A Tour from the Past

Top to bottom, left to right.

1. Across the Universe 2. The Tale of my new Header 3. My Mother’s Family Tree 4. Curious Expeditions 5. The Bunny goes to Spain 6. Memories of April 7. Memories of March 8. Memories of the Rainy May 9. Memories of Sunny February 10. Tales about Rabbits 11. Pia’s art and the Memory of the Storm 12. The Moss and the Tree 13. My Old Header 14. My New Sketchpad 15. Rima Staines 16. Pictures of Kitty 17. Gabriel Pacheco 18. The Church Model 19. My Cathedral Model 20. Our Portrait 21. Father of the House and My Father’s Tale 22.Warfare 23. Bernt Notke’s Danse Macabre 24. Rediscovery of Old Works

The New Year has arrived! And also, it has been a year since I started this blog. And since it is its first birthday, I'd like to remember those that had happened in the past 12 months. It is quite good to recall the days of old and reminiscence on good memories. Like what I did last time, when I visited the place where I once passed through, like the hospital where I was born, the church where I was baptized, and the schools I went to before college. It is quite good to revisit them after some long, long years.

I remember when I started this blog twelve months ago when my very first entry was about the book I read about The Battles of Thirty Years War by William Guthrie. I was, and still am, fascinated by warfare as part of my childhood memories when I used to play soldiers, putting them in mock battles, with horses and dinosaurs and knights brandishing swords and weapons. And I put a picture of a morning star (a kind of mace) in the mosaic.

I wrote also about my plates and projects in school, like my pop up work, a project for my one of my most unlikeable classes since I was in grade school, Mathematics. But somehow that project worked and I got a good grade.

Speaking of projects, I also made and later talked about the model of a Cathedral façade for my Art History class. Made mostly of recycled materials and cardboards, I did it well. And also, there were two plates for my one of my favorite classes, Advanced Illustration. The first one is about the songbook for "Across the Universe" by Fiona Apple, and the second one is a portrait of my mother’s family tree, going as far as my great grand parents to my generation with houses on the head of the married male. You can look at what I am talking about.

Speaking of families, this is also the main topic of my thesis next year, which speaking about the essence of family portraits.

For the past twelve months, I also discovered and encountered artists who moved me and became inspirations of my work. There is Rima Staines who made these beautiful grotesque artworks and the colors of rust, of amber, of umber, and of brown, that makes me delighted. There are also the beautiful pictures by Kitty, those landscapes and green field makes me at ease and also gave me ideas for my stories. And there is also the hazy and wonderful work of Gabriel Pacheco, who is a favorite artist of the bunny and me. In his work, these misted atmospheres and dream landscape always fascinates me. And of course, I should not forget the old masters like Jan Van Eyck and Arthur Rackham.

The sites and realm of blogs such as the Curious Expeditions, where I am amazed by its combination of history and mystery, Sur la Lune the wonderful blog of old children’s book illustrator masters, and the other blogs who shared their lives, and thoughts, works of their art and other people’s works.

There are also the memorable months for me; the sunny February and March, the April when the Bunny and I went on our own job training; and the rainy May when we finished it, and at the same time, I was starting to paint my recent header, and some random pictures.

And also, I should not forget my old, almost forgotten works like my old header and those that have hidden in my shelves for years. Good thing that I did not give them away, but they are still hiding from me I guess.