Blanko: Why is art expensive?

Blank Book : Collision of Petals
2014
Veronica Laurel Book Art

I sold my books at Art In the Park last March, it was one of my favorite events because there are just so many things to look at but I'm rarely a buyer of art. A friend of mine marveled more on the price tag and less on the actual artwork.

"Why is art expensive?" she asked, it seems that it's something that bothered her and as a writer, letters and words aren't as valued as actual artworks when in essence they are both under the category of art, only with different mediums and discipline.

My Blanko Collection (Blank Books) got sold quite early so by midday, I barely have anything on display.

Centuries ago, art boomed in Europe especially for the Bourgeoisie who must always keep their status afloat. One way of keeping up with the social elites is to purchase art, along with purchasing a customized furniture set from the most famous carpenter. This is where the likes of Chippendale came in, providing special and superb skill in creating furniture. Art has always been a symbol of wealth and taste. It is one of the things to be discussed during tea time, art. What have you purchased? From which artist? How much? Etcetera etcetera...

Today, with the variety of available art and also an array of price tags, almost anyone can enjoy purchasing art and decorating their homes with art that they fancy without caring for social standing. There are so many affordable artworks available today because almost every young talented person wants to become an artist, of course the word "artist" have always been subjected to unholy abuse. There are also those who inflate their prices but most artist would follow a standard set of pricing with their works. 

Art is more than just an object and if a person sees the value of a piece of artwork, it doesn't matter how much it would cost. Suddenly the price is blurred and what surfaces would be the message or idea that the artist is portraying, the skill in execution, ingenuity, and its impact on the person.

Art is not expensive, the price tag is merely a reflection. People who have fat wallets, my artworks are probably very inexpensive but for those who toil each day on minimum wage, it may come as a luxury.

Truth in a Glance

I remember how a childhood friend of mine who was also an artist would talk about truths and lies. How I told him about truth always having time as its shadow. Where truths are elusive abstractions swimming in the sea of lies. It was one of those discussions over coffee that lasts until the next morning.

Artists have done so many artworks that deals with the truth or their versions of truth and it took bravery, skill, and talent to come up with a work about it and I believe that's what's most of us are doing.

I found this article very interesting and provides insights that are worth pondering upon. On how happiness is always followed by sadness, the lack of privacy through surveillance, love, and what is ego in isolation?

Stoicism of the Stars by Bobbi Lurie in Berfrois

The article discussed how even the greatest comedians who can create so much jokes and make people laugh are in fact the saddest people in the world. I've always known that people who make outlandish attempts to heighten their happiness are in fact carrying a heavier sadness. That people who like the simple things in life are ultimately happier than those who aren't satisfied with it.

Reading it made my brain stir for a while over lunch but I know I have to go back to work.

"To be real is an internal affair.
 To be imaginary is to believe one is loved by an "other"
 To be real is to love.
 To be real in love means "to love ins spite of," for then one knows love is not the imaginary story...
 love goes beyond any story... it exists within the bodily sense of being alive."

The first line is an echo of how the universe exists within us all.

"And one must face the fact that most comedians are truth-tellers and, in case one didn't notice, outside of dentists and architects, comedians are the most chronically depressed people on the planet. Still, they laugh. That doesn't mean they don't commit suicide; it means they make you laugh before doing it."

The article spoke of love and suicide and whether one is a comedian or not, if love lacks within oneself and can't be found from the outside, and or from others, suicide is often the result. No comedian, or anyone for that matter could ever laugh at that kind of joke, especially when it's on them.
The thing about people is that some will seek for the truth and in seeking they often get lost even if what they are looking for is in front of them. Seekers are sometimes, just people who just find it hard to accept that what they are looking for exists in everything and in anything. To seek for something in front of you is a waste of time.

Wood Shed Clean Up

It's been a while since I've worked on my woodshop here in Laguna and because I have projects that I had to work on as soon as possible, cleaning up wasn't exactly my top priority, but today I've picked up the broom and started cleaning whatever I could as long as there was daylight.

Bits

I have a small wood shed next to our house here in Sta Rosa and here I make my book arts and other projects. Though it's small, I have enough tools to create even the most sophisticated furniture. Like they say, it's not the tools ~ it's the hand.

It's hard to buy good quality hand planers here in the Philippines, so carpenters are the ones who actually make them for themselves. Here are some of my planers where in the middle was made here in the shed with my uncle, the one on the right is bought from a Japan surplus store and the left one is sold locally.

Saw dust are so fine and as time passes, it can turn as cake on the floor. Scraping them is the key to removing them and it's also my favorite part of the chore. Cleaning is a nice and stress-relieving activity, it is a meditative work that is fruitful both for my working environment and my inner being.

When I was young I would rather watch
my father work in his furniture shop than
go to school.

Here's the project I have been working on. It is a bunch of S-Staffs or otherwise known as Buugeng, I'm the only maker in the Philippines but it was known that the idea or concept originated in Japan. The S-Staff that I make have a different shape because flow art enthusiasts prefer the shape that I create, the weight is also better. 

The wood shed is also my art studio because I work mostly with wood but when it comes to paper, I have another working area specific for that. People don't understand what skill goes into carpentry but it's quite a sophisticated craft. 

They think that as long as it is cut with a saw then it's fine as it is, smoothing and sanding takes so much time and people don't consider it as hard labor. It takes a lot of patience to perfectly provide a smoothness on the edge of the wood and it also takes time. I'm happy to work with clients that gives me the time I need to work on a project because if I feel I'm pressured to finish a project as soon as possible, I seem to dislike it and would let go of the project easily while the quality is also affected.

The Flow of the River

The Endless Knot

Time is important, yet not everyone values it. In this carved book I created just a week ago I have carved a Tibetan Buddhist symbol, the Endless Knot, that can be seen in their monasteries. It is so because I have realized time is a continuous flux without interruption and has no beginning and no end. It makes each present moment valuable and only the moment that captures life.


Slowly I'm adjusting to the working routine, where projects and artworks are done especially when an exhibit is coming up and clients are waiting. I probably won't be going out with people for a while and my social life will most probably consist of sleep, eat, read, and rest with kitties. Book arts is important so I'm spending a great deal of time creating my works and preparing for exhibits. Such is the life of an artist, especially when one lives in the Philippines - where artists complacently die each day.

This year, I plan to take it easy by simply working on a few exhibits such as my solo show and just a few exhibits on the sides. It is important that after being gone for a quarter of a year that I clean up everything that have gathered dusts like my living quarters and my working studio in Laguna.

Blank : Mahogany

Most of the books that I've been binding are actually blank but there are those that actually have stories, poems, and other literary works that I have and they are commonly found in bigger art works that I make. I have been writing as well as reading since there are so many books to read when a library is at your disposal.

People who purchase my books perplex me when they tell me that they don't want to write on it. I made blank books so that people can turn it into their planner or journal or a book to contain their poetry collection and not something that they should just display in their room. It is lightweight enough to be carried around and to make a nice looking travel journal and I really encourage the people who purchase them to write on the books, their thoughts, feelings, and anything they feel like writing down. The courage to write is important and it's also a nice relic to keep and to have grand children inherit in the future (Haha!)

The Story : Hiding Away

Soon I will be posting stories that I will be including in my exhibit in the future here. Little stories that I have written right after coming out of the temple life and realizing a lot of things.
I'm feeling a little bit anxious about the projects that I've been doing and it's quite a setback that I don't have my woodworking assistant anymore. It's the trade off when going to the temple and not being able to be there and no work was provided when I was away. So now I'm toiling away on my own but the feeling at the end of the day was amazing despite feeling a little bit of body aches here and there.

Working with wood is not something that a lot of people know, so finding a good assistant is rather hard to come by. I've also been doing volunteer work for Mabuhay Temple and would probably spend at least a day there in a week especially when Chinese New Year is near.

Book art commissions are welcome. Just message me. :)

Taking a Plunge in the Ocean : Books in 2013

The mind is a great slave, but a terrible master. To understand Buddhism is to take a plunge in its ocean.
The books I've read in 2013 were not as extensive as the year before that but I had a great time devouring each one of them.
From left to right, top to bottom.
1. Siddharta by Herman Hesse
2. Son ; A Psychopath and his Victims by Jack Olsen
3. Seeking Happiness by Master Hsing Yun
4. Wind and Rain
5. Sutra on the Past Great Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva
6. Buddha's Little Instruction Book by Jack Kornfield
7. Finding Fulfillment : Four Insights by Master Hsing Yun
8. Perfectly Willing by Master Hsing Yun
9. The Biography of Sakyamuni Buddha by Master Hsing Yun
10. Steal like an Artist by Austim Kleon
11. The Men who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson
12. The Peter Pan Syndrome
13. Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke
14. The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

I have read other books but they didn't make an impression on me and I saw to it that in my temple stay, I devoured as much books as I could because there are things that the Philippine HALA program by Mabuhay Temple did not discourse to students. It was supplemental learning and the library at the temple was extensive.

I was fascinated with how the people would paint themselves in a corner and I believe that people are actually the one who bring themselves to much unneeded drama, problems, issues, and others that causes them suffering. That is why my solo show centers to the heart of that part of the human condition. I booked my solo show last year dated for September 2014 and have done a bit of my part for the artworks but I dedicated time to do some research like reading books and even going further as to live in a temple for three months traveling from the Philippines to Taiwan and back for the study. In so doing doors have opened for me and I am finding out ways to finish projects one by one.

Bought a book in Amazon and is
looking forward to reading this once
it arrives.

During my stay at the HALA program, it discussed how Buddhism is not merely a religion but is actually psychology and philosophy studies and also psychotherapy which is something that I would like to find out further. The people I met along the way were surreal and from then a distinction had been made in my brain.

What really caught my attention to the way that minds works is I noticed that half of my friends were diagnosed with clinical mental illnesses and I always thought they didn't have to be so hard on themselves. the explanation provided by the Sri Lankan monks (Theravada Buddhism) and also the information given by Fo Guang Shan Monastery (Mahayana Buddhism) opens up worlds in the construction of mental processes that can be done mindfully. Giving a way out of depression and other mental illnesses through Buddhist Psychotherapy without the need for pills or any chemicals applied to the brain. It is a holistic approach that explains thoroughly the power of a single thought and how it can affect the mind's function and condition.

It is very interesting to study in a scholarly fashion what we have discovered in the past three months living in a temple in a semi-monastic lifestyle. My artworks and ideas have always been centered on the human condition and so it was a fruitful learning experience for me aside from being able to travel a bit and discover things and people along the way. It seems that the planet Jupiter had been kind to be in 2013 and hopefully this year too by providing me with more opportunities on higher learning, philosophy, and travel.

Introduction to Buddhist Psychology
by Padmasiri De Silva
Also a book I'm eager to read since
I got it this year.

Bubbles That We Are

In Memoriam

Juneseven E.

Born June 7, 1987

Died December 4, 2013 

The rain and leaves fell that day

On a summer that yearned for autumn

In a universe where you no longer exist

The burden of remembrance is on me

Will you tell me again

How we ran hand in hand

Towards the ruins of an old museum

In the grove of Narra trees in full bloom?

The present can only summon memories from the past

But not the emotions that were buried long before we part

To dream of you is to remember you in my sleep

Always in a fleeting moment that can never be seized

 A dear friend from college passed away in the morning of my birthday yesterday...
In the midst of the celebration in the temple, a demonic grief almost swallowed me but I didn't allow myself to be unmoved with sadness. Let me mourn her passing through short stories and poems that can hold the versions of truths on what moments we had in the past when we were young and naive.

At ease in a strange land

Taiwan is a small but nice country just north of the Philippines and its weather is almost the same in the southern part but since the Fo Guang Shan Monastery in Kaoshiung occupies 5 mountains, the weather is substantially cooler than in my homeland. 

I arrived at the Taoyuan airport in Taipei past midnight ten days ago and slept on the rented bus provided by the monastery towards Kaoshiung which is around 4 hours drive from Taipei and I slept throughout the ride. Upon arriving at the monastery, I witnessed my very first sunrise in this foreign land. The sun is less fierce than in the Philippines and it's cooler in the evening.

Taiwan is an independent country according to its people but the Republic of China begs to differ. The number of temples in Taiwan is countless as more and more temples are built while others expand further but one of the most grandeur temples are from the Humanistic Buddhism Fo Guang Shan Order. 

Currently I'm staying in Tsung Lin Buddhist University in their head monastery. I find life here comfortable despite the strict routine system. The program includes lectures, volunteer work, workshops on vegetarian cooking, numerous ceremonies and rituals, sutra calligraphy, and my free time is spent sight seeing in areas available or at the very least explorable without having to spend money. The program is a bit different from the program we have in Mabuhay Temple back in the Philippines. 

The program I'm in seeks to provide ordinary people a peek to the lives of monastics and their system with which they spread the Dharma teachings as discoursed by Buddha. Fo Guang Shan follows Mahayana Buddhism and has hundreds of  temples across the world. 

Amitabha Buddha, the biggest Buddha in Taiwan at FGS Kaoshiung.

Next week, we will visit several branch temples in the northern part of Taiwan. I've been with temple for approximately two months. I have left my family and let go of responsibilities for this opportunity. I haven't seen any of my friends for a long time and I could say that it is a sort of trade off to be here. 

I can't go online often since we have too many things to do. 

I have embraced this sort of mundane living for now. I'm not sorry and would even believe that it provides a wonderful experience for all of us in the program. I'm not too eager to comeback.