About Me
- Back in high school when every boy wanted a piece of something exciting and dangerous, a group of friends from a mining camp in the Philippine Cordillera mountains decided to baptize themselves with call signs. One called himself “Harpoon” - an anti-ship missile, the other called himself “Hellfire” - an armor-piercing missile borne by Apache AH64s, the third chose “Viper” - a call sign in TOP GUN, Tom Cruise's famous F14 fighter jet-based movie. In order to conform, I would have chosen “Sidewinder” - an air-to-air missile; but I was also deeply in love with the undisturbed space beyond the blue destructive field of earth-bound missiles. Thus, the Voyager spacecrafts enthralled me... and the voyage still consumes me...
The Voyager spacecrafts represent the quest for
beauty, knowledge and the unfamiliar -- ever pushing the limits of human knowledge
and experience deeper into the unknown, sending back images to earth and then
exiting the solar system on its way to being the farthest human creation in the
universe, going farther and farther each earth day.
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| Voyager spacecrafts and some planets and moons they have visited. Photo from Wikipedia. |
The voyage takes me to things I am passionate about.
Sometimes the voyage can be expressed through a photograph;
sometimes through a painting; sometimes through music; sometimes through words
in a poem or an essay; sometimes it is a string of history, politics and
nation-building. Often the stops overlap but all are always
sieved through my identity as a Filipino seeking to weave the entire voyage
around my faith in God and hope for our country.
The blog's header image is a quick sketch I
drew from a photo of Michelangelo's Hieremias section in the Sistine Chapel. The image represents, for me, the thinking and weeping prophet -- a thinking man like Rodin's "The Thinker" -- but he is not an ordinary man, he is one who is firm in the faith in a God he professes to believe in. He uses his God-given mind to contemplate, connect, synthesize and apply the theological, philosophical, and Biblical heart and mind on practical, daily human affairs -- on issues like government, poverty, art, and social order. He represents, for me, a Judeo-Christian version of Plato's absolutist philosopher-king who uses his thinking and feeling faith to honor God and humankind by bringing forth justice and God-consciousness throughout life's voyage on earth.
I may have done the Hieremias section drawing during the late 1990s or the early 2000s. I can't quite remember. Did I forget to mention that I have the memory of a 200 year old? This is why paintings, photographs, sounds, words and letters help me remember persons, places and events. Posts here are organized according to important page tabs while some topics are simply organized through tags.
But who am I really, and what do I do when I'm not writing on this blog or holding my novice artist's brushes?  |
| On the left, "Hieremias" from this blog's header image and on the right, Rodin's "The Thinker" from Wikipedia. Both pictures depicting men deep in thought. |
I may have done the Hieremias section drawing during the late 1990s or the early 2000s. I can't quite remember. Did I forget to mention that I have the memory of a 200 year old? This is why paintings, photographs, sounds, words and letters help me remember persons, places and events. Posts here are organized according to important page tabs while some topics are simply organized through tags.
- The voyage has led me from Metro-Manila city life to teach part time at the Community College in the distant town of Manito, Albay, Philippines from 2014-2020. Read more: Carving the Future in Community Colleges.
- I run a small computer shop with my wife so we can reinforce college and high school education and serve the community's information tech needs. More about this here: A Small Computer Center's Big Dreams.
- My wife and I started a tri-lingual community newspaper with student writer/reporters. Our hope is to help our poor town develop through quality and responsible information that ordinary people can understand. We also hope to develop critical thinking and belief that young people can take an active role in the development of our community. Visit and like our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ManitosTime or read posts about Manito's Time HERE.
- A friend in Metro Manila and I established a worker-focused Human Resource partnership that provides workshops, seminars, retreats and consultancy. More about it and galleries of our projects at HAR.NE.S.S. Philippines.
- You can see some of my paintings for sale HERE
or buy an ebook, paperback or hardcover version of a book I published on Summary Art Principles from Paul Cezanne HERE
- You can also see some digital art HERE
I hope you enjoyed this site. Thanks for dropping by.
voyager3blog@gmail.com
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8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. -- Philippians 4:8 NKJV
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voyager3blog@gmail.com
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8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. -- Philippians 4:8 NKJV
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