The Little Prince Art Exhibition by Artheline

This is the first time I have been to a Little Prince exhibition and it is such an honor to finally catch the works of Artheline. Artheline is the signature of artists Arnaud and Adeline Nazare-Aga. They are based in Thailand and they made these artworks just in time for the Singapore-France Voilah Festival in conjunction with the celebration of SG50, Singapore's fiftieth birthday. This is the world premiere of the exhibit.

The exhibit has been open since since May 6, 2015 and will be open for public viewing until June 1, 2015. I was just fortunate enough to manage to fly in to Singapore just to see the two exhibits about the Little Prince before it close. The other exhibit is an art installation for the visually-challenged people and will be posted later on.

There are 10 art installations for this exhibit and every thing was just mesmerizing for me. I particularly like how they made each planet as if they are floating in space.

The Transfiguration Chapel, Calaruega

It has been exactly 13 years ago when I was first mesmerized by this quaint chapel on a hill top just off the boundary of Tagaytay City and Nasugbu. During that time, we went there as part of our college retreat, a required undertaking before you graduate in a Catholic university. The place was mezmering indeed and during that time you can almost have the place on your own since it was not yet a popular place to go.

It is usually a place for events like wedding, birthdays and other religious events you can think of. It may not be a heritage site or an important Catholic destination but the place is just quite peaceful even though today, there is an influx of visitors.

The transfiguration chapel, which was formed in the same image of a place also called Calaruega, in Mexico or Spain I think, still stands astonishingly. If my memory serves me right, the entire place was patterned to a place of the same name in a Spanish county. That is what was told to us during our retreat and forgive me for not remembering all the details right.

I just hope that from what I saw in this place, tourist were very caring and cautious that they should not make a lot of noise and litter on the place because they are aware that this is a place of worship. But I have heard so many terrible stories about other places where tourist leave all their trash where ever their hands feel like doing so. I cannot believe that these tourists do not bother about taking care of tourists destination. I know I can't save the world by eriting about it here but there is only one thing I know that I have lost. And that if faith in humanity to take care of the earth. So I am very thankful to some small groups of people who always keep an eye in doing small things to make a big difference.

The Old Manila International Air Terminal

This lovely building situated in the centre of the central business district of Makati used to house the first and former airport terminal in the Philippines. From outside, you will not notice it as it just look like an ordinary building. The old sign that say "Manila International Terminal" can only be seen from behind and when you are along Makati avenue, you will think that it is just a house or restaurant.

This building used to be called Nielsen Tower and still uses that name for its building although it is popularly known now called Black Bird. The building was erected in 1937 and was used for commercial and international flights until the end of World War 2. Before it became a restaurant, it previously housed the former library owned by the Ayalas. It is still owned by the Ayalas though. Im just glad that the building have survived and remained a symbol in Ayala triangle. This is such a great example of well preserved heritage building. I wish we could see more of this.

Candi Muarajambi, Abandoned Beauty

We arrived at 8:00 in the morning at Sultan Thaha Airport, the main airport of Jambi City, West Sumatra. The city center is about 20 minute-drive to the city center. But we first went to Candi Murajambi, an archaeological site, believed to be built in early 15^th century, which is situated in the forested area of the town of Muarajambi. These are Hindu temples which are made of similar bricks found at Hindu temples of India. Candi Muarajambi is about 25 kms drive from the airport. O the way, you will find palm tree plantation on the right and rubber tree plantations on the left. There are 9 temples all over the complex. They are quite simple with the highest peak reaching to about 3 floors. These temples, is incomparable to the astonishing Angkor Complex or the majestic Borobudur Complex which were all discovered accidentally by foreign explorers but there is yet beauty in the simplicity of Candi Muarajambi. First thing I noticed was the lack of tourist made the place clean, no traffic and peaceful. You will always find an alone time when you wander around the temples. When you look around all the temples, I could say it was abandoned by the people who built it. But for the reason why they abandoned, no one can answer. The locals may also not have any clue and can only rely on hearsay. Getting around the whole complex took us 3 hours on a bike. An unexpected ride back to main entrance got us toasted under the glaring heat of the Sumatran summer.

As I mentioned, the whole place is not as grandiose as the famed Hindu complex of the neighboring countries but the beauty of being untouched and left in ruins made it more appealing than the other temples I have seen so far. More importantly, since Hinduism never propagated in this area, which is generally Muslim, we can understand why people never really took time to use these places for worship yet they never tore it down.

The Little Prince Handmade Stamps

This is a new project I have been planning to do for quite sometime. I have bought these materials since last year. I only got the time to do this now since I am on a week-long school break. The rubber stamps were handcarved from a Korean-made rubber stamps. I tried to follow the artworks of The Little Prince book and gave it a bit of a twist using different ink pads.

I look forward to doing more of this.

Owls in a Tree

Here are my latest sketches of owls hanging out in trees. I have to say this style of sketching is where I am really comfortable doing.

Aku Diponegoro, Galeri Nasional Indonesia

Sang Pangeran Dalam Ingatan Bangsa. Prince Diponegoro, Indonesia's national hero, who fought for the freedom of Indonesia, whose remaining owned artefacts and contributed artworks by various artist is currently on exhibit at the Galeri Nasional Indonesia. It's a quick walk to see the battle and arrest of Diponegoro during the 19th century with these contributed paintings by different local and foreign artist. Its a must visit for all Indonesians and others.

Exhibit Opening
6 February – 8 March 2015
10 am – 7 pm
(Open for public and entrance is free)

For more information:

Website: www.akudiponegoro.com
Facebook : Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Twitter : AkuDiponegoro

Instagram : akudiponegoro