Category Archives: Art

It's more fun in the Philippines

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Just came from the 2nd annual Kulinarya event put together by the Philippine Department of Tourism and Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco. To promote the Philippines, the new slogan “It’s more fun in the Philippines” was all over the place. It inspired me to quickly make a Baybayin version saying “Mas masaya sa Pilipinas”.

Feel free to pass it around. With this already so recognizable to Filipinos, this image will help people learn Baybayin. You can download a high-res version on my Baybayin Facebook page

Here’s the original

Pistahan recap – Live Art, Jose Rizal, Baybayin School and toys!

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Once again, Malaya Designs and Baybayin.com promoted Baybayin for 2 days during the Pistahan festival in San Francisco.

Great weekend for us and the Filipino community. We held the 1st Filipino themed custom toy show in the US (I believe), did multimedia presentations on Jose Rizal’s Baybayin hardwriting, Baybayin School module presentation, Ray was burning bamboo live, painting, scribbling and good ‘ole conversations.

Also as usual, FREE “translations” galore

Cultural Artist to begin Art Exhibition at Bay Area Art Gallery

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Linen Life Gallery is proud to present artist, Christine Balza. The reception will be held on January 23, 2011 at 6 – 9 pm at, 770 East Fourteenth Street Downtown San Leandro, CA and is free and open to the public
Christine Balza’s mixed media on canvas, ceramic, and jewelry, amongst others, expresses her Filipino-American experiences. Inspired by a long, lost script, Baybayin, Christine brings ancient expressions forward to modern day.

Baybayin script is a writing system not actively used since the 1800’s. The pre-Spanish symbols were used for commerce, a means of messaging neighboring villages of current events and can be dated as far back as 900ad. Baybayin lost favor to Roman alphabet and eventually was considered obsolete. Christine Balza use of art to awaken others curiosity to little known cultural traditions and follows up with workshops and seminars (TBA) on the basic use of Baybayin. She has been interviewed by Sharon Chin of CBS-5 and Henni Espinosa of Balitang America, TFC

*Biography and photographs of Christine Balza and her art work are available upon request. www.suku-art.com

Linen Life Gallery is located 770 East Fourteenth Street Downtown San Leandro, CA and has been nominated for a “Shine a Light Award.” Owner, Darrell F. Robinson has relocated the gallery from Emeryville, CA to its current address. www.thelinenlifegallery.com

Christine Balza of Dublin, CA is available for interview. Please contact email suku@suku-art.com

Baybayin event in Houston, Texas

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I recently had a conversation with artist Minette Mangahas regarding her Baybayin art project in Houston, Texas. Check it out if your in the area.

Artist talk: Thursday, March 25th
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 27
Installations on view: March 27, 2010 – June 20, 2010

“No longer bound to a sense of having to restrict one’s focus, material, or genre, many contemporary artists of color move back and forth between past and present, between history and fiction, between art and ritual, between high art and popular culture, and between Western and non-Western influences. In doing so they participate in multiple communities. “
-From English Is Broken Here by Coco Fusco, participating artist

Project Row Houses is excited to announce the opening of Artist Installation Round 32: eco, xiang, echo: meditations on the african, andean & asian diasporas. These Artist Installations will be on exhibit from March 27, 2010 through June 20, 2010 and are free and open to the public. There will be an Artist/Community Talk on Thursday, March 25th at 7:00 p.m. in our main building at 2521 Holman Street.

More info

Asian Art Museum recap

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Had a great time at the Asian Art Museum on Sunday 12/6 for Parol and Baybayin demo with Ray from Malaya Designs. People learned how to make a parol and learn about Baybayin. Ray carved bamboo tiles on the spot. I brought over some of my prints and paintings as well as my book.

Masamang balita galing sa mga bituin

Malakas

Mahal

Ka

Showing some artwork

Ray carving bamboo

People making parols

Here’s my nude parol. Guess what I’ll be doing with it?

Someday my love will come

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Been working on a few concepts that would mashing-up fashion editorials and Baybayin. My wife is a stylist and former fashion editor for a few glossy magazines when we lived in the Philippines. My Baybayin and her eye for style is the perfect match. Below is a sample shot I took with my iPhone. The Baybayin reads “Isang araw dadating ang sinta ko”. While I think it came out nice, there is one problem…..we forgot to remove her wedding ring. Finished product should be done soon as I plan to present it at my Asian Art Museum event on 12/6.

Domingo

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I had a commission to do some artwork for Domingo. This is a tricky one to translate becase it looks straight forward. Enter it in the online translator and it would spit out Do-Mi-Ngo. While that would be a correct in a literal sense, it’s wrong when translating to Baybayin. Since it’s pronounced Do-Ming-Go, it would be Do-Mi-Go in Baybayin.