town library with lots of computers and free wi-fi.Most shelves are still vacant though.

Nissa gifted me with a lovely Zen Mandalas coloring book complete with a  set of Faber-Castell  colored pencils, sharpener and eraser. The designs look so complicated and challenging.  I was happy before having an ordinary coloring book, this one needs a lot of time before you finish a page. Coloring is a stress-buster. Josef  told me early this morning that I could upload Mandala on my tab. Practice, practice, practice. It is so addicting.  The final picture depends on how creative you are in choosing a combination of colors. Here are some photos that I practiced on before we went to the library.

   I  set aside reading again. I can’t wait to start coloring on an actual page.

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Oh, It’s Calligraphy

I have simply forgotten this. I saw it again while cleaning my downloaded files early this morning. It’s actually an app I tried at FB because I was curious how my name would appear using calligraphy of course. My oldest brother used to have a calligraphic pen and a small book on calligraphy writing when I was in college. He learned but I didn’t.  It’s an art that would never go stale through the years.

And I love the background too, so serene and so cool to look at. I wish I could draw something like this but I am really not that artistic.

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Rainbow Loom Overload

I think I am getting addicted looming my way to this supposed to be for kids of eight and up.  I have given away around four earlier works to my niece and to a friend. But wait, after a week of surfing the net for instructional videos, I am now in the intermediate stage…hahaha! I am just frustrated that there are no available colors that I like  where my son buys our supplies.

Yeay, making one is really a stress buster….

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A Legacy of Art

 I just can’t resist posting this lovely painting of Anita Magsaysay Ho,  (Seated Women Sewing) a  gifted and talented artist who is known  for  “her paintings that depict figurative abstracts of women at everyday tasks.” Four years ago,  Bank of the Philippine Islands, where I used to work, started publishing pictures of paintings that they own via a lovely journal  and my daughter who works there now gifted me with a copy. She has given me copies of these journal/diary/calendar  that I collect since then. This year, it’s called A Legacy of Art (a treasury of paintings by Artists of National Prominence from the BPI Art Collection).  I am almost afraid to write on its pristine pages because I like the paintings that they publish there. Here’s one more entitled Old Farmer With Hat by our National Artist  Fernando Amorsolo done in 1929, oil on canvas.

 

 

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One Sunny Afternoon

Louie, my sixteen year old nephew sent me this early this morning. It’s  a part of his artwork collections that he posted on his timeline in FB.  It’s a pencil sketch of two kids with hook and lines.  It reminds me of those serene afternoons I spent with mom going fishing during school breaks when I was in grade school and the times I spent with my cousins looking for green beetles to play with.  Another artist in the family. My younger brother is into architecture, my other nephew paints too (he’s a Fine Arts graduate) and my daughter is into arts and crafts and makes her own greeting cards complete with drawings and cut-outs. I’m truly impressed because I could not even draw a stick figure much less make something like this.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Color

Sometimes, you need no words to express the beauty of life and all it brings.

For more of this, please click this link.

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