Arts...Travels...Writing

Iceland. A place that was not originally in my bucket list (too far, too cold), but became interested in when I saw an advertisement in the National Arts Council’s newsletter for a writer's retreat. This got me surfing about the country, which is very often associated with the Aurora Borealis. A chance to see this phenomenon strengthened my resolve to attend the workshop, though at times I wavered especially when I was checking the flight options/durations and it became clearer to me how remote Iceland really is from Singapore! I (and my family) reached Iceland on a late afternoon in April. From the moment I disembarked the plane I could already feel that it is a country like no other. On the circular windows along the airport corridors, I could see quotes from famous Icelanders including Bjork's about the wide open space that is her country. But I was not paying much attention to the quotes as I was transfixed by the landscape beyond the glass windows - endl...

My daughter and I checked out the Art Stage at the Marina Bay Sands Expo today. It was a huge fair with around 150 galleries from around the globe participating. As such, we could not really explore all the galleries (a bit overwhelming for one afternoon), so what we did was take a quick tour, and lingered only on those that caught our interest more. There was a bunch of European galleries that represented the established (Chagall, Miro, Picasso, etc), but even without my prompting, little girl preferred to stick around longer in the contemporary art exhibits and the visual/digital/3D installations --- in between her main preoccupation that afternoon, i.e., collecting business/calling cards from the galleries.  Below are some of the stand outs: Mark Justiniani's Echopraxia: Reflective media, light fixtures, and objects encased in black iron structure My daughter describes the above as magic because it is endless, and seems to go on and on! Such is the magic of Just...

I always look forward to the December holidays, Christmas being a big thing for us Filipinos, and also because it gives me a chance to visit relatives and hometowns. I come from the Northern part, Cagayan Valley, where without a doubt there are some interesting attractions, but which I practically take for granted having grown up in that milieu. This time, encouraged by my brother, I agreed to get off my mother's reclining chair/butaca (my favorite holiday activity is sitting back on this chair and sipping my coffee ever so slowly) and went on a two-hour drive to Penablanca, Cagayan - home to Callao Caves, one of the bigger cave complexes in the Philippines. I have been to the caves a few times before, but this trip was more special because we took along my 6-year old daughter for the first time. She gamely went all the way up past the 184 steps to the main chamber, and had all the energy to go further up to the fifth chamber (along with the guide and my relatives), wh...

The Indian Ocean glistened at mid-day, as it reflected an azure sky that was unencumbered by any cloud on this early May weekend. The tide was not yet too low, and the wind pressure was just ideal. It was a good day for parasailing. As the instructor below shouted through his megaphone ‘let go, let go of your grip!’(read: relax, forget about work for a few minutes!) I floated gently upwards and slowly got a bird’s eye view of the island – stretches of white sand, taller varieties of palm trees swaying gently and shading the nipa huts and low-lying resort bungalows below, and rows of jetskis and motorboats near the shore. From this vantage point, I could see a beautiful tropical island, albeit might not be too distinct from the others around Asia. But as I learned earlier, the beauty of this one, was not so much its shores and beaches, but rather its people and their distinct crafts and culture inland. I grew up in a sleepy town with nary a public library, much ...