unrequited

I have always been fascinated with children. There is something irresistible – something  so endearing in them that draws me. Looking at one now, sitting in his father’s lap opposite me in the overcrowded jeepney, I am being regarded back with an equally steady gaze. He is about two, with a slightly flat nose, wide forehead and curly hair.

Just like a cherub… I smiled down at him – can’t help it. He just keep staring at me with unflinching eyes and open curiousity. What is he thinking? Is he wondering why I smiled at him? That I look weird? That my nose look like his toy automobile? Or maybe I look like his stuffed toy….

As though reading my thoughts, the boy gingerly touched his nose with a finger. I almost laughed aloud.

After a while, he lost interest in me and shifted his attention to the woman seated next to his father & himself, probably his mother. He asked her something but his little voice was lost in the noise of the vehicle’s engine & the blare of what was supposed to be music from the jeepney stereo. I heard the father saying something about the mother going to work as he called “sa lugar lang”. to the driver.  As the mother stood up to come down the jeep, the boy smiled lovingly up at her & said “Babay Mama”. The mother didn’t even turn her head or said a word. When she was across the street, the boy waved and called again. She just continued walking, never once glancing back to the boy who was so dangerously leaning out of the jeepney window. Nobody seemed to mind that little scene but I did.

I felt the hot tears of indignation in my eyes. How could she? How could that woman simply ignore her child’s affections? The child’s face had been so full of adoration, of pure and honest love while he bade his mother goodbye. How did she manage to turn her back, just like that, without even bothering to acknowledge she heard him? A million reason she may have, but it still won’t be enough for me. I looked at the child and the eyes that met mine were now sad….

father and son

This is a beach scene i saw during my short stay at Paradiso Beach Resort, Pulupandan, Philippines.

i don’t know why, but painting this scene comforted me..  somehow it was for me a quiet assurance that in the midst of all the chaos & complexities of life, some things remain unchanged.. untouched.. uncomplicated..

Like the sun hugging the horizon.

Like the love of a father for his child.

undone

8 things i wish to do before i pass away

8. read all of Richard Bach’s books

7. ride a horse.

6. see a non-animated Justice League on the big screen

5. hear Corrinne May perform live.

4. publish a book

3. put up (or at least initiate) a Peer-Helping-Peer Center for the handicapped

2. live in a house by the sea

1.

no.1 is something that i can’t share. let’s just say that i am a bit superstitious when it comes to it..  you know, might get jinxed..

prayers in a bottle

in the wake of the recent loss and tragedies brought about by typhoons Ondoy and Peping, i was inspired to draw this.  12″x12″ pencil drawing on watercolor paper 

brgy. kalamay

an attempt at humour = CORNY    The original strip is in black and white. This was colored in using MS Paint.

I like the colors at least.