Bai Awak Went to Town

The Chemistry Board Licensure Examination is coming up and I can’t help but feature my lucky charm when I took the exam in 2001. No, it was not the then-chair of the department who enticed luck to perch on my shoulder.



Mama bought me this bayawak or water-monitor lizard, if you want the English name, as a Christmas gift. I was already in college then but on that particular yuletide season, my child alter ego took hold of my sanity and asked Santa a toy bayawak for Christmas.

Kuya Bugoy and I love to dress up the bayawak. He usually tied a bandanna (a la Robin Padilla) around the head of the bayawak and put on a Ray –ban on its eyes. Mama would reprimand us, warning us of lighting bolt from the sky for making fun of an inanimate object. When I drew this, Mama was about to reprimand me as well but decided not to when she saw my plan. Knowing her, she must have whispered a prayer to redirect the lightning bolt away from me.

When girls usually have rag dolls or stuff toys beside them on their bed, the bayawak slept beside me. Mama warned me I might get nightmares when I woke up in the middle of night and the lizard’s head is reared up.

Well, that never happened. But I could never forget the surprised look seamen gave to my bayawak when I boarded the ship to Cebu.

When I went to Manila for the exam, the people at the Air Philippines’ check-in counter asked me to find a container for my bayawak. Even though it is a toy, it might cause a stampede inside the plane.

However, I missed the frightened scream when the visitor of my roommate in Manila upon seeing the bayawak on my hotel bed.

Whether this toy is my lucky charm or not, it is no longer important to me. When I saw this toy over the weekend, I know its body striations would be an interesting subject for charcoal.

Once done, the piece did give me something more than a lucky charm could. It gave me a satisfaction I usually get when I finish a piece of art.


Good luck to the examinees. Wanna borrow my lucky charm?

This Shoe is Made for Flying

Eight hours from now I will be on my way home and I haven’t packed up yet. Important things got in the way. Foremost of these is this watercolor painting of my sneakers or sneaker since there is only one. :-p

I have started this piece last Sunday, inspired by rhyming lines I kept repeating on my head while feeding the laboratory mice. Rushing home, I grabbed my sneaker and placed it on my table. Feverishly, I made the outlines and decided to use my new water color paints.

At a young age, I knew what a watercolor is. My eldest brother, Kuya Bugoy (he is not a pain in the ass unless he started teasing me fat when I was a kid), used watercolor in his drawing. He paints portraits of men, women and lovers.  However, it was only recently (actually nine minutes ago) that I learned the difference between watercolor and acrylic paints. Watercolor paints used arabic gum as a binder while acrylic paints used ..well..acrylic resin (Organic chemists better hit the Merck. It might come out in Chem 120.)

It took me days to finish the piece. Duties in the salt mines took a chunk of my time, among other things. And yes, my sneaker is becoming a familiar sight on my study table. Plus, I had a hard time controlling the watercolor. It attracts a lot of water and once I made a mistake, the trick of using white paint to cover it didn’t work! That’s why I ended up with gray shoelaces. :)

My beginner’s charm may not have worked on this piece. But just like my acrylic paintings, I am glad to finish this. It is one hurdle conquered, new technique learned, and a soothing balm to a weary traveler.

Let me share with you the poem, Snickering Shoe, that started this all:

‘Twas a day of blue

A snickering shoe

I found in my stew.

Blubbering lots o’goo

This snickering shoe.

Suddenly it flew

Up and down the loo

Then I couldn’t chew

‘Failed to bid adieu

To the snick’ring shoe.

Color Dilemma

Picture this in mind: A man breezing through the hallway in white pants and shoes and blue dress shirt. I must admit I have seen a man like this before and I know him. Can’t believe he was wearing a Christmas green polo shirt and a golden brown corduroy pants with brown sandals (and navy blue socks showing) while clutching a black bag ten years ago.

True, colors can be intimidating.  My good friend, Ising, would spend a good amount of time to plan her wardrobe for the whole week. From the color combination of the clothes down to the accessories to be used.
It is understandable for who’d want to be  the topic in a conversation of two individuals you don’t even know.

“Unsa man na iyang  gisul-ob uy? Green na gani ang blouse, green pa jud ang slacks.”


“ Murag sagbot sa kadalanan.”


When I first dipped my brush in acrylic paints, I was definitely intimidated. For one, I didn’t understand Andreas’s instructions. Then, my meager knowledge on color harmony has seemingly dissolved in acrylic. It’s no wonder I got this as a result:

A work of art a Kindergarten can very well improve. I could still see the hard look Andreas gave to my piece, trying to come up with a suggestion to save my work.

But on the second try, my meager knowledge on harmony has recrystallized out from the acrylic medium. Some of my teacher’s instruction was becoming clearer to me as I got used to his accent. I made this piece before I called it a night.

This may look like another poor attempt to abstract but I initially planned to make this look like a ribbon. Then as the night went on, it became an eagle then a snake. As of now, I don’t know what this is but it gave me confidence to try my luck  at home.

This led me to this piece.

Photo by Joel R. Locaylocay

I can think of a lot of reason why this is not good. For one, the paper was not suitable for wet techniques as it wrinkled due to excess water. There is too much blue and I was afraid I would lose all my paints (It does show I am still greenhorn to this! )

Nevertheless, I passed the first stage of acrylic painting. It may be a low-pass, but still, it is a PASS.