I Volunteer

One thing I've always wanted to do and is an item on my bucket list is to volunteer for a non-profit organization. Strangely, and for reasons unknown to me, I was never able to do it in the Philippines. Recently, I was able to volunteer for a local animal rescue society.

Hope Lives Here Animal Rescue Society is an amazing rescue organization in Central Alberta. Over the holidays, they needed a graphic designer.  Having some designing capabilities, I jumped at the opportunity to help out. Here are some of the designs I came up with:

Designing does not come easy for me. I also know I'm not very good at it. I feel that my design process is forced and I have to squeeze out the results. Unlike my former classmate and colleague, Kat Michelle, who is an amazing graphic artist, I don't feel like I have the artistic talent at all, but is just someone who knows how to use the Adobe Creative Suite more than others. Nevertheless, designing makes me really happy. There's nothing like the joy you feel at having come up with something (somewhat) beautiful. To be able to use it for a greater good is even better.

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Admiring Monet

I love paintings! There is a frame of Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night in our living room. I purchased it from Art.com around 6 years ago because I wanted to pay homage to the van Gogh--the subject of the song Vincent, with his sad life, severed ear, and tragic end. I thought then that The Starry Night was my favorite painting. But when asked recently what my favorite was, I found myself choosing Claude Monet's Impression, soleil levant.

Impression, soleil levant by Claude Monet (1872)
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris

Impression, Sunrise--I'm not exactly sure what attracts me to this piece of art. It's simple, and the image depicted is quite common, but it draws me in, like it has strings pulling me closer. I think it's the sun; the impression of the sunrise itself. It seems to give so much hope amidst the dark shades of blue--like an actual sunrise always promises a new day, a new beginning... something that we all should try to remember every day.

I've always loved Impressionist paintings. There are other works of Monet I like, as well. I badly wish I could paint, but unfortunately, that is one talent I just do not have. I guess I'll have to satisfy myself with just looking.

Argenteuil by Claude Monet (1875)
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

Water Lilies by Claude Monet (1920-1926)
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

Weeping Willow by Claude Monet (1918-1919)
Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth

What about you, what is your favorite painting?

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The Art of Ukiyo-e

The other day, someone finally said they liked the appearance of my blog. That comes as a huge relief to me because I literally spent days--like 2 or 3--looking for a blog theme that I liked. I self-hosted my own WordPress blog for the purpose of being able to fully customize its appearance, but when time came for me to pick an actual theme, I was totally confused. I think I browsed more than 500 themes, and tried on more than 30, before I finally decided on the current one. After I made up my mind about it, I further customized it to suit my preferences.

This theme is called Japan-Style. I don't know how fitting a Japanese theme is to me, but I guess it's not so far out, considering Japan is the only foreign country I've lived in. At first, I didn't care about whatever was in this theme. The important thing was that it appealed to me. Upon closer inspection, however, I realized that this was no common Japanese theme with sakura or geisha. It showcased the ancient Japanese art of ukiyo-e (I confirmed this with Annie).

Ukiyo-e, translated as "pictures of the floating world", is a genre of woodblock prints and paintings popularized in Edo (modern day Tokyo) between the 17th and 20th centuries. Woodblock prints were produced when an artist made an original drawing on ink, which would then be traced by an assistant and glued face-down to a block of wood. The wood would then be chiseled to follow the print and later inked, then pressed on to paper, sequentially and often repeatedly, to achieve the desired painting. It was a genre that became popular with the "regular people" of society, because they could be mass-produced and were cheaper than original paintings. The subject of ukiyo-e was originally the city life, especially scenes from the entertainment district. Other popular subjects were sumo wrestlers, courtesans, popular actors, and then later on, landscapes.

One of the most recognizable ukiyo-e is Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave Off Kanagawa (Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura).

One of the original types of ukiyo-e, a single-color painting by Hishikawa Moronobu.

A colored print depicting the Eijuan Tea House by Suzuki Harunobu, the artist who developed the technique of multi-color printing.

If you can see, my blog's background depicts a couple of fish--koi, to be exact, also known as carp in English. Another meaning of koi in Japanese is "love or affection", thus the koi is a symbol of love and friendship in Japan. And that, my friends, makes this theme so much more meaningful.

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