Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

Finally, I have finished “Diwa.” With over 6,000 words I may have exceeded the number allotted for each book chapter, which is 5,000 words. Anyway, what’s important is that I’m quite happy with it, especially as it develops from the earlier concepts of “communal ownership, sovereignty and autonomy” that I started working with in 2003.

Perhaps crucial to the development of the concept is the work of Zeus Salazar, in particular the only writing of his that I have, about the babaylan in Philippine history, which I bought around 2000-2001. What really challenged me was not his writing on the babaylan itself but rather his ideas on Filipino philosophy and psychology (which are better elaborated in his other writings), the Pantayong Pananaw.

The significance of this entire process of “dialogue” (internal and external) is yet to be manifested in my work as an artist (although I consider my writings as constituting that artistic “body of work”). It is a pity that such processes are not encouraged to take place in “fine arts” education. The status given to “doing things” in the Fine Arts have always been based on a gross misunderstanding of the possibilities of “hands-on philosophy” (or hands-on aesthetics) in the arts.

But not only in arts education, but in all aspects of our life is this strange dichotomy manifested. For example, I consider myself rich in experience and creative and intellectual output but these are things that society does not consider as wealth. Society’s indicators of wealth (and success) are large houses, new cars, expensive clothing and jewelry, large bank accounts and other material things. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don’t yearn or desire for any of these things.

Anyway, at the moment, my concern is getting my health back on the right track and continuing to derive energy from creative work. It was very difficult finishing “Diwa” because of life circumstances at the moment, but I did it. Also, there are two other writing duties to look forward to in further developing my ideas, not as daunting as “Diwa”, but are all important elements as part of that process of growth and development.

EMail This Post This entry was posted by Fats on Saturday, August 12th, 2006 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Katawan > Teyorya ba. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.