The Essence of Life Through Charity Art

By Bisai Ya


What an exciting journey my humble online art café cum gallery has become. I was  so busy since it came about online on May 23, 2012. Exactly on our 42nd day in existencethe , bisai art café is now embarking on its second online echarity art auction to aid another cancer victim.

The first art auction held last May 25 to June 5th benefited a high school friend who is battling stage 4-breast cancer. In our current and second art auction outing,  we are assisting an eight-year-old girl who is fighting to survive leukemia, cancer of the blood.

Looking back, Charity wasn’t really where I’d like to position myself, as I do not possess excessive material wealth or cash that I could easily share to many people. However, my faith and creative talent, both in visual arts and marketing acumen collaborated to engage me in doing things and activities that eventually turned out to be useful for others whilst offering me personal growth and new experiences at life.

I had been in the marketing field in all of my expat life as an hotelier and marketing professional. The work skills and background over the 13 years of hard work has allowed me to look at establishing myself in the marketing industry where I thought I could put my talent and abilities to good use.

Since I fell victim to the economic recession in 2011 and lost my job, I thought it wise to look for a small but relatively controllable business I could easily manage given my background skills, talent and industry experience. I had finally set my heart on doing marketing services for a broad spectrum of clients mainly focusing on hospitality, tourism and the arts.

Having worked mainly in five star hotels and heavily exposed to business management in my previous role as hotel marketing manager, I have had opportunities to see which hotel department provides the most dynamic experience and profitability. My mom, who owns an optical clinic when dad was alive, usually tells us “one of the most profitable business you can have is anything that has to do with food. It's a win-win business if you know how to manage properly”. That statement never left my head till now.

Hence, the idea of running my own fun and homey Café etched on my head. I would often convince myself “My hands-on hotel knowledge is very valuable and this I can draw my confidence, zeal and focus.”

Meet ups with my chef friends followed thereafter allowing me to ask them for opinions, tips and suggestions. I even spoke to a hotel general manager to get a deeper insight in the business. One of the compelling advice I got from one of them was “create a niche café where you can easily stand out and be tops amongst the rest. Offer a unique service concept and great tasting food and they’ll come back for more.”

As I got home from that meeting, I sat down in my living area and looked at my paintings on the wall. I realized I haven’t been painting for quite some time now. I literally stopped painting at the time I was totally engrossed at office work.

Like a light bulb moment, I realized that my desire for café could be enhanced even more if I club my passion for the art. Emboldened with my passion I started picking up my brushes, paints and canvas. Did couple more paintings and hanged it on my wall to remind me that I should keep my art back alive if I surely wanted the café business to push through.

My paintings give me a feeling of inspiration. Art has awakened me from my deep slumber and has ignited me to do even more. I did several paintings and immersed myself out from my shell.

I returned to the art scene in Philippines slowly through networking with artist friends. I signed up to become a member for the professional artist group, the SEC registered Pinoy na Pinoy Visual Artists Association Inc. (PPVAAI) where I enrolled myself and my artist son to be active members.

It was from this group where I was able to network with fellow artists who share the same appetite for art. My membership in select art groups in facebook has allowed me to also learn more about arts for those like me are unschooled in art universities and had no formal training in art.

It was from these art groups where I was able to carry out my charity art auctions without fail from support by fellow artists who were too generous to donate excellent pieces so we could raise money for beneficiaries who has pressing need for financial support. It was from this experience that I saw a niche to be different.

Operating a business café with a lot of focus in promoting my passion for art and being able to help others through my charity art auctions is now formally conceived. Right now the café business is actively being pursued for setting up soon in Cebu, Philippines (my beloved home province). My family supports my dream for my bisai art café when I go home for good.

Meanwhile, whilst plans are still afoot in getting it operational, I am keeping myself pre-occupied in building the bisai art café brand through various art related initiatives that I do with fellow artists locally and international.

I built my own website to formally help market select art pieces of friends and initiate art networking events where we utilize the power of social media. With the emergence of social media and the impact it brings to our lifestyle nowadays, I know we can slowly build our bisai art café brand in the mindset of people, my audience, my so called market share.

Am so thankful that my exposure to many charity related initiatives has also allowed me to appreciate the beauty of my fellow human beings. I find it so amazing to be able to network with people you barely know and become their friends and share in their advocacies. All these are entwined because of one common denominator, our passion for ART.

I believe that the real essence of my life right now is being able to share the beauty of life through distributing of what is good and useful. There is so much self-fulfillment I derive when I am able to share my art, in many useful and creative ways. My ART has broadened my perspective of seeing the world in the eyes of a beholder. It allowed me to discover many wonderful ways to gather new experiences, only if I set my mind into something useful.

Fusing my dream café business with my love for ART has given me a clear vision of how to make the most money from a small commerce, understanding my profit forecast whilst indulging in my art passion and being able to help people using ART as my medium.

I never make money from any of my art auctions, my fees are 1000 percent on gratis and I usually end up spending for it myself, however, God has a way of rewarding me where my art is exposed to new would be art buyers, art enthusiasts and art collectors who later on decides to buy my humble pieces to add to their collection.

It is not so much about making money on my art, but making valuable experiences from my art that I would treasure forever. With bisai art café our mantra is … sense art … taste art … live art

Check the Save Little Lea from Leukemia - Online Charity Art Auction at www.bisaiartcafe.com Art pieces are auctioned and are posted for sale at: www.facebook.com/BisaiArtCafe.

CELSO PEPITO: POSITIVITY IN ART

By Marivir R. Montebon

Celso Duazo Pepito is known for crisp and clear lines in his works of art, and the bright color scheming. His masterpieces convey faith, love of country, and concern for the family, and in each rendition, there is a message of positivity and hope.

He has traveled extensively bringing his artistic craft with him to Singapore, Malaysia, Luxembourg and New York.  The latest project would be one in New York titled Cultural Confluence - IV, which will showcase the works of his wife Fe and artist Sonia Yrastorza at the Philippine Center in Manhattan in autumn this year, from September 24 to October 5.

Pepito is a graduate of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines Cebu College in 1981.  He has mastered Cubism in his years of visual artistry, but he has gone beyond himself in promoting the well-being of people through his art.   Excerpts from OSM! interview.

1. Before your New York gig in September, what has been your latest work exhibit?

After joining the 3rd series of "Kita: The Philippine/Indonesia Art Exchange" in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia on June 30-July 7, 2012, I had two exhibits.  The first show is a Two Man Show with Jet Florendo dubbed as FLORENDO AND PEPITO at The Gallery of Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City. Our theme for this show is focus on our "Personal Perception" about life in the Philippines; the second show is a three-man show with Antonio Alcoseba and Darby Vincent Alcoseba at Galeria Immanuel in Makati City entitled: VISUAL INSIGHTS. In this show we opted to tackle on our journey as artists, moving with flow of our own evolution as painters- leading us to a more free sense of our expression

2.  What do we expect to see in your New York exhibit at the Consulate?

In the CULTURAL CONFLUENCE-6 in New York on September 24 to October 5, 2012,  we are trying to manifest the culture in us as Filipinos, visually present them unto the kind of viewers in America, and hopefully, provide them the opportunity to appreciate our culture as Filipinos through our arts.  We find it a privilege to immerse ourselves with the rich American art and culture that can possibly strengthen our perception as Filipino artists.

3. Who is your mentor in visual arts?

I will always attribute it to the late Martino Abellana who has given me the opportunity to learn and understand the basic tenets in painting. My shift to another style is a product of the encouragement of my friends: Wenceslao "Tito" Cuevas, Jr. and Edgar Mojares.

4. What makes a painter like you prolific and accepted by the community?

In the early years of my practice as a painter, my concentration was to develop my artistic skills. I didn't care that much whether the public will appreciate or accept my kind of art. After painting for thirteen years in the direction of my teacher, I have finally realized that I have to embark on my own style that can provide me with my own identity as a painter.

In 1994, i have started to develop my brand of Cubism. It is in this style that I have found the true freedom in expressing myself. My encounter with the teachings of Opus Dei in the same year has also provided me the opportunity to understand my role as a painter, gave me a deeper meaning in what I do and finally provided me with a greater purpose in life. Believing that as a painter, I can contribute much in the development of my community.

Art should not only be limited to creating beautiful things but it must go beyond it, looking forward to contribute more in nation building. It is perhaps in doing something for my community that the people have started to appreciate my art. With such kind of appreciation, I came to understand that I have the greater responsibility to do more in the spirit of helping my community into a more responsive one.

5. Is competition tough? How do you survive?

I have always considered my colleagues in the arts as inspiration rather than competitors. When I see good art, it keeps me going, it enables me to create more. Making an extra mile in what I do, simply manifesting my own aspirations as a person, or perhaps, trying to be different from the others, are ingredients that keep me alive in my artistic journey.

6. How can an artist survive using this God-given talent without being compromise to commercialism? Or be killed by commercialism?

Any artist who has the passion to do his thing can surely survive his art. But surviving is not the sole purpose of painting. To contribute for something different is even more noble than personal recognition. Expressing one's personal sentiments and observation makes him more unique, therefore very difficult to be followed or commercialized, this is so, because the product of his creativity is based on his own personal opinion.

7. What is your distinction as an artist from the rest of artists in Cebu?

Every artist has always its own distinction as long he does not let himself be totally influenced by other people. Expressing his own passion as a person is his gift of uniqueness. No other people can perfectly express himself than him. In my case, I have used my art to entice my viewers to understand my advocacy as a Filipino painter.  Foremost, I encourage them to appreciate the presence of God in the their lives.

As a Filipino, I wish to use my art to appeal to my brothers - to love our country, there is no other kind of people that can love our country that much, than us. Taking care of our very own family, strengthening our ties with them is simply our very own testament that indeed we care for our nation. Creating a stronger family will surely contribute to creating a strong and better community. Being positive in what we do can simply make us hopeful in celebrating the best meaning of our lives.

Putting these ideas in my paintings are what differs me from other artists not only in Cebu, but perhaps from other countries , as well.

8.  Plans, perspectives in the visual arts.

'Though the art scene in the Philippines is developing positively, there are areas in the country that needed support. In Cebu, for example, we lack the infrastructure to house the products of creativity of the Cebuano artists. So far, we only have few galleries that promotes our talents. We lack art museums that can facilitate the rapid growth of art awareness and appreciation in the Cebuano community. We are deprived of an Art Center that can truly house the artistry of the Cebuano painters.

Part of my vision is to help establish more venues that can promote the works of our local talents. To help facilitate this plan is to establish a foundation that can professionally run this kind of facilities and help seek more funding for this project. I am also trying to make a linkage among Asian artists to facilitate a better understanding and cooperation among our neighbors in Asia. We are also trying to extend our reach to Europe and America in the hope of giving us wider perspective in developing our art. Lately, we are also embarking on making art as part of the tourism industry in the country.



[caption id="attachment_1053" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Myalphay.com/Marivir
For the benefit of 5th Avenue Lions Club[/caption]

Filipino Style Spaghetti

Filipino Style Spaghetti

It is the Filipino version of the ever-popular Italian pasta. My version requires use of brown sugar, sweet Italian sausage and banana catsup.
I know it is weird to have some of these ingredients, but it brings up a completely new flavor that is totally Filipino.
I made this for our Sunday lunch upon my daughter’s request.

Try this recipe. So easy and affordable! All ingredients are from ALDI except the banana catsup- you can buy it in any Filipino or Asian store.

Ingredients:
•    1 lb. spaghetti
•    1 small bottle banana ketchup
•    1 small can tomato paste
•    6 small cans tomato sauce
•    ¼ cup brown sugar
•    1 lb ground beef
•    1 small onion, cubed
•    Minced garlic
•    1 package sweet Italian sausage
•    Salt & pepper to taste
•    Shredded cheddar cheese
•    Cooking oil

Cooking Procedure
1.    In a large pot with water, bring to a boil.
2.    Add the spaghetti noodles and cook until tender (see package for cooking time) then set aside.
3.    Heat oil and brown the sweet Italian sausage on both sides. Set aside.
4.    Using the same oil, sauté the garlic and onions.
5.    Add-in the ground beef, season with salt and pepper and cook until done.
6.    Add-in the tomato sauce, banana catsup, tomato paste, and brown sugar then simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
7.    Place the sauce on top of the cooked noodles and add some cheese.
8.    Serve hot & enjoy!

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Ruth D. Ezra is a culinary queen in her own right through experience and training. She is a bookkeeper by profession at AllState Roadside Services in Northbrook, IL.  Her greatest delight is serving good and healthy food to her husband Heman and only daughter, Isabelle. Kit would love to receive feedback on her recipes, and exchange them with yours at ezraruth@comcast.net.

Dolphy and Belly Laughter

By Marivir R. Montebon

The past week was a bit sentimental with the passing on of highly respected Philippine comedian Dolphy. The New York Times featured him in a fitting article of someone well-loved in Philippine entertainment. Dolphy's humor and musicality was every inch representative of the Filipino spirit of laughter and natural comic.

He was so much a part of the Filipino household, through the boob tube in two of the longest running TV sitcoms John En Marsha and Home Along the Riles. I am a big fan of Dolphy, having followed through John En Marsha as a child. It was my early exposure of what was the Philippine funny, and remarkably in a family setting.

In that show, written and directed by equally brilliant funny director, the late Ading Fernando, humor takes centerstage in the Filipino family's life, in the midst of odds (son-in-law and mother-in-law contemptuous relationship) and poverty. It mirrored Philippine society, how most Filipinos take things as a breeze despite material deprivation. It is a God-given trait to laugh at our own adversities.

Years later, I saw Dolphy again in another sitcom, Home Along the Riles, which like John En Marsha, poked humor at the lives of people living along the train tracks (riles) in the slums of Manila.

When I did my research for a story on the urban poor in Manila, along the riles, I remembered Dolphy's Home Along the Riles, and thought, how amazing for Philippine actors to dash humor in describing difficult lives.  It inspired me to pepper my story with humor, because indeed, the shanty I slept in shook each time the train passed by. How could the people ever sleep in this part of the city, I wondered.

Dolphy will be terribly missed. He leaves behind a shining career of more than 60 years of putting laughter in Philippine households.  That is hard to beat.

In our 12th week, OSM! features young leaders of the Eastern Seaboard of the US, upon the initiative of the Migrant Heritage Commission. They will attend the World Youth Conference at the United Nations in New York in August, including OSM!'s digital and content editor Leani Auxilio. Congratulations and way to go, young Filipinos!

We also feature Pinoy Spaghetti, a unique adaptation of the original Italian cuisine. Take it from Ruth Ezra in her Kit's Kitchen.

Finally, here's a note on laughter.  Various medical studies show that laughter adds to the number of hours in our lives.  So take time to laugh, belly laugh, laugh till you cry. For a Filipino, that is easy to do. Like praying, laughing comes to us quite naturally. I love it.

The Poetic Justice of Simeon Dumdum Jr.

By Marivir R. Montebon

A colleague at the Cebu media once confided to me, 'We all love Simeon Dumdum. We scamper to edit his copy, because we don't just edit it, we just enjoy it.'

Before the readers, the editors are the first to love Simeon Dumdum, Jr. because they glide on his flawless composition of an article. Once endeared by the media, any writer is easily accepted by the reading public. And such of course, is Simeon Dumdum, a celebrated poet and respected judge in Cebu City where he served as Regional Trial Court Executive Judge.

He was born in the northern town of Balamban, Cebu on March 7, 1948, where he grew up and had his schooling in Catholic schools. He attended St. Francis Academy in high school and at St. Clement's College in Iloilo City, where he did a year of college. In Ireland, he went to University College in Galway.

For some twist of fate, Dumdum may have been a priest, but left the seminary to take up law and later became a respected lawyer and judge.

While practicing the legal craft, Dumdum has published five books - The Gift of Sleep (poems), Third World Opera (poems), Love in the Time of the Camera (essays), Selected Poems and New (poems), and My Pledge of Love Cannot be Broken (essays).

He won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for English poetry five times,and the Manila Critics Circle's National  Book Award three times.  In 2005, he received a medallion for writing the best decision in a criminal case, second level courts, in the Judicial Excellence Awards sponsored by the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

OSM! had the opportunity to interview him.

1. What is the greatest inspiration for you when you write your poems?

I wait for the moment when I 'see"--when I find new relationships, arrangements, meanings in the familiar world. It is not so much inspiration as discovery that prompts me to write a poem.

2. As a professional writer, does inspiration matter more than deadline? or is deadline an inspiration itself?

As regards the writing of poems, I set my own deadlines, but they are not strictly deadlines, more of an intention or mood induced purely for the purpose of opening the tap of creative juices within my subconscious.

3. And how is it that you became a Judge, it is a totally different world from literature and poetry?

I was a poet before I became a judge, and even now I still write poems. The law and literature are just aspects of the same life
and do not cancel each other out. In fact, they somehow reinforce each other.

4. Which self-expression are you happiest? As a Judge or Poet?

Being a judge has its own fulfillment. If I may use an analogy from the Gospels, as judge I am like Martha, as poet, like Mary.

5. How does one become a celebrated writer? It is not something to bring in so much food on the table, right? But what is it for,
its purpose, meaning?

One becomes a true human being first before one, if one has the inclination, becomes a writer. Whether one becomes a celebrated writer or not is for the future to decide. Art makes one rich, not materially but spiritually.

6. Advice to young aspiring poets and writers...how to better their craft.

To improve in one's craft, one must exercise it regularly. At the same time, one must read about it, and learn from others. It's the same in any other craft. Exercise and learn.

[caption id="attachment_1053" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Myalphay.com/Marivir
For the benefit of 5th Avenue Lions Club[/caption]

Walk the Talk

WALK THE TALK
By Marivir R. Montebon

In one of the thousand international meetings at the United Nations New York Headquarters recently, I had the time to cover the 5th Forum on the Eradication of Poverty which is the side event of the Annual Ministerial Review of the UN's Economic and Social Council.

Meetings like these always meant having a whole bunch of statistical information on the subject matter, as to how much has global poverty risen, how much has it been reduced locally, youth participation in local governance and businesses, etcetera, etcetera. The statistics are simply overwhelming.

The challenge with technocrats at the UN is how to put a human face on the kind of work they are putting together. At the forum, it was pleasant to know that they noted of my suggestion, to qualify how a woman micro-entrepreneur has effectively lifted herself from poverty in a given period of time. We need case studies, we need stories.

Silently but surely, I am privy to the fact that there are thousands, if not millions of well-meaning groups and individuals who are working together to make the world a little better. Their stories, not statistics will normally land in the papers and the digital highway, and will be most inspiring.

For that, I will have to mention again OSM! maiden issue cover Merly Barrette Barlaan who is well on her way on the dream highway of eradicating poverty right in her own hometown in Montesunting, Bohol. A thousand and one Moringa trees must have been grown by now, greening the landscape and adding money into the pockets of mothers and fathers. Most of all, ensuring good health from their own backyards. I will never grow tired of telling this again and again, like a progress report to readers who want to believe that good things are being undertaken at the local level.

More power to you, Merl and your team!

OSM! features today California-based sales engineer and awesome citizen Gisela Doherty Bitz who takes life as a breeze, regardless of the storms it ocassionally unleashes. I am hats off for Gisela's magic, a wonderful mix of the Eastern and Western cultures of her parents, being American and Filipino.

Enjoy our 11th issue today, dear awesome readers. OSM! is three months old, but has a readership of 10,000 all over the world! I am jubilant and grateful!

Mango Strawberry Gelatin

MANGO - STRAWBERRY GELATIN

Ingredients:

1 Oikos Greek Yogurt-Strawberry flavor

1 cup Silk Pure Almond-Vanilla

2 packets unflavored gelatin

2 Manila mangoes shredded

1 can condensed milk

Procedure:

• Peel the mangoes and shred.
• Add the condensed milk and yogurt. Blend 'till smooth.
• Microwave the Silk Pure Almond-Vanilla until hot.
• In addition, sprinkle the gelatin over the hot Silk Pure Almond-Vanilla until completely dissolved.
• Mix the gelatin mixture with the mango mixture and stir.
• Pour into a molder or any baking dish.
• Refrigerate until set.

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Ruth D. Ezra is a culinary queen in her own right through experience and training. She is a bookkeeper by profession at AllState Roadside Services in Northbrook, IL.  Her greatest delight is serving good and healthy food to her husband Heman and only daughter, Isabelle. Kit would love to receive feedback on her recipes, and exchange them with yours at ezraruth@comcast.net.