Different Strokes at The Ayala Museum Artist Space

This is something that I didn't expect at all. At such a very short notice, I am included in a group exhibit to be hold at the Ayala Museum, Artist Space 2nd Floor.
Mga Iba't Ibang Birada or Different Strokes, happening on the 14th of September and opening reception starts at 6PM.
There are 14 more artists included in the exhibit coming from different places, backgrounds, and of course, style or stoke. My works are the sole 3D objects because all of the artists are painters. It's like the Pulp Fiction Exhibit again, where almost everyone were illustrators.

For this exhibit, I have immediately come up with three 3d objects that I have been planning to create for a long time. I haven't had a proper sleep in four days because I was trying to finish up on the art works. Not to mention I am coming up with this wretched feeling of impending sickness, that feeling as if you've been hit by a bus and shortness of breath that would eventually progress into cold and cough.
Last time I had this kind of sickness, my friend took me to Makati Med and she witnessed how my nose got vacuumed, not a very pretty sight.

One book to be a part of a work

The least I can do tonight is sleep early and work hard for the remaining days.

Quarter Collective

Hopefully I'll be feeling well by Friday. See you at the opening of the exhibit!

A Postcard to NC

A year ago, I sold the poetry books I have bound myself and though I didn’t bother to sell as much as I can, a few handfuls were enough.

A woman bought one of my books and I thought to myself, that people still buy poetry, perhaps, there’s still hope. The woman showed my book to Neeli Cherkovski, who happened to be visiting the Philippines. Neeli Cherkovski is the author of at least a dozen books, a professor in a state university, and also the best friend of Charles Bukowski.

After a few weeks, the woman contacted me. Saying Neeli Cherkovski wants to meet me. I didn’t know who he was, but the woman said Neeli was impressed with my poetries. I was at work, about 2 hours away where they want to meet. Immediately at lunch break, I hopped on the MRT from Quezon ave to Ayala and met Neeli Cherkovski in Serendra. I wasn’t the least nervous if the office would penalize me, although the office did get tighter after that and I was on probation.

I met him, a man of white hair, glasses, and quirky mannerisms. I enjoyed having coffee with him and talking to him about poetry and writing. After that, he invited me to dinner a week from that day in his partner’s place in Serendra.

We exchanged books, he gave me two books while I bound a special book for him with new compilations of my poetry. He left the country a few days afterwards.

I promised to write to him and here is the first one.

It doesn't matter whether I sold a few books, it was enough that I was able to meet one of the most prolific poets in underground America through my poetry. Since then, I've only compiled books without having the same content. Each one having different poetry and stories. I don't sell much and it's perfectly fine.

"Dear Neeli,

The scorching sun is fiercer and the rain grows harsher, see you again when you return. Currently working in an Art Space run by artists who are too indolent to read books.
I write, always.

It is the unshaking ground I stand on in a place where people coming from different lands tries hard to be insane."

Veronica

PS: Happy Labor Day!

It Has Begun Again...

"What's that smell? Is that puke??"

Having just moved in to the new place in order to establish once again an Art Studio, right after having to leave the previous one.
Paintings are lined up on the side, waiting to be hanged on walls.
In a city, where it's pretty impossible to live off your art, it is quite monumental to risk almost everything even the clothes on your back. And that's exactly what we're doing. Tony, someone I'm currently working with, sits contemplating an idea. Hopefully, a bright idea that would help us earn from what we're doing. Otherwise, I should expect a terrible struggle and occasional famine in my career.

We hold sketching sessions with live models and also classes, aside from exhibits, should you wish to visit - you can easily find us at 9726 Pililia St. (along Kalayaan Ave) Santiago Village, Brgy Valenzuela, Makati City. Preferably from 10am to 6pm Monday to Saturday.

Divine Intervention Ruined My Relationship

Special thanks to our sponsor VnC Cocktails for making our event possible with merry drinks!

And your lover got struck by lightning.
Selections from young and old poets of today.
Bring Your Own Poison.

-----

"One of the universe’s greatest injustices is that poets, whose minds dwell far beyond the middling realities of the mundane world, have to worry about making a living. Poetry—even more than other arts—is a notoriously unprofitable endeavor, and in recent history great poets have spent their weekdays working as dreamy doctors, unlikely insurance salesmen, disaffected journalists—the list goes on."
-Jake Marmer
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/95624/the-candy-store-poet?all=1

See you there!

Meow

Meo-Meow...

Meow-mow

Mew mew

Busy is an understatement

There are several reasons why I haven’t been able to update my blog but I’m not one to disclose them though I have been working on projects and I was in dire need of a vacation. Over the weekend, 10a Alabama Resurrection gallery held their quarterly art fair. My new creation will be displayed there for a couple of months or until someone buys it.

This is the new shelf I released.

Books and Beaches are my thing... really.

A friend told me it's perfect on the porch of a beach home. 

The white shelves can be knocked down and you can still use the water ski if you wish, you just have to attach the shelves again with the screws provided through the concealed hole when you want it to become a bookshelf again.

Design by Veronica Laurel. Available at 10a Alabama Resurrection and Found Objects Gallery, near E. Rod Sr.

A Slice of my Secret Life (Furling Chaos Update!)

Despite buying a digital camera that has Panoramic capabilities, I still failed to take pictures of the group exhibit I joined a month ago.
I forgive myself for being utterly lazy at such moments but good news is that the exhibit was featured in a lifestyle magazine online and had a review about my piece “Furling Chaos in the Eye of the Storm”

“Veronica Laurel’s Furling Chaos in the Eye of the Storm is one piece of art that transcends genre but remains faithful to the main element of paper. The piece is enclosed in a wood and glass case, inside of which snippets of poetry on strips of paper are seen. A traditionally bound book hangs from twine and is suspended within the case. The piece is a wonderful marriage between literature and the visual arts, featuring the artist’s upcoming novel, and even showcasing her skill with furniture design, as the case of her own hands as well.”

You can read the article here

Paalam! Paalam!

An update about the piece is that it was bought by a Singaporean collector who owns a gallery in Singapore and Malaysia, and my piece will be shipped overseas by the month of April (Which means, you can still get to see it at the gallery in Art informal til then). Unfortunately, I won’t be coming along. It seems that traveling is not in the horizon for me. I am left to toil harder in my own beloved land.

I would like to believe that I’m happy that my piece was able to move someone through emotions, through soul and he was convinced that my piece is the essence of his life with which it was the manifestation of mine. Somehow without meeting this person, I have created something that somehow connected us, as if aligned constellations.

That night at the exhibit opening of Pulp Fiction, I can’t say that I was completely sober since I was given a bottle of beer and requested white wine because I could not stand the taste of beer. A little bit tipsy and I wasn’t even able to take a picture of myself at the event.

But amidst the unfettered socialization that night and trying to walk straight without feeling as if the floor is a bed of water, I found a picture that somehow resembled someone who looks like me. 

See you guys at the next exhibit. :)