The Market for Pinoy Pride

Woohooo! Check out this mention on the Inquirer's Open for Business Blog!

Call for Submissions: 7th Annual Barlaya Workshop

October 3 & 4

The Adarna House Product Development Group calls for works to the annual Barlaya Writing / Illustrating for Children Workshop. The workshop is annually held to provide basic training and knowledge on the craft of writing and illustrating for children. Barlaya is facilitated by acknowledged children’s experts, experienced children’s book authors and illustrators, and the Adarna House Product Development Group.

The theme for this year’s Barlaya is “Writing and Designing NonFiction Books for Children.” Writers and designers who would like to participate in the workshop will go through a screening process.

For details on this workshop and other workshops/ conferences/lectures this August, please click here.

A Filipino Embrace

Whether you're a basketball fan or not, we think you'll enjoy this New York Times article on NBA star Gilbert Arenas' visit to Manila about a month ago.

While you're at it, check out his blog entry on it as well.

Crawling Man at 1/of Gallery

Buen Calubayan presents humans diminished by supposed 'brain damaging habits' in his "CRAWLING MAN" exhibit at 1/of Gallery at Serendra, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. He depicts oil on canvas bodies on all fours, their degradation made prominent by slapdashes of paint. To effect pressing confinement, there are also mirror images of each piece, whether back or front views, as if to show deterioration as a tangible entity closing in. This echoed by the installation of a horde of centipede with miniature brains cornered on the gallery floor. All through his rhetoric, Calubayan's mastery with the brush shines, proof to himself and the audience that maybe his habits have not affected his cranial matter after all.

"Crawling Man" runs until August 31, 2008. Call 901-3152 for details.

And The Finalists Are...

CANVAS is pleased to announce that the following stories (in no particular order) have been selected as the finalists of our storywriting competition for young children:

Daisy Chain by Becky Bravo

Tala, the Star that Could Not Sleep by Augie Rivera

Why the Sea is Blue and Salty by Agay Llanera

The Comet, the Cloud and the Rainbow by Raissa Rivera-Falgui

My Big Sister Can See Dragons by Rocky Tirona

All five stories, which can be read here, have been sent to the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency for comment and feedback, following which CANVAS shall select and announce the overall winner.

Art in Site

Our 1/of Gallery was invited to place a free, one time deal offer, half page ad in the upcoming first issue of Art in Site Magazine, so we're sending in this one.

By the way, they are looking for 3,000 Filipino artists. For their 1st issue, they're prepared to give the cover of the magazine to use as your canvas, a blank sheet, a bullhorn, however you want to use it.

"Shout it loud! Shout it proud! Show the world what Filipinos are made of. With a print run of 3,000 copies, each magazine will have its own unique cover made by YOU. Spread the word! We're searching far and wide, high and low, in the farthest reaches for YOU, the Filipino artist — in the Philippines and all around the planet."

If you're an artist and would like to contribute to the cover art project of the first issue of Art in Site magazine, please go to http://www.artinsitemagazine.com, click on the design a cover button, read the guidelines for submission and click on the register button. Please do it ASAP to meet the September 15 deadline. Please spread the word to all your Filipino artist friends.

Islamic Superheroes

The use of art as a tool for social change is a reality that we've had some difficulty articulating. Intuitively, we know it's there, but how to express?

And we're not just talking about using art to express opinions or stands - certainly, the art of social realists played and continues to play a colorful role in political/prayer rallies and protests.

But, how does art - as and largely by itself - really measurably affect culture, change social and political behavior, tangibly improve lives and outlooks, or promote peace?

One man, Naif Al-Mutawa - a passionate businessman that we met at the Skoll Global Forum on Social Entrepreneurship earlier this year - now provides us with an excellent example. He created The 99, a comic-book series based on characters that each personify one of the 99 qualities that the Koran attributes to God.

Expectedly, it met early resistance in places like Saudi Arabia, but his proactive efforts to ensure respect for Islam, as well as the backing of a major Islamic bank propelled it to success across the Middle East.

A recent Time Magazine article now validates his success, and quotes Jim Kuhoric, the purchasing director at Diamond Comic Distributors (The 99's licensing agent in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.), who thinks Mutawa is onto a winner. "Not only are the stories entertaining and the art extraordinary," he says, "but the 99 have also enabled others to understand a wider vision than what they are normally exposed to through the medium, and helped to promote cultural understanding and acceptance."

P.S. We emailed Naif and now are in (very exploratory) talks to possibly help to create a Filipino superhero to join The 99. How cool would that be? :-)