For the meantime, a peek of our classroom photoshoot…

IT 101 Section 1 Students

IT 101 Section 2 Students

IT 101 Section 4 Students

MGT 286 Students (MM II)

Then during one of our long weekend getaway in the scenic Guisi Lighthouse and Heritage Cottage in the spectacular island of Guimaras, Jing Torrecampo, our Master, in one of our conversations, passionately shared with us how she discovered her creative side by joining a painting class helmed by the Supreme Master Jhone and her involvement with the Alla Prima Art Circle in Bacolod City.

We were amazed of how Jing appreciated the Guimaras Bay unset peeking through the antiquated windows of the age-old Guisi Lighthouse, and declared that it is an excellent subject for a seascape. We were also stunned when Jing, while we were swimming and boating would talk about the rhythm of the waves, the spectrum of the sunlight, the texture of the sand, and the varying intensities of the colors of coral reefs, sea grasses and clown fishes. Surely, we all thought, that this woman named Jing, who breaths and dreams of easel, brushes, canvas, emulsion and linseed oil seems to express herself fully in the most creative and liberating way.

And so we told her, “Master Jing, bring us to the light!”.

And she boldly answered us, “Sure, how about seeing all of you next Sunday!”

Then our Sundays are never the same again.

The first Cre8 Iloilo painting workshop, with the module based on the Story of the Seven Days of Creation, had its humble beginnings in the mushrooms of UP Visayas on the second Sunday of July 2010. The original students were Carol, Beth, Duvince and Ro. When Carol and the rest posted in FB their workshop pictures at work and posing with their first creations, it created quite a buzz that it attracted other wannabe-artists. The FB postings was so viral that in the next Sundays, the number of students increased, old, a bit old, young and very young alike— the Firmeza siblings Celine and Justin, Gracious, BG, Jay, myself, Jill and the Luison siblings, Jell, Raf and Pao, in that order. Because of the increase in the number of students, the workshop was moved to a bigger venue. From UPV, the next Sunday sessions was then held at the waiting sheds at West. We need to use our charm and befriend the security guards to allow us to enter the school campus on the weekend.

We have seen our creative talents in painting soar. From 9 x 12 canvasses, we migrated to bigger canvases. We went beyond acrylic paint and tried oil. We painted abstract, seascapes, trees, still life, fishes, birds, land animals, portraits—-just about anything that goes with the movement of the brushes in our hands and the dictations of the beating of our hearts. Indeed, God has created this world a lovely place and that’s more than enough reason for us to appreciate it, cherish it, and paint a picture of it.

It has been almost a year since that first Sunday of Cre8 Iloilo, and here we are, presenting our first creations.

We can now confidently say, like our master Jing, we now breath the same air and dream in the same wavelength— we breath and dream of easel, brushes, canvas, emulsion and linseed oil.

May the works of our little hands and the reflections of our inmost beings depicted in our works will make this moment extraordinary for you, as it had made ours extraordinary many, many Sundays ago.

Lord, when You will the time is right
In You there’s joy in strife
For Your will I’ll give my life

To ease Your burden brings no pain
To forego all for You is gain
As long as I in You remain

Because You will it, it is best
Because You will it, we are blest
Till in Your hands our hearts find rest

O Lord, my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you.
Teach my heart where and how to find you.
You are my God and you are my All and I have never seen you.
You’ve made me and remade me,
you have bestowed on me all the good things I possess,
but still i do not know you.
I have not yet done that for which I was made.
O Lord, my God, teach me to seek you.
I cannot seek you unless you teach me,
or find you unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire, let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you, let me love you when I find you.

It was a week before the first day of class when nanay told me to dress up and accompany her. I had no clue where we’re going until we rode a green Kimberly jeepney. We were heading for calle real. Nanay made her “sa lugar lang” in front of Socorro Take Home Counter. I thought she’d buy me a waffle dog. It’s Socorro’s specialty and bestseller. But I was wrong. We entered not Socorro but Commoner. Then, she told me to choose from among the hanging backpacks on the walls. “Really?” was on the tip of my tongue but that was shunned by my reflex to choose. I picked the white one with red stripes, of course, with a grin.

I had always thought of the backpack as the coolest bag ever designed. I never let go of my backpack as my official carrier of books and school stuff until my fourth year high school. As Cattleya Notes became a fad for college students, I choose not to carry a backpack. One day, as I was delivering my lines during our practical examination in public speaking, my professor took notice of my posture— my uneven shoulders and slouching back. He told me such posture was attributed to the heavy backpack I carry during my grade and high school days. I attempted to object but flashes of memories flooded my mind.

I then recalled what’s inside my backpack in those years. It contained a textbook for each of the 8 subjects plus 8 lecture notebooks and 8 assignment notebooks. My backpack also carried a metal Batman pencil case containing  four pencils, four ballpens, a two-hole sharpener and two transparent erasers. And on Fridays, add to that load a pair of tennis shoes and white shorts for my P.E. class and an art envelope containing No. 16 Crayola, drawing notebook, Artex watercolor, and Orion ruler. Yes, my backpack would exceed the baggage weight limit when you board an aircraft. I really can’t imagine how I managed to carry it all those years— to think I was only weighing one-third of my present weight.

Now that I have grown with age, it seems that I still carry a load on my shoulders and my back— not a heavy backpack filled with books and school stuff, but life’s backpack filled with unnecessary burdens. I must admit—these unevens my soul and slouches my being: things I worry which are actually beyond my control, grudges to my unloyal friends and sworn enemies I keep and nurture, past failures resurrecting every time I fail, insecurities brought about by discontentment, the desire to please everyone to appear “cool”, guilts forgiven yet continue to persist, effects of perfectionism and the list continues. With such burdens to carry, it had caused and is causing me pain. If there is Alaxan for the soul, I should have taken a tablet every 6 hours. If there is Efficasent Oil for one’s being, I should have soaked in it. But there are none and there will be none.

I should have unloaded my backpack. If I had, my shoulders would have been even and my back would have been straight.

I should unload my life’s backpack. Carrying unnecessary burdens spoils the journey.

The Statue of Liberty with facts

There she is!

Liberty, I am with you!

Being Liberty and chasing it!

The first time I knew about the statue named Liberty was in 1989.  I was in Grade Six then and one of our lessons in Sibika are tourist and historical spots around the world. What is so fascinating about this Lady? For me back then, it is just one statue built along that strip near the Villa Beach.

As I grow older, my interest with Statue Liberty grew. And so, one day, after 20 years, I decided to pay her a visit.

Here are some interesting and fun facts about dear Lady Liberty:

• Official dedication ceremonies held on Thursday, October 28, 1886
• Total overall height from the base of the pedestal foundation to the tip of the torch is 305 feet, 6 inches
• Height of the Statue from her heel to the top of her head is 111 feet, 6 inches
• The face on the Statue of Liberty measures more than 8 feet tall
• There are 154 steps from the pedestal to the head of the Statue of Liberty
• A tablet held in her left hand measures 23′ 7″ tall and 13′ 7″ wide inscribed with the date JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776)
• The Statue has a 35-foot waistline
• There are seven rays on her crown, one for each of the seven continents, each measuring up to 9 feet in length and weighing as much as 150 pounds
• Total weight of the Statue of Liberty is 225 tons (or 450,000 pounds)
• At the feet of the Statue lie broken shackles of oppression and tyranny
• During the restoration completed in 1986, the new torch was carefully covered with thin sheets of 24k gold
• The exterior copper covering of the Statue of Liberty is 3/32 of an inch thick (less than the thickness of two pennies) and the light green color (called a patina) is the result of natural weathering of the copper