Feedback

Artists and would-be artists don't just live on the occasional sales alone. We also like to receive feedback from the audience. I was able to get some--naturally they're from friends who dropped by the ongoing exhibition "Sampayan Blues" at the Sanctuary Gallery of Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary in Campo Sioco, Baguio. The show is still up until Nov. 14.

Some other friends couldn't make it up (that's too much of an imposition on them), but I shared my photos of the works. Feedback they were generous with. It was enough to keep my going until I decide to return to my paints and brushes and paint for a future show and cause.

Thank you, Universe, especially for the gift of friendship that includes the virtue of encouragement.

"Kai's Magical Day," acrylic on canvas paper, collection of Robert Abaño.

Hello Babeth,

Saw your exhibit yesterday at Maryknoll. Your works are very original and different, never boring and very witty!

Congratulations! My favorite is the one with a vase and a sun on the upper right corner. Parang playful na van Gogh. :-)

Keep on painting and have a beautiful day ahead!

Lingling Maranan-Claver

"Poured My Heart Out and This Is What I Get," mixed media on canvas paper

Hi Babeth we really enjoyed your exhibit even if Dan and I were the last-comers. Ang ganda talaga! Remember nung nasa fine arts pa tayo, you used to tell me, pano ba gagawin ko sa drawing ko, walang depth. Sabi ko sa yo nun, ano ka, maganda nga e, parang folk art. Ngayon, hindi ka lang folk art, a la Picasso ka na! Gusto ni Dan yung geisha, at ako gusto ko nung Poured my heart...

Mina Rimando

Top: "Finding My Sea Legs"; bottom: "Fish for Dinner," acrylic on paper, collaborations with Kai Fernandez

Thank for sharing the fotos of the paintings in your exhibit, and the sentiments that went with the preparations for the exhibit, with your usual exquisite writing.

Your paintings are wonderful, with a wonderland look and feel about them, and yet with social messages that can't be missed.

Cora Patarata

"Light as a Kite My Angel Feels," acrylic on canvas paper

Babeth,

Congratulations on your current solo exhibit!! Too bad I couldn't make it to Baguio to see those works first-hand. I was left pondering and anticipating with trepidation, Lando's would-be handiwork as it wound its way across my own part of the north. I was also wondering how it would affect your scheduled opening. But thank God our place was spared the worst, and your exhibit too, went on as announced!

You make it so easy and uncomplicated, talking about the process of creation in your statement. I am sure a great deal of thought and planning went into it. And the seeming uncomplicatedness is what endears those works to us, your readers. I personally like the honesty and the child-like touch that infuse those pieces.

Here's to more works in the offing!

Al Vicente

Congratulations, Babeth! How your imagination flies (taking us with it)!

Hugs,
Princess Nemenzo

Writers' minds, hearts, hands at work

My painter friend, Corazon Patarata, who has retired from the foreign service, reminded me in an SMS yesterday, after she learned that I was recovering from surgery, to "go easy muna. There is a time for writing with passion again. Let it wait awhile, you will have new perspectives."

I surmise this is why we have friends apart from blood kin. We can ignore the kin's reminders to guard our health but not our friends'. I noticed many changes after the surgery to remove a tumor that turned out to be benign. Since the incision cut through the leftmost side of my face and neck (that brought about jokes before my hospital confinement that I was disappearing from the world temporarily for a face-lift or cosmetic surgery), there is still numbness and a dull, throbbing ache.

I can't chew without exerting much effort so I now prefer soups, soupy oatmeal, soupy champorado, soft breads with melted butter and cheese, viands that have broth like sinigang with veggies softened. Crunchy stuff like tortilla chips cause great discomfort and a loud ringing in my left ear, no matter how I crave for salty and meaty food. I can no longer, hope this is temporary, put the entire spoon in my mouth. Suddenly, I have to eat daintily!

My way of coping--which is what I do with my other ailments--is to keep my mind, heart and fingers busy. Just what Pope Francis recommended: use our minds, hearts and hands, think, feel and do. For God's glory.

Well, Cora, if I stop, I feel the spirit that moves me to write even a blog entry will be the one to take leave of me. I do appreciate friends' concerns.

Lissa Romero de Guia promises to bump and grind to the song "Let Me Entertain You" from the musical Gypsy. Her program includes Broadway and jazz favorites.

Ian Paolo Acosta, guitarist, singer and composer

But February is looking to be a busy month for this cultural worker. On Feb. 6, the Baguio Writers Group is mounting a pre-Valentine dinner concert, "Fever: A Night of Love Songs and Poetry," at Hill Station, Casa Vallejo, Baguio City. Featured are Lissa Romero de Guia and jazz-blues guitarist Ian Paolo Acosta, all Baguio-based talents, apart from our resident poets who'll outdo one another in passionately reading or performing their love poems.

As if pushing a concert ain't enough alongside selling tickets (only P850 each inclusive of a full-course dinner with a Moroccan theme plus a drink), the BWG "think tank" also thought of a sidelight (side show?) to our concert: a booth for "Love (Letters) for Sale."
To paraphrase new member Nash Tysmans, the BWG members blessed with good to fine penmanship will serve as Cyrano de Bergeracs to help the timid, receding or inarticulate to express their feelings for real Roxanes. But these letters can also be love letters to parents, children, pets. We can't guarantee a "Yes" to romantic proposals, and we won't accept break-up letters.

The letters don't end there. They come with a heart-shaped rum cake with semi-fondant icing baked and packaged by everyone's favorite mamita and BWG senior member, Toottee Chanco-Pacis. We know her for her to-die-for brownies, lemon squares and now, rum cake!

A Google document form has already been set up where those keen on tapping the services of eloquent love letter writers can write their specifications. Just copy and paste to another tab or window the link that follows:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yMt_SqJa1yXYpZpramYWTqUcyaYyGDHzB6ub5O5eCUU/viewform?c=0&w=1

Truly, the world I live in will not slow down to wait for the full restoration of my senses. I'm off antibiotics and pain-killers, the doctor pronounced me fit to work (does that include "to socialize", too?). Since my outer ear is numb and only parts of it will recover feeling in due time, I was told by him, half-kiddingly, that I can have it pierced in several spots and wear all the studs and earrings I want. Which may be the right accessories for a Moroccan pre-Valentine party!

Some of the BWG members at their planning meeting (from left): Merci Javier Dulawan, Nonnette Bennett, Toottee Chanco Pacis, the blogger with her grandchild, Junley Lazaga, Frank Cimatu, Ben Tapang, Padma Perez, Lissa and Jenny Cariño.