Inspiration

Inang…

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scan10015It has been a little over a year since my Inang (ilokano for grandma) passed. Her passing obviously saddened me at the time, but since I was so busy with the many things happening in my life at the time, the impact of her loss didn’t hit me until a month or so later, where I almost broke down at an Arts Kollective meeting.

My Inang was responsible for raising me until I was about 4 years old and I visited her in San Diego every summer after that until I was teenager. She had a big hand in making me what I am today. Here’s the thing though and I never noticed this before until just recently, but reflecting back one year later, her passing represented a huge paradigm shift in my life. Ever since my Inang’s passing, here’s a partial list of things I have done/ accomplished

  • 222 Show
  • Had an art piece in a gallery/ exhibition space
  • Established a brand new department at the Wing Luke…Visitor Services
  • Hired 4 new staff
  • Opened a brand new museum
  • Partied in Vegas (or maybe I didn’t….shhh!)
  • Lost a couple of pounds
  • Completed 2 marathons
  • Had 2 art pieces auctioned off
  • New clothes/ New Image
  • Went back to school
  • Started a new blog…=P

Okay so back on topic (I have a hard time doing that sometimes), this is a blog on animation and cartoons and the like, what does my Inang’s passing have to do with cartoons? Well, here is the painting(s) I did for the Sarili Cycle exhibition. It was entitled “Homage to the Fallen” and it was inspired by the passing of my Inang:

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Can you see the cartoon/ animation influence?

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Rest now Inang. I may have just focused on your influence on MY life in the past couple of words, but I hope you also know that you had influence and love for many countless others as well.

I’m starting to ball, so I better end this…

Filipin@s: Floro Dery

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All Transformers geeks should recognize that a large part of the Transformers phenomenon was begun by a Filipino. 

Let me introduce everyone to Floro Dery, a Filipino, who did the original character designs of the G1 Transformers cartoon show:

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Let me not blow this out of proportion now. Floro Dery DID NOT come up with the initial Transformers G1 designs. That credit goes to Japanese illustrator, Shohei Kohara (Transformers did start in Japan after all, look at the original G1 toy boxes for Kohara’s work ). What Floro Dery DID do, was simplify the designs so that Optimus, Bumble Bee, Soundwave, Starscream, Megatron, etc…were able to move fluidly (albeit with limited animation) in the cartoon series. He also designed Hot Rod and some other Transformers from the 1986 animated classic, Transformers: the Movie.

Floro Dery has said that without his designs, Transformers wouldn’t have taken off and would have gone the way of the GoBots (ouch!).

Is that true? Hard to tell, but Transformers fans, a reason for the Transformers success is due to a Filipino!

Plus, without his designs, Megatron would always be sporting some wood…

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Photography in Siena: Student Exhibition at Seattle University

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Thanks to homie, Joysha Fajardo, I decided to hit up Seattle University and check out Photography in Siena: Student Exhibition. You  probably get the gist from the title, but yeah, photography students went to Europe, and this exhibition were some of the dope pictures that they took. 

Now you may be wondering ,”This is the art of the cartoon blog, what does this have to do with cartoons?”

Answer: Everything. 

Whenever doing anything “art”, there is always inspiration. And I dare you to go see this and NOT be inspired. Looking at each of the students’ work, thoughts on a way of how to use these photos as backgrounds, reference pics, or even concept settings for my future animated sequences came rushing in. So yeah…

What does this have to do with cartoons?

Everything…

Plus, when my animation class starts to post up our attempts at animated art, I hope someone is looking on and is just as inspired as I was when looking at these photography students’ pieces.

Exhibit runs through Feb. 6/ Seattle University, Kinsey Gallery, Casey Bldg./ Gallery Hours M-F 10AM – Noon, 1 – 4PM

Check out the homie, Joysha Fajardo’s dope photos for this exhibition (sorry, I couldn’t post pics, I feel bad taking pics at that exhibition).