Feanne

Monday

26Jan

Collage: Hope

Monday, January 26, 2009 at 12:55PM

I have a little song to share with you.
Until I figure out how to code an audio player into this post, please download it here:

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile, even though it’s breaking
When there are clouds, in the sky, you’ll get by
If you smile, through your fear and sorrow
Smile, and there’ll be tomorrow
You’ll see the sun come shining through
For you
Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear, may be ever so near,
That’s the time, you must keep on trying
Smile, what’s the use of crying?
You’ll find that life is still worthwhile,
If you’ll just….
Feanne - Smile.mp3

Please enjoy these words while listening to the music:

This theme, hope, it’s for myself, for these shadowed times, bit it’s for you as well. My new friend affirms— we help others to heal, when we share our stories and our wounds. My own post today is a composite, semi-abstract body of words and pictures, but I hope to touch you and remind you, you are not alone!

I made this for myself the other week:

Turned out to be prophetic. I spent last week without an Internet connection at home. It was non-voluntary. Very frustrating, but also strangely liberating. Here are some of the things that I did, while I was helplessly offline:

made drawings and jewellery
designed journals
sold journals and jewellery
did not do my homework
read five books instead—
1. The Rainmaker by John Grisham
2. The House of Mirt by Edith Wharton
3. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
4. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
5. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
— the last two got me teary-eyed.
befriended a stranger through my art
had cozy conversation with my grandma
stayed up til 4am with my mom and her friends in her house
acquired five new books—
1. Goddess at Home: Divine Interiors Inspired by Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Hera, Hestia, and Persephone
2. Pattern Sourcebook: Chinese Style
3. Pattern Sourcebook: Japanese Style
4. The Yoga of Drawing: Uniting Body, Mind and Spirit in the Art of Drawing
5. Art Nouveau: Utopia: Reconciling the Irreconcilable
harassed the Internet company’s customer service representatives because of the unexplained delay in my Internet reconnection

I’d say reading is my vice. I read until I am dizzy, I tend to finish one book in one sitting. Fortunately, this vice of mine is socially accepted. :)

Offline, I felt isolated, as if my world grew small again. But it also gave me the chance to pause for a while, to just enjoy being in my room, lying down and doing nothing. Just being. I think that a tech-free day— one day in the week where I disconnect my phone and computer and interact face-to-face or read or touch leaves— would be good for me. It’s a very difficult thing to enforce on myself though. I do have this sort of invisible umbilical cord that links me to my computer. And I do love this splendid technology. But I must balance it, I must nourish the senses.

Doodling is a great activity… makes your creative mind stretch and stroll about:

Yes, I’m in a mushy sort of mood. Just spent a day with my boyfriend. He’s been away for three weeks, getting his hours done in aviation school. We had an oasis day after a long stretch of desert!

I wish you all warm hugs, oasis weekends, and spectacular music.

Love,
Feanne

Feanne |

Love Is Enough

Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 11:20PM

Feanne |

Collage: Butterflies

Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 1:57PM

I think about you all the time. Really I do. :)

There are a number of special things in today’s collage.

Image number one. The first image, with the mossy vegetating writing, reminds me of guerrilla gardening. Have you heard of that? Ingenious little subsersive phenomenon. I hope to see it pop up around my area. Maybe I can engage in it too. It’s a nonviolent, proactive, productive way of supporting green living and showing protest against the culture of mass consumption and neglective/destructive politics.

Image number three. The butterflies with the musical notes— representative of my frustrated musical ambition. In another life, I may yet pursue my dreams of becoming an opera singer!

Image number four. The lady with the swans, on a beautifully branching tree, surrounded by rainbow butterflies. That’s Tori Amos. She’s one of my favourite singers of all time… and the artwork is by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, one of my favourite fantasy artists. In short, the image is perfection! Here is Tori Amos’ lovely, gentle song, Sleeps with Butterflies. The music video itself is a work of art:

Image number five. The girl with the butterflies on her back. I can’t tell you how much I adore her top! I want to own it and wear it very often. I want to design clothes like that, translucent and tattoo-like. I think it would be appropriate for my art, because mostly, people like to get my drawings tattooed on their skin.

Butterflies have been particularly active in my artist-mind lately. Some recent work I’ve done:

Irridescent green
About longing, hope, and the spirit.

The violet dress
Clothed in delicate wings.

Vegetation
Florid ink blooming on the page… roses from the 1890’s, the period of aesthetes and decadents.

Butterfly necklaces
Irridescent jewellery I made.

The soul and the senses
Remember that Oscar Wilde quote?
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.

Desktop wallpaper for you! :) Click below to download:

The souls of butterflies (1600x1200 desktop wallpaper)

So I was working on this post, feeling a little blue actually, I’ve always been moody but there’s this persistent dark cloud that’s been bothering me lately… Suddenly a friend I hadn’t heard from in a while popped up on my Yahoo messenger and said hello. Sweet girl. :) Becky is a visual artist— photography, art direction. She does great conceptual work like this. She shared this cute song with me so let me share it with you too. The Show by Lenka. The link will take you to the music video, which I’m unable to embed here.

Bubbly song, right? I do feel better listening to it. Reason #1283874864 why friends are so important in life.
Happy 2009, everyone!

Love,
Feanne

Feanne |

Meowy Christmas!

Monday, December 22, 2008 at 10:11PM

Dear Readers, no collage today, I decided to share my Christmas dinner photos with you instead. ♥

Every Sunday of December, we have our Christmas dinners on my mom’s side of the family. She and her sisters take turns hosting the dinner. Here are photos from the one at my mom’s house. It was also the birthday celebration for my grandfather’s 79th birthday, so his brother came over too.

The picture above shows:
- my maternal grandparents
- my grandfather’s brother
- my mom, her three sisters, and two brothers— the uncles we usually only see once a year or less
- a couple of in-laws
- all us grandchildren, except for my youngest cousin, an infant girl who was asleep at that moment
All in all: My grandparents have four daughters and two sons, and a grand total of fifteen grandchildren.

I have to tell you— we haven’t been this complete in so many years!
A rare and momentous occasion, and appropriate for this time of the year. :)

My mom’s younger brother, eldest sister, me, and my Mama.
Another description of us four: A math/science/computer genius, a peacemaker/congresswoman/singer, an artist/catwoman, and an entrepreneur/artist/trendsetter.

Here is my cousin Zach in between me and my Mama. He’s a budding writer, artist, and designer! We are all very proud of him. :)

Ahhh, my very handsome boy cousins. You know, they used to be so cute, little baby boys with big eyes and round cheeks that we all loved to pinch! And then they grew up, now they go around playing basketball, talking in their low, manly voices, and growing ever taller than me. They’ll make all the girls swoon and sigh, I’m sure!

Just the other day, at the Christmas dinner at my aunt’s house, we all enjoyed a 1950’s video of Frank Sinatra’s Christmas caroling. I adore Christmas carols! I love singing them and I love hearing them. So I looked it up on YouTube for you all to enjoy… the full video is not available online, but here is a good part:
Bing Crosby & Frank Sinatra — The Christmas Song

In addition, I also enjoyed this cute rendition of Baby, It’s Cold Outside featuring Selma Blair. She’s one of my favourite actresses! It’s for a Gap ad:
Baby, It’s Cold Outside

I miss Christmas caroling. I used to do this with my choir. We went from house to house and they always fed us well, and gave us lots of money, which we’d give away to good causes. December here in the Philippines chilly, but most likely nothing compared to winter in temperate climates. I imagine it must be a different experience altogether, to go Christmas caroling all bundled up in winter clothes, to feel the throat and lungs warm up as one sings, and to enjoy the warmth inside the house after everything is done. You’ll have to tell me about that— I’ve only experienced snow once in my life! (While on vacation in Beijing with my family, a couple of years ago.) :)

See the rest from this magical Christmas set by Anton

I’m hoping you’re all enjoying a warm and fuzzy holiday season— lots of gatherings with family and friends, lots of good food and drink, lots of getting surprised at how tall your nephews and nieces are now, lots of seeing people whom you haven’t seen in years. I wish you plenty of snuggling, hot chocolate, and evenings full of music and merrymaking. And most importantly, love. Without love, there is nothing!

Love,
Feanne

P.S. I had actually planned to write about my recent creative activity— culminating in crafted accessories and photoshoots— but I wasn’t quick enough, and Anne beat me to it :P
Thank you Anne for your wonderful blog entry about this Catwoman!
The complete photosets (featuring my handmade gothic cat mask, body chain, and white leather bracelet) are here and here.

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Sunday

14Dec

Collage: Blush

Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 1:10PM

I didn’t plan on having this theme, but I found those images so compelling.

I love that gentle palette too much. I love that tender rosy tinge, especially when offset by soft grey or pale skin or saltwater grey-green or deep lustrous bluish emerald tones.

The color promises youth, freshness, fragrance, warmth. The color kisses the eye, invites fingers to touch, and provokes a secret little smile.

Carl Kleiner Art

This one really drew me in. I had to stare at it for a while before figuring out what it was. What a gorgeous moment captured on film! The splashes look like delicate webbed, foamy architecture arising from the sea.

Does that remind you of something?

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli

Venus, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, was born from the seafoam. I’ve always enjoyed Greek mythology, and Venus has always been my favourite goddess. I remember myself many years ago, when my parents first gave me that Edith Hamilton book on mythology. It is totally different from reading the original poetry, of course, but I truly appreciate how Edith Hamilton made mythology accessible to a broader audience. And of course, I love how mythology has inspired countless generations of artists to produce fantastic work like this.

Here are a couple more classical Venus paintings:
Primavera by Botticelli
The Birth of Venus by Bouguereau

This one is more recent— 1912— but still lovely, and with the same blushing palette:
The Birth of Venus by Odilon Redon

Playing with digital paint one day, I came up with my own portrait of the goddess. Here she is arising from a rose, surrounded by her doves:

Venus by Feanne

I cannot think of this palette without thinking of Marie Antoinette, especially since that eye-candy film came out a couple years back:

Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette

Let’s do some art history research. The Rococo style peaked in the 1730s, and ended around the 1780s; Marie Antoinette reigned in 1775–1793. Strictly speaking, then, most of her reign was already in the Empire period style, but the film portrays her style as being Rococo in essence. The frills, the soft pastels, the excess of silk and ribbons and lacy things, the swirls and lavish s-curves and florals and feminine shapes— all hallmarks of the Rococo style, and all present in the film’s scenery and costume.

A look at the classical paintings tells a slightly different story— the fashion looks Rococo, but the interior furnishings look more Empire style, with their deep regal colors and rectilinear edges.

A couple of examples:
Empire style interiors in this painting by Vigée-Lebrun
Showing us a rose in this painting by Vigée-Lebrun
Rococo frills and pinks in this painting by Drouais

Marie Antoinette seems to have been fond of a particular kind of pink rose. I’m not a florist, so I wouldn’t know how to identify the breed— but anyway, it’s very beautiful.

These Rococo period paintings remind me of the skillfully illustrated fairytale books I had as a child. Those princesses always had beautiful ball-gowns with full skirts— lots of layers, lots of ribbons, in delicious shimmering colors, and with the elaborate hairstyles to match:
The Swing by Fragonard
Portrait of Madame Pompadour by Boucher
Portrait of Mademoiselle Bergeret by Boucher
Apollo Revealing his Divinity before the Shepherdess Isse by Boucher

Always, I am amazed by the amount of love that classical painters pour into their works— each stroke is lovingly, painstakingly painted— every petal, every leaf, every fold in voluptuous fabrics, every delicate lady’s finger. These paintings possess a light— not an overwhelming glorious brilliance, but a gentle blushing glow, illuminating curves and lips and roses.

I may dote too much on these things. :) Tell me about your favourite classical paintings. ♥

Love,
Feanne

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Collage: Hope

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Collage: Butterflies

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Collage: Blush