Foot and Fire

The Metropolitan Museum of Art or The Met has shown me two wonderful things when I visited it. I was able to see a real mummy, sphinx and statue of pharoah Mentuhotep and this 1787 oil painting on canvas by Jacques-Louis David.  Just before making this blog, I checked the wikipedia entry on this one to see if my own appreciation adds up to it, only to find out that I got my own understanding of the painting.  Wiki says, " The Death of Socrates (French: La Mort de Socrate) is an oil on canvas painted by French painter Jacques-Louis David in 1787. The painting was part of the neoclassical style, popular in the 1780s, that depicted subjects from the Classical age, in this case the story of the execution of Socrates as told by Plato in his Phaedo.[1] In this story, Socrates has been convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens and introducing strange gods, and has been sentenced to die by drinking poison hemlock. Socrates uses his death as a final lesson for his pupils ...

The Spoliarium at the National Museum It is huge and still in good condition given that it was made in 1884, and what is more delightful is that we can actually come closer to this national treasure at the National Museum. Being able to get close to the Spoliarium is a warm welcome to every Filipino who has the heart and interest to see for real a national patrimony.  On the left side are the spectators who wanted to loot the dead gladiators while on the center, the dead gladiators are pulled up like animals devoid of human dignity and on the right side, a woman is bent and evidently crying over a dead gladiator. A man holding a lamp is also seen on the background. The gladiator represents the Philippines while the looters are those who deny freedom to our country. The woman represents our mother country while the man represents our heroes' enlightenment and seeking for freedom.    Yes, the subject Spoliarium is reflective of a Spanish culture since it is t...

A friend of hers with a Lady Bug,  a good luck insect in Europe.  This is a favorite of mine! Her portraits caught my attention. The faces in them have the surprising rawness and life. She has the talent in rendering faces that I cannot believe that she picked up the brush and easel only about six months ago; it appears to me that she has been doing this for a hundred years already. Her portraits are not mute faces; the eyes tell stories. Also, they have either ladybug, puma, butterflies, owl or violets with them. Self-portraits are most of them; subtle storytelling of a woman who found her art. She rejoices in her milestone in having her works of art part of the lively art scene in Monaco as well as UNESCO but little did she know that it is not the outward recognition that I wished to congratulate her for. It is her inward growth -- of finding her art and her expression -- which allowed her to fly like a Mariposa butterfly transformed from a larva to a pretty winge...

One of the ways to kill time when one is waiting for the angry sun to set is to try a hand at painting instead of the noisy arcade where now seems to imitate the casino slot machines.... Here is what we did for about 45minutes. Had i not helped the little guy, we would be ending up finifhing the same in an hour and a half for sure with monotonous color. He did the hippo and the lion. I did the zebra and the tiger. Lol This activity was once a hit and now it's coming back... The figurine prices range from 30 to 200 and we paid 10php for each brush.this madagascar-themed figurine costs 140php. It was fun....here is the photo of our finished product.