Ok, maybe it's not the most tasteful thing but I just admire the craftsmanship.
This used to be a bottle of Sprite.
Recycled and transformed in one piece by a prisoner of the New Bilibid Maximum Security Prison near Manila, Philippines.
August 29. 2007
Maximum Security
As part of my general humanitarian mission, which besides having the most fun possible, involves also helping out kids with terminal cancer and regular visit to the New Bilibid Maximum Security Prison just south of Manila, Philippines. I give creative workshops to inmates in order to keep them from killing each other from boredom and also to provide means of livelihood.
Friends of mine do acting workshops, poetry, creative writing, etc as well.
When all is done there will be a week long series of public events at the end of October featuring the results of all those workshops.
I also write about the experience which overall is one of the crazier things I have experienced and I have seen a lot.
The prison is in the Philippines which means like everything else in this country, is organized chaos leaning towards the latter.
But, and that's a big but, it totally works.
For example. Those two washed out rubber stamps on my forearm (see picture below) and an ID that basically anybody could make by himself, were all it took for me to walk out of prison.
It seems way to lax but beside the obvious and the fact that there are only a handful of guards for 11,000 prisoners they average only about one prisoner escaping per year.
One great thing about those prison visits is that when I walk into my local pub afterwards and they asked me what I have done all day I can say: "I just got out of prison"
It works every time.
August 28. 2007
Eerywhere like such as
Ok, everybody. Please put your right arm on your heart,... hmm, no the other right arm.. yeah, that's better.
I hereby pledge allegiance to:
I personally believe that, U.S. Americans are unable to do so, because some people out there in our nation that don't have maps, and I believe that our education, like such, as in South Africa and Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should…our education over here in the U.S., should help the U.S., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future.., for our…
And here are some pictures of a fashion shoot we did on Bora.
August 21. 2007
So what's on your list.
Lists seem to be an important part of people who feel that they have to get their life in order. If I think about lists, the first thing that comes to my mind is the character of "My Name Is Earl" and his list of things he has to straighten out, to get that guy Karma happy.
Another one is Austin Power's "things to do before you die" list on which he was able to strike out one of the most important point on anyone's list, "make love to Japanese twins". Well, most important on any guy's list at least.
The only time I invoke lists is when I am overwhelmed with work and I need to try to put some order into my life. I write down everything that I have to do and then I usually loose the list.
Here is a New Times article that deals with a what seems to be a new trend in list compiling and the entertainment industry riding the wave. It seems to make people happier if they can plan their lives out as much a s possible.
Never ever in my life did I have the slightest idea that I will be doing what I ended up doing. It is not an easy road to walk but for sure it's not boring. I am so used to it that I am getting comforted by the thought that anything crazy can happen in the next minutes that will put me on a whole new path.
Maybe I do have a tiny bit of spirituality in me after all. Maybe some that Zen mentioned in this article :
"Zen has no goals," according to a traditional koan. "It is always on its way."
Boracay Island in the Philippines was voted once one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. And it is true. The beach is just absolutely breath taking. The first time I went to Bora (as it is called now since it became a clubbing beach for the hi society of Manila) nearly exactly 20 years ago. I don't have to tell you that it was a lot more pristine. I have friends who have been here in the seventies and according to them there was nobody.
20 years ago there were already a bunch of resorts, nothing fancy though. It was cheap and the food was terrible.
You can get great food these days but everything but the beach is just in an awful state. Uncontrolled building and the influx of hundreds of cars and tricycles turned the Island into another noisy, stinky and extremely ugly town.
But enjoy the pictures of the beach .
And here are some pictures of a fashion shoot we did on Bora.
August 20. 2007
Engrish
No Comment
August 19. 2007
Took it quite well
I recently saw an old friend again. I took the opportunity to tell him that I just went out to party with his teenage daughter.
He took it quite well.
It is really hard as an artist to feel an appropriate amount of pity for yourself if you are surrounded by people who pick their food out of the garbage.
Those flip flops, worn by literally billions of people in Asia and Africa are apparently really dangerous. When I read the headline to this article I was ready for the worst. I expected to read that wearing flip flops over a long period of time will give you flat feet or something like that. You know, some kind of posture problem like this guy.
Or maybe they are dangerous because of all the poisonous water snakes you might encounter on an average day.
But it turns out that Americans forgot to put warning labels on flip flops and now millions of people injuring themselves with rubber sandals.
In high school I always wanted to beat up those weird guys who were doing Kung Fu, Karate, Judo and stuff like that. For some reason which I can't recall right now, I never did.
I just recently went on my first vacation in 3 years, 3 days in Boracay, Philippines. This once gorgeous island has sadly succumbed to the greed and stupidity of the local politicians and land-owners. The beach itself is still one of the world wonders though. I have been to many beaches and there is nothing like this.
I'll talk more about Boracay later.
We went out to go island hopping on a small local boat and we passed by this island which for some totally weird reason the locals call "Crocodile Island" Where did they get THAT idea? Go figure.
Sometimes it makes me really furious that they allow all those aliens on our planet.
Any comments, constructive criticism or uncontrollable adulation?
August 16. 2007
Oktoberfest in Munich
Click on the picture to see the whole set.
One of my best friends invited me to go to Germany this October. I will take the opportunity to party my ass off at the Oktoberfest. Yes, the real, original Oktoberfest where on a roughly one hectare area, hundreds of thousands of tourists and locals consume about a million liters of beer a day continuous for two weeks.
Mmmmhhhh beer...
When I was a little kid my family and I would regularly go to the Oktoberfest as it is custom in Munich for any local with some cultural pride and/or a strong thirst. On the way home you had to walk for about a mile to the nearest city train. That stretch was lined with drunk people laying on the sidewalk and bushes. The Red Cross had people working overtime gathering them up in orange tarpaulin covered stretchers. They pretty much looked like coffins and the people laying passed out in the bushes usually didn't move much. My mum always referred to them as "Bierleichen" or beer corpses. As a little kid I believed her but at the same time I was so used to it that I had no problem with it either. It was normal for me to walk between dozens of, in my mind dead people happily chewing on some cotton candy.
Being at the right place and at the right time is closely related to how alert you are to your surroundings.
I just got this from Boing Boing .
It's a website that automatically creats a set on your Fickr account based on various criteria you can chose from. I let it chose the most interesting pictures on my Flickr account based on comments and interest of other people.
It's great tool for any artist or photographer to figure out what pictures would appeal the most to the public. A good base to start working on for portfolios, shows or other commercial applications.
Remember though as an artist, don't try to cater to this.
August 14. 2007
Commission Work
A friend of mine just made my life a lot easier by buying a painting from me and "commissioning" a series of other works. He was hesitant to "commission" me because in his mind it would inhibit my artistic influence on the artwork. Generally I would agree with him but since I really need the money I came up with a bunch of really good arguments against that.
I am just kidding.
An artist sets his own parameters. If you start painting to fit the curtains of your client you basically moved on to something way beyond art. But if your only restriction is for example a given size then I for one have no problem with that whatsoever. Many times the size of my artworks is directed by the size of the empty canvas that happens to stand closest to me when muse struck.
In this particular case I "designed" a series of paintings into the architecture of his living room. The important part of this is though, that I did that on my own and not based on his wishes. And yes I did get influenced by the character of my friend but since he is an easy going fun guy it was much more like inspiration.
I really should be working on those paintings now.
That's the other reason why I like "commission" work. I get so much other stuff done avoiding to work on the commissioned work.
The idea that life was created by a supreme being or by sheer coincidence sounds equally ridiculous to me. I can cruise on quite happily without having an alternative nor any answer on how life originated.
This is something I should have posted long time ago. It actually happened last December. My friend Niki is putting this all together.
Niki, filipino by birth, who grew up in Thailand and Uganda as one of 12 siblings of a missionary family has made it her purpose in life to bring as much fun and help to kids terminally ill with cancer. With often as little as a few more months to live, a day at the movies, at the beach or the zoo can make a magical difference for those kids.
Email me if you want to help and I'll connect you to Niki. Many of my friends have already done so.
