A Different Aesthetic

There are things that visually, naturally draw me in and I find them mostly in patterns or bright colors, hence this blog's title: Psychedelandia and Other Stories. Embracing color has always been my thing (though it was never induced by drugs, just to be clear). I just think color makes things more interesting and it gives them character.Writing this, I realize that it's really not just color that influences my general taste in things. I like texture and volume. I adore patterns and have a thing for intricate designs. Variety is a word that comes to mind, and if you would ask me to draw a line, I'd probably make swirls and loops between point A and point B. I'm psychoanalyzing myself why I like such chaos, and why I hardly adopted my highschool Alma Mater's mantra, "Simplicity is beauty."

Maybe I felt so restricted while attending catholic school. We wore blue and white uniforms and were never even allowed to wear hair accoutrements in colors other than blue, white and black. Our socks had to be folded neatly to our ankles. The hem of our skirts had to be 2 inches below the knee--not shorter nor longer than that or else, we would either get a sewing kit to make it shorter, or they will make us unsew the hem to make it longer. I didn't want to be simple. Simple meant lack of variety and having to follow rules. I grew up thinking that simple equated to boring.

This love for variety translates to my habits of consuming. While I am not exactly a fashionista, I have to admit that I love shopping and adore clothes. At the risk of sounding superficial, I confess that I am one of those girls who has a closet full of clothes but still think that they have nothing to wear. One outfit change to another, I'd look myself in the mirror and feel unsatisfied. "I need a new pair of shoes to go with this", I'd think, or "If only I had this in maroon..." I was never one to get excited over the latest trends or the newest gadget, but I still bought what I fancied--sometimes to a fault because most of them, I don't really need. This year, I resolve develop a capsule wardrobe. Aside from the design of the piece, I would be paying attention to quality, fit and re-wearability. Lately, I've been drawn to classic pieces such as stripes, chambray and neutral colors. Something quite surprising and a bit conflicting with my general take on clothes, but nonetheless practical and suits my taste nowadays. 

With my apartment about to be turned over by March next year, I've been looking at pegs that lean towards a more minimalist aesthetic. Neutrals, clean lines, and functional pieces are the key words that I would make sure to stick to when I start decorating. I want to surround myself with just the essentials so that I don't have to worry about clutter (a perennial problem with my space at home). 

Perhaps the desire to live simply comes with age and responsibilities. I have bills to pay and I need to stay within budget. There's so many things to do that worrying about the next trend isn't a priority (unless of course, you're working in the fashion industry). Maybe my experiences in traveling helped me to have a more practical approach in consuming, because it's hard to pack light when you want to bring the whole roygbiv gang from your closet to your suitcase. I guess in adulthood, there comes a point wherein you think it's not about quantity anymore. It's not even about the brands, although some brands really live up to their promise of quality. These days, I have made a resolve to consume less but still pay attention to detail. In my cluttered life of being an I.T. consultant, an artist, a musician, a cupcake business owner and a traveler, I am a daughter, a sister, a girlfriend and a friend on top of it all. The choice to live simply doesn't mean my life will be boring. It just means I resolve to find happiness in the simple things. 

Photo credit: Vogue || Remain Simple

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Psychedelic Adventures: City of Lights, Paris

Oh the things I had to do to get to Paris.

I missed my train from Brussels, because I didn't have the mind to check the weekend bus schedules in Mechelen. The DeLijn bus stops at IJzerenleen Street every 30 minutes instead of every 15 like it does on weekdays, so I missed it by a couple of minutes. There I was at the bus stop, with a handful of geriatrics and patiently waited.

I was pretty comfortable with hopping on the train from Mechelen to Brussels because of my trip to Antwerp and Rotterdam the week before, but I was going to Brussels Zuid station for the first time and I had no idea how big the place was or how overwhelming it's all going to be when I arrived there. Then there was the mixup between  Bruxelles Midi and Brussels Zuid train stations. The names are different--one for French and one for Dutch, but it is one and the same so I was fumbling back and forth from one station to the next, without my glasses on, confused and squinting at every screen in the Station to check the schedules while contemplating on my next move. My train for Paris leaves at 9:17 from Brussels Zuid, and I arrived at the station by 9:23. Of course, I decided to buy another ticket, a flexible one this time and shrugged off my day's worth of per diem. That's 57 Euros down the drain for a Thalys one way ticket.

This was typical of Paris, I imagined. She was elusive, but I still couldn't resist her allure. Despite the setbacks, I was determined to arrive at Gare du Nord station. It felt like I was being rejected by Paris even before she got to know me. She was channeling her preemptive supalpal moves on me, I thought, but that came to pass later on.

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Psychedelic Adventures: The One About Antwerp

July 27, 2013, Antwerp Belgium

So, Antwerp. I've been reading the guide and figuring out the maps, but in the end they didn't matter because I just walked aimlessly in this city. I didn't have a plan. What I will see, I will see. I consider myself bad at directions, but whenever I get lost, I always find my way. Perhaps the universe is really guiding me, and what I discovered while traveling in Europe is that people almost always smile back when you smile at them. Contrary to what I originally thought about Europeans, people don't shut you out. A smile goes a long way in a foreign place, I suppose. 

I took a train going to Antwerp from Mechelen. From the Veermarkt bus station, Bus 1 stops every 15 minutes and goes to the Station Mechelen where 2 or 3 trains leave every 20-30 minutes to Antwerpen. A De Lijn bus ride goes for 2 EUR from the bus stop to the station and a two way train ride goes for about 4.80 EUR. It was the first time I ever took public transportation in Belgium, and I was terrified the same way I was scared of riding the subway in New York. After my first adventure, I felt like a rockstar with my newly discovered freedom. 

Arriving at noon in Antwerp didn't exactly give me many options for lunch because the restaurants are full and I found them intimidating. I opted for the next best thing--a belgian waffle with cream and cherries on top. It was legit and felt like a warm hug on a chilly day. The fella who sold the waffles was an old Flemish man. He spoke crooked English but he really tried hard to talk to me. He put extra whipped cream on my waffle.

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Psychedelic Adventures: Mechelen, Belgium

Goodness, it has been a week since I first arrived in Belgium! I've been busy with the things that I had to do at the office and exploring my area that I haven't had the time to blog. I've been writing a lot on my travel journal but I still wasn't able to dive into writing about my hosting city. I would be posting some tips and places to go and all the travel related stuff, but for the meantime, I'll just write about traveling thoughts. 

An excerpt from my travel journal, July 23, 2013:

Mechelen is a winding city with strange little corners and alleys. Everything is like a surprise entryway to something or other. I've been taking a cab going to the office in Duffel from Mechelen because buses don't pass by the client office. I don't mind, since everything has been arranged with the cab company. I've been meeting single serving friends in the form of cab drivers. We get into conversations about religion, our cultures, the cost of living, the opportunities that people have when they are born in Europe, the advantages and disadvantages of working abroad. We talk about food and what the traffic is like in Manila. I tell them it's horrible, but I miss it.

Not to sound TOO melancholy or anything, but there really is something about traveling alone that's both sad and empowering. You're forced to trust people. You rely on their goodness, in their helpfulness and the ability to adjust to the fact that you cannot understand a single word in French or Dutch. At the same time, you rely on your own intuition--figuring out how to order food without sounding so stupid, and how to get from point A to point B using public transportation without getting lost. You get into the routine of things, when you travel for work. It's so much different from Melbourne or New Jersey because it's the first time I've been deployed to a project alone. 

My street Vismarkt is right across the Kanaal Dijle is teeming with locals hanging out for a beer or coffee. The street name literally means "fish market" and there's always something happening in the summer. One evening I went out to withdraw some cash and a band was playing jazz and tango while locals danced to the music. On some nights I would open my hotel room window and I could smell the frites from the restaurants beside the hotel.

I see lavenders everywhere. I picked up some one afternoon and kept them in my travel journal as a book mark. It smells wonderful right now. 

Mechelen is beautiful with its cobblestones, brasseries and cathedrals. It has its own charm, the one that is not apparent when you mention Belgium or Europe. I'm glad that I chose to live in Mechelen. Of course, the choice was made out of convenience, because it's the nearest city to Duffel, but I feel as though this small city has its little place just for me. 

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I.T. and Business Travel

I love taking photos at airports. It is where I experience the anticipation of exploring distant places and the comfort of arrival and coming home.

Today I learned about the approval of my Schengen Visa application. While some people find this quite trivial, I was thrilled when I saw the confirmation email from the Belgian Embassy this morning, telling me that I must book my flight to Belgium and send them a copy of the e-ticket before they can release my passport. The prospect of travel always excites me, and the idea of traveling to Europe with all of my expenses paid makes me feel even more blessed. Some people scrimp and save to go to Europe, but the opportunity was easily given to me and I'm very thankful.

Of course, this is not entirely the universe's doing. I'd like to think I have a hand at landing these opportunities because of my skills and credibility as a systems analyst. My previous Senior Manager reached out to me recently and mentioned that she recommended me to this project--perhaps she liked my work ethic and my previous performance and thus believed in my ability to deliver another implementation. Despite the fact that I was only trained and did not have any project experience in Oracle On Demand, I told the interviewer that I can still leverage my 8 years of experience in Siebel Development on this project. I was vocal about my willingness to learn and be retooled even if it meant resetting my technical skills back to zero. Medyo pa bibo ako. Hahaha. Shortly after my interview, I got a deployment notice and was told that I was selected to fly to Belgium this July. The thought that I was going to learn about Cloud Computing to keep up with this emerging trend in CRM Applications excited me. I will also be undergoing further training with Oracle University in the next couple of weeks, so that's also something to look forward to. 

View from my hotel room during one of my business trips.

Throughout my I.T. career, all of my projects allowed me to travel and live in another country for more or less, two months each time. These business trips differ from my personal travels because I was given a chance to immerse myself in the culture of my host country for a longer period. My personal travels usually last about a week with with friends whom I'm completely comfortable with, so I tend to stick with my group and simply enjoy the novelty of my surroundings. With business travel, I'm forced to get out of my comfort zone because aside from the challenge of getting used to the environment, I also needed to adjust to the people I meet. Business travels require me to establish good working relationship with my colleagues and clients from my host country in order for me to perform my job as a consultant. I ended up being friends with my colleagues from the US and Australia, that we also spent time together outside office hours. They showed me around the city, taught me their slang, invited me to their homes, and one of them even spent Christmas with my family here in Manila! 

People in transit. I used a lomo camera for this. 

Prior to the news of my onshore deployment, I didn't know crap about Belgium aside from the fact that they have really good chocolates, beer and waffles. I did a bit of reading and now I know that they are also known for their diamonds, their fries, jazz music, and of course, their art. I'm writing down my bucket list and must see places in Belgium, so hopefully I get the chance to explore and tick them off one by one. 

Travel is one of the perks of being a consultant. Aside from the free airfare, lodging and daily allowance, what I like most about being an I.T.consultant is that I get to work in different projects to widen my knowledge in application development/project management and meet all sorts of people. Surely other jobs have more opportunities for travel, but hey, I'm thankful that I still get my own share of free boarding passes. :)

What are the perks of your day job?

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Watercolor Weekend: Bukidnon

Together with my goal to discover more about various Filipino ethnic communities,  I'm starting a series of drawings about Filipino Indigenous people to practice my watercolor portrait skills. Jim and I have been talking about going to different Philippine Festivals and immerse ourselves in some cultural education while we travel. Our bucket list includes the Maskara Festival in Bacolod, Sinulog Festival in Cebu, Higantes Festival in Angono Rizal and Kaamulan Festival in Bukidnon among others. 

Kaamulan Festival is an ethnic cultural festival held annually in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon from the second half of February to March 10, the anniversary date of the foundation of Bukidnon as a province in 1917. It is held to celebrate the culture and tradition of the seven ethnic tribal groups—Bukidnon, Higaonon, Talaandig, Manobo, Matigsalug, Tigwahanon and Umayamnon—that originally inhabit the province.^[1][2] It is the only ethnic festival in the Philippines.^{[3] Source: Wikipedia.org}

I used water color, acrylic and ink for this painting. I started with the background first, then working through the underpainting of the skin and the clothes and finally added details for the head piece and accessories. The reason why I selected different media for this painting is because of acrylic's characteristic to be more opaque. It has been useful for adding the little stitches on the dancer's clothes and the beads of her necklace.

"Bukidnon"
5.5 x 8.5 Inches on Strathmore Paper, 118 g/m

I will be selling this painting soon, and will be available in my newly registered Etsy Shop! 

For the meantime, email me at faye.marcos@gmail.com if you're interested :)

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The Garden Exhibit at Sweet Ecstasy, Cubao X

Last June 22, art, music and tons of inspiration converged at Sweet Ecstasy in Cubao X for Coy Placido's The Garden exhibit. Despite the rainfall and traffic that Saturday night, people crowded the venue to view the artist's work. The exhibit showcases more than 30 artworks that include digital paintings, vector art and photo manipulations, created with the central theme of duality or in Coy's own words, "the inescapable condition of our nature within humanity and beyond the bounds of society to think in contrast or in twofold." 

Two floors of Sweet Ecstasy displayed Coy's work, and exhibit goers were also engaged in an origami challenge  to be included in the sea of paper cranes that served to support one of his more minimalist digital illustrations called "Sweets In Every Fold". I struggled to follow the instructions lined beside the staircase, but eventually managed to give my share of paper folding sweetness.

Aside from awesome art, the crowd was also treated with fantastic music from Abby Asistio, Session Road, KAZE, Pedicab, Top Junk, Peryodiko and Coffeebreak Island. It was an exhibit turned street party as the audience inched closer to the stage, ignoring the rain drops whilst singing, dancing and taking photos of the performers. 

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Artist Spotlight from The Home Girl Blog

Hello Wednesday! So thrilled to be given an Arist Spotlight from The Home Girl Blog!

Felice sent me a message on Facebook asking if she can give me questions about my art and my blog and of course I immediately said yes. The questions were challenging, given that I'm not doing this full time (yet), but it also gave me a chance for self awareness and see where I really am in terms of my artistic pursuits and what I want to focus on. There is still so much to learn and I still have A LOT of work to do to make a mark in the world of art, but the fact that someone has taken interest in what I do has been really motivating and encouraging.

Thank you Fifi for sharing my artistic journey!

Do check out their site for design trends and other artist features at http://thehomegirlblog.blogspot.com

Excerpts from the article:

What do you wish to communicate with your work?With my paintings, I don't think I have a single message to communicate. I just like drawing pretty patterns and I enjoy capturing expressions and movements of people. The message that gets sent to the audience depends on them. 

With my blog, however, I would like to think that I am promoting pursuit of one's passion and a ton of positivity and motivation to just do what you love and love what you do. I would love to be able to write and draw more about environmental issues, conscious living, and our indigenous people.

You can read the complete blog post here: Homegirl: Spotlight: Faye Marcos, Creative Cube Dweller

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Fete De La Musique 2013

I've always disliked the month of June. It meant the end of summer and the start of school (hence, awful traffic and difficult commutes). It signals the the ever dreaded beginning of the rainy season with the universe giving us its middle finger for complaining about how hot and sticky it is in April and May. This year, June seems to have given me a peace offering with a new project at work, news of an opportunity to go to Europe, good business for Sugar Lily Cupcakes, gigs with my band KAZE, my love's 29th birthday and an awesome celebration of music held annually around the world called "Fete De La Musique".

Now I've heard stories about The Fete from previous years. My friends who went, cursed at the weather and how terribly disorganized the event was, given that it was held outdoors. Imagine looking forward to seeing your favorite bands play only to get soaked in the rain while you're at it. I had my reservations when Jim invited me to go, but then I never had the chance to do this before, so I thought, what the heck, might as well seize the opportunity now. I will worry about soaked shoes later.

Finger Trap performing I Know by Save Ferris

Microphone sharing at its finest

We decided to check out the Ska and Soul stage at Heckle & Jeckle near Jupiter street, because it seemed like a good starting point. The main stage was in A. Venue in Makati Ave which intersected with Jupiter so it gave us flexibility to strategically roam around if we decide to crawl from one pocket stage to another. The timing was perfect when we arrived as the stage was being set up for the next band, Finger Trap. They played Come on Eileen by Save Ferris and right then I knew I was going to really enjoy the evening. I was amazed by the horn section of the band that consisted of three saxophones, a trumpet and a trombone. Imagine five guys blowing their instruments shitless while sharing a single microphone. It was awesome! We talked to the guitarist and told him that we enjoyed their set. A four piece trip hop/soul band followed after Finger Trap, which set a more laid back mood for the audience. I call it Romansa sounds or MOMOL sounds. Haha. The vocalist's tone reminded me of a mash up between India Arie and Erykah Badu, I told Jim. Throughout their set, we grooved to the basslines and the twinkly sounds of the synths.

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June In A Gist

Because I haven't had any updates for the month of June (eeep!), I will be posting a few creative sparks here via Instagram. Blame it on my laptop going berserk, and the fact that I've been working on the cupcake biz with my sisters, been rolled into a new Project at work and also arranging some paper work for my upcoming business trip to Belgium! Visa application has been a pain because of so many requirements, but I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to learn something new (I won't be working on an Oracle Siebel Project this time!) and of course, see new places!

Anyhoots, here's a few of this month's artsy farts.

Worked on new rubber stamps! I've been super enjoying murdering erasers to make these foliage inspired (as usual) stamps. I can't wait to make pretty stationery out of them!

Remembering the little furballs in Bohol! I made this small drawing at a cafe while I was waiting for the rain to stop. 

Reuniting with my calligraphy tools! Oh how I missed them! This one is of course lyrics from Joni Mitchell's song Case of You

Remembering Gat Jose Rizal on his birthday! June 19, 1861, the coolest most amazing Filipino over achiever slash hero was born. I did this while having lunch. I didn't have a pencil so I went ahead with drawing using my gel pen. Sorry Pepe, if your eyes are not aligned!

This is an accidental artwork a.k.a. mindless doodle on a piece of craft paper! I ended up adding so much details on this diwata that I actually liked the result. Ah, art. It's indeed unexpected sometimes. 

The latest work that I've done for the month of June--this Audrey Kawasaki inspired drawing that was a result of my diwata doodle earlier! I rediscovered the joys of using ink in my drawings, so I made one that required a lot of lines and details. Channeling a bit of art nouveau on this one. Do you like it? :)

There you go! Next post, I will be telling you about my experience at the Fete De La Musique last June 15! Happy Friday all!

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