Off to Sandog

punta kaming mag-anak sa san diego. dun kami magnew-new year.
happy new to all!!

eto ang resulta ng pasko. sabi ng utol ko... ano kayang pangalan ng baboy na ito???

Bathroom Art

i just read an article in the sf chronicle about "visual politics." the writer mentioned something about the impotency of art to change minds. then in the last part, the writer suggested a different criteria which i think wasn't really different because a lot of artists have been doing it before. he said: 'criterion of effective political art: work that prizes the play of the mind above ideology. even above solidarity.'

if art is impotent, why bother to be poetic? would i bother to be poetic for the critics just to be accepted to the mainstream? or do i need to be poetic because i know art is impotent? i remember watching the war boys (before iraq 2) marching in the UN beside 'guernica' without even noticing the painting. picasso’s guernica is for display only. there's no other meaning to it. maybe it's good for anybody's bathroom beside anybody's shit.

my friend england hidalgo and i thought about the art impotency thing and we concluded to take poetry off of art. we'll just say what we want. sabihin na natin na puki ng ina nyo mga gago. wala nang paliguy-ligoy pa. we're just wasting our time being poetic. what for and for whom? why waste my time for somebody to hang my art in their bathrooms beside their shit?

hay buhay.




i met ninang barb on christmas eve. she gave miro 3 books for christmas. thanks ninang barb! swerte nitong si miro at magiging wide reader. photo courtesy of my bey.

Sixteen Skulls

Artwork for Christmas 2005.
Oil on sixteen 16X20 canvases.

A DAY AT THE TATTOO SHOP

I spent the whole afternoon at ariel’s tattoo shop. i learned a lot yesterday and as promised here are some pictures.

ariel did 4 tattoos yesterday. a few women came in looking for designs and i helped them choose the designs they wanted. but i found it a bit shallow that their purpose why they wanted tattoos was for people to see when they go clubbing. i mean you will not go clubbing when you’re 50 so you better have a deeper reason than that. well i guess i’m too old for clubbing that’s why. plus i didn’t even go clubbing when i was younger. opinyon ko laang naman.

one guy came in, went straight to ariel who was busy tattooing somebody. the guy lifted his shirt and showed us a huge dragon tattoo all over his back and asked ariel how much it would cost him to improve his tattoo. when ariel saw the tattoo, he blurted - hey i know you.

i found that funny because ariel didn’t know the guy until he saw his tattoo. ariel told the story about the tattoo. it was done inside prison using one needle. we thought it looked great. i just saw on discovery channel how inmates made tattoos. they improvise on cassette tapes and guitar strings as needles and used india ink. i didn’t know india ink can be used. robert (photo below -bald guy with piercings) explained further that what made the guy’s tattoo lighter in color was because inmates only have access to india ink which is lighter compared to commercial inks they use outside.

ariel told him it would cost him 1 grand. they haggled until ariel told him to decide how much he wants to pay and he’ll accept. the guy said he would come back.

robert intimidated me at first. you know the perception about people with tattoos. he was there the whole afternoon. tambay lang and mostly answering ariel’s phone calls. when we saw ‘korea’ tattooed on his back... john asked him were you from the north or from the south. hahaha. see how we change our perception just because of names? specially because how north korea got demonized just because they‘re ‘enemies’ of this country in disguise as democratic.

after hanging out with robert for a while. my perception of him now is that he’s a pussycat. very nice guy.

by the way john (in the picture) introduced me to ariel and he also encouraged me to learn body art. what do i got to lose so i’m doing it. i knew john way back in our advertising days in manila. that was about 15 years ago.

Sisig at Tatu

kakatapos ko lang magtadtad ng liempo, atay, sibuyas at siling haba. bumibisita ang utol ko from san diego at pinagluto ko sila ng sisig. masasabi kong panalo ang pagkaluto dahil nagustuhan nila. sorry alang pictures kaya eto na laang...




sketch for a tattoo para kay ariel cruz. di ko pa alam kung paano mag link kaya paki tingnan na lang ang link nya sa baba. under training ako as tattoo artist. $500.00 ika ni ariel ay kumpleto na ang tattoo set mo. meron nang tattoo gun, inks at needles. pero di pa ako bumibili dahil nago-obserba pa lang ako sa ngayon. i'll be in ariel's shop tomorrow so i hope i can show you some pictures tomorrow. gusto kong magpa-tattoo ng ipis pero ayaw ni millette not because it's an ipis pero dahil daw in case miro needs some blood ay disqualified ako. hmmm... san kaya tayo pupulutin kung ala tayong kapamilya ano? not that tattoos are bad but in other situations like drugs and alcohol. kayo, anong drug of choice n'yo?

i asked billy - the other tattoo artist at the shop if it's okay to be a tattoo artist even if you don't have a tattoo. he said it's okay. abangan na laang natin ang susunod na kabanata.

Pusod Berkeley

we took out the paintings yesterday at pusod. thank you mike, tita em and company for everything. chinese food was good. they were giving away free stuff. things they were discarding at pusod. i got a lot of assorted panels and some pieces of cloth that i could convert into canvas. plus i got an old school karaoke machine plus a vhs player. wow sulit! sinong unang kakanta?

millette, me and miro went straight to the blick store formerly the art store because i got this 30% discount coupon. i used it to replenish my supply of matte medium. this is what i use to transfer image onto canvas. i bought a gallon. $47.50 minus 30 percent. magkano yun pare?

i got sad when i saw those outrageous prices for art materials. art is bull! no wonder why a lot of artists only paint cute stuff. how can you experiment on a 40 dollar canvas? only rich people can do that. i think it’s part of the government’s conspiracy with the corporations (blick) so that artists will not rebel. they make them expensive to force you to paint stuff for the living room because if you don’t, who will buy your art experimentations unless you’re famous. hay buhay.

i hate to see other people at the store seriously looking to buy those stupid art materials without realizing that they are being used. hoy tang ina mo wag kang paloko dyan gago! feel na feel mo pa yang pagka-artist mo... TANGA! who said that oil paint and acrylic are the only materials for art? galing yan sa mga ninuno n’yong arogante at matatakaw. imagine what a third world artist could afford. i hate art being only for the elite. i refuse to be part of them. gibain yang art na yan!

this is another story that i think i should tell. in my last post i greeted santi bose and talked about lille - his daughter...

after we exited university avenue going to pusod, i turned right at the ramp to 4th street. it was raining hard and all the windows were closed. i hit the brakes and the smell of candle burning seeped thru the air. i thought it was the brakes but i know it wasn’t. i asked millette do you smell that? she did and i knew it was santi because it was impossible to have that candle smell inside the car with all the windows closed. i know he was with us all along our trip yesterday. we didn’t have a problem finding parking :-) thanks again santi.

Isang tula plus bonus picture!

Pinoy mind...

Levi's 501
Air Jordan
Starbucks
Mc Donald's
Burger King
Julia Roberts
N Sync
Isaw

Johnnie Walker
Jack Daniels
Tuba

Punk
Disco
Hip-hop
Duran duran
Yoyoy Villame

Toyota
Expedition
Honda Civic
Traysikad

Tae Bo
Tai chi
Taekwondo
Jane Fonda
Sipa

Ralph Lauren
Gucci
Who wants to be a millionaire
Friends
Esprit
Armani
Home along da riles

London
Paris
New York
San Francisco
Guagua

Spaghetti
Sushi
Buffalo wings
Taco
Ginataan

5th Avenue
Beverly Hills
Divisoria

Bow.



picture i took in my hometown - quezon province. dehin tsunami ito... high tide laang.

i'll be at pusod later. time to take off the paintings. may lagnat pa din ako pero oks lang kasi may lagnat din si mike (price). haha. la lang.

i think i heard mike saying that lille (bose) might be there. i met lille during the last mango mike.. oops mic pala. i told her about how santi (his father) influenced my art and also how santi put a spell on us when we visited him in baguio. that was a great experience. thanks santi! musta na? miss ka na namin dito. RAKENROL!!!

White Monkey Christ

May lagnat ako nung martes pa. singhot-singhot-singhot.

here is a concept i'm working on. i don't know yet if i'm going to paint this on canvas or just transfer it. my problem is that i got laid off and lost my color laser printer privilages in the office. hu-hu-hu. i got this epson inkjet but i'm not sure if this will work. i tried it once and noticed inferior colors but who cares as long as the message goes thru. original picture was from a francisco de zurbaran painting. he's a spanish painter from the 1600s. (google).

the painting became a spanish painter's interpretation of the cruxifiction interpreted by a pinoy dog eater. my title is 'white-monkey-jesus.' but this is unfinished so we never know where this will lead to.



i need to buy canvas at home depot.
later...

Artwork of the Day

Tattoo design I did for Ariel.
http://gotinktattoo.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Ariel

BILNAKAYO! plus artwork of the day

Hand-painted t-shirts by me. I call this collection 'The Dead Icons Club' kaya kung gusto n'yong mapabilang dito... magpakamatay muna kayo. hehe joke lang. Bili na lang kayo...
Mura lang! $25.00 each plus shipping. Contact me if interested: melveracruz@sbcglobal.net











PLUS NARITO ANG ARTWORK OF THE DAY
Pen n ink drawing, photoshop and wacom pad. This was used for a band announcement poster.

Art of the Day

flipped image of map of US to make it look like a blood sucking mosquito. original picture from a spread in time magazine.

Last Mango Mic at Pusod

Masaya! narito ang ilang pictures.













Plus more pictures at:
http://www.jayadewa.com/gallery/v/events/pusod/mangomic/album_001/