A night of nature's music in a garden

A night of nature's music in a garden

Dr Abe V Rotor

Written at the former Eco Sanctuary of Saint Paul University QC.

Long horned grasshopper or katydid (Phaneroptera furcifera)

I am introducing two principal singers, the long-horned grasshopper or katydid (Phaneroptera furcifera), and the cricket (Acheta bimaculata), both belonging to a large group, Order Orthoptera, to which grasshoppers are typical members.

Since childhood I have always been fascinated by insect music. Stealthily, I searched for the singer. I found out that these insects are ventriloquists and a slight turn of their wings or bodies would deceive the hunter. And when I succeed and get nearer and nearer to the source of the music, the singer would abruptly stop.

Then I finally succeeded in pinning down with a flashlight the little Caruso in the middle of his performance. He is well hidden behind a leaf, brown to black, compact and sturdy, nearly two inches long, with a long tail and a pair of antennae. His front wings are raised 45 degrees above his abdomen on which the hind wings are folded. This is the cricket’s fiddling position. Now he rubs the two leathery wings against each other in a back and forth motions, a process called stridulation, which inspired man to invent the violin. On closer examination the base of the front wing in lined with a sharp edge to form the scrapper, while the ventral side has a file like ridge, the file, which represents the bow of the violin.

And what about the stereoscopic sound effect? A pair of tympana, which are drum-like organs, found at the base of the front tibia, are actually ears which, together with the raised wings, serve as resonator, sending the sound to as far as a mile away on a still night.

Now let us analyze the music produced - or is it only a sound that is mistaken for some music qualities? The cricket's sound produced by a single stroke called pulse. Each pulse is composed of a number of individual tooth strokes of the scraper and file. Pulse rate is from four to five per second, but on warm summer night the rate becomes faster. Thus, crickets are not only watchdogs (they stop when they sense an intruder), they are also indicators of temperature – and perhaps the coming of bad weather. It is for these reasons, other than their music, that the Chinese and the Japanese love them as pets.

The pulses of cricket are relatively musical; that is, they can usually be assigned a definite pitch, varying from 1,500 to 10,000 hertz, depending on the species. Those of the long-horned grasshopper or katydid are more noise-like; that is, they contain a wide band of frequencies, including clicking and lapsing, and cannot be assigned to a definite pitch. The monotony of its sound must have led to the coining of the insect’s name, katydid-katydid-katydid…

There are three musical pieces the cricket plays. Calling songs are clear crisp, and loud, which, of course, suit the intention. When a female comes around and nudges the singing male, his music becomes soft and romantic, lasting for many minutes to hours, and he forgets his role of warning the presence of an intruder or telling of the coming storm. Anyone who is love-struck is like that, I suppose..

But worse can come all of a sudden. This sentinel falls silent as he takes the bride. And when another suitor is around, this Valentino takes a fighting stance and sings the Bastille, a battle song.

I came across studies on insect music. I began to take interest, imitating it with the violin. It is impossible and the audiospectrogram tells why. You cannot deceive them and break their code of communication. Nature is specific: only the members of the same species understand one another. And no two species can communicate vis-à-vis this auditory means. This is one area in development biology, which has not been fully explored. How did this mechanism of species communication evolve? With computers today, can it be explored as an alternative and safe means of controlling destructive species?

The garden meets sunrise with fluttering butterflies, so does a garden surrender into the night with an array of concerto and orchestra music, and becomes a place for meditation. I say that the music produced by this insect is a sound of peace and praise for life. When the students have gone home and the offices already closed, I usually spend hours waiting for my color-coding time at the SPCQ garden. The chores of the day vanished easily, and I found the evening so relaxing that I did not complain of the traffic on my way home.

The great Charles Darwin himself expressed his deep feelings for these night’s musicians in his book, Cricket at the Heart. He said, “I love it for the many times I have heard it, and the many thoughts its harmless music has given me.”

 Field cricket (Acheta bimaculata)

Carolus Linneaus, the father of taxonomy, was more affected by these insects. He kept them to send him to sleep. Japanese children delight in collecting crickets, as American children do with fireflies. Caged crickets are sold in shops. In a mall I found a battery-operated cricket in a cage. We are indeed in Computer Age! Poet David McCord laments, “The cricket’s gone. We only hear machinery.”

As for me, I still find peace in the garden with these humble companions in the night. ~

Forest Pond

Forest Pond

                      A pond in silence and in song

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Forest Pond, painting in acrylic by AV Rotor

It is not the Walden Pond of Thoreau;

it is not the mirror pond of Narcissus;

but a pond somewhere in the forest 

in the mind, away from others' views.

A pond in silence and in song all day;

a pond that reflects the stars at night;

and in summer air shimmers the sun,

and from heaven a magnificent sight. ~

The Biological Basis of Selfishness and Selflessness

Dr Abe V Rotor

Honeybee gathers nectar and pollen for the members of its
colony, key to survival of its species.

All organisms, simple or complex, plant or animal – and human – are governed by genes, which through the long process of evolution, are the very tools for survival in Darwin’s treatise on Survival of the Fittest through Natural Selection.

The acquisition of successful genes is key to the survival of present day species, and the explanation on the failure of those which did not. Two words are important: adaptation and competition. This dual attributes are directed to self-preservation through the process of acquiring the basic necessities of life either by adjusting to it passively or actively. Definitely it is not one that is easy to share to the extent of losing its benefit in favor of another.

Sting of honeybee, for defence and accessory to reproduction. 

But if we analyze it, this is true to each individual. Now organisms do not live as individuals; they live as a community, as a society. Which leads us to the logical inference that if the individual organism, in order to survive must be selfish, then how can it be able to establish a community in which it ultimately become a part?

This is very important because the community is the key to resource sharing from food to space; it is the key to collective bargaining in times of peace or war. The community is like a bundle of individuals behaving singularly. It is collective planting time when the monsoon arrives, harvesting when it ends. The rituals that go with such activities enhance the success of bonding, and enshrine it into an institution.

Institutions were born from socio-economic needs which spontaneously developed into cultural and political rolled into one complex society. To answer where selfness starts is easier to answer than where selflessness begins.

If the premise is biological what proofs can we show that it is so?

• Social insects – ants, bees and termites – bind themselves as a colony. Any attack on the colony sends soldiers to fight the enemy. Paper wasps sting as intruders. The honeybee does not consume the nectar and pollen it gathers, but brings the harvest into the granary from which it get its share later. An ant clings to death at an enemy. When a bee sting, its abdomen is ripped away and is surely to die.

• Starve an aphid or a mealybug, and it will produce young prematurely – even without first becoming an adult. This is called paedogenesis. Or an adult may produce young without the benefit of mating and fertilization. This is parthenogenesis.

• A plant stressed by drought will cut its life cycle short in order to use the remaining energy to produce offspring. This is true to grasshoppers or caterpillars – they skip one or two moulting and metamorphose so that they can mate and reproduce.

• The spacing of plants is determined not only of soil and climatic conditions that control the growth and development, but by a biological mechanism known as allelopathy. A date palm will kill its own offspring around its trunk and under its crown. Those that grow outside its shadow becomes a part of the oasis’ vegetation.

Pits of ant lions serve as abode and trap for unwary preys like ants which the fanged larvae beneath  each hole readily punch and devour. 

• Bacteria, yeasts, and other microorganisms go into luxury feeding where there is plenty, and nature seems not to mind, until they consume the food, and worse until their waste accumulates and becomes toxic. This is called autotoxicity. Thus in fermentation, it is the toxic material - alcohol - that eventually kills the yeasts themselves, and another process follows until the organic forms of compounds are transformed and ultimately returned as inorganic ready for use by succeeding organisms.

• The dalag and many other species of fish eat their young leaving only those that can escape. Here the advantage of controlled population and survival of the fittest are shown.

• Vultures seldom attack a living prey; they wait to its last breath. A male lion will kill a cub which it did not sire. But we know too, that there are surrogate mothers in the wild like the cuckoo, and among domestic animals.

Because of the complexity of social behavior, Dr E O Wilson of Harvard University, attempted to explain many of the observed behavior into a field of biology he called sociobiology. In a simple illustration, if your child is about to be hit by a fast oncoming vehicle, a mother would risk her life to save him. Dr. Wilson would then asks a third party if he or she would do the same thing to a child who is not his own – much less without any relations.

This leads us back to our previous question: When does selfishness end and selflessness begin?~

 Entanglement of roots webbed by inarching form a natural barrier for competition against nearby trees, and in riprapping the soil from erosion. 

 Makahiya (Mimosa pudica), so-called shy plant because whole leaves droop when disturbed, baring sharp thorns and appearing unpalatable to browsing animals - a rare adaptation. 

 Pansit-pansitan (Piperonia pelucida) is adapted in moist pockets of soil and completes its life cycle before the place dries up, leaving resistant seeds for the next season. 

Old Lighthouse of a Rocky Cove

Old Lighthouse of a Rocky Cove

Dr Abe V Rotor

Old Lighthouse of a Rocky Cove in acrylic AVR (50" x 47")

You had your days of the sailing ships,

     guiding them all away from danger;

and the rocks had grown passive and kind

     unyielding though to time and wear.

I used to climb your spiraling staircase,

     and gaze the horizon on your deck;

waiting for sunset and glow of your lamp,

     or catch your waning light at daybreak.

But that was many, many years ago,

     brave sentinel of sea and sky,

bright and wonder to far, far away land,

     perhaps even to angels passing by.

I came home one sunset, and you asked,

     where in the world I have long been;

standing tall still, oh, my dear old friend,

     light beams coming out of your ruin.~

"Culture is the Soul of Civilization"

 Article written by Dr Ronel dela Cruz in Living with Folk Wisdom 

Ronel P. dela Cruz, Ph.D. 

Professor, Director for Research and Publication, St. Paul University Quezon City

Author: Isla Fuga - Sacred Scapes

  

Cultural anthropologists affirm culture as the soul of civilization where people attain their identity, value orientation and aesthetic sense. Culture gives the people their perceptual apparatus and orientation of understanding. It is the reservoir of life-wisdom of the people. Today, the concept of integral sustainable development includes cultural progress which starts from a positive social self-definition and identity. Hence, local history and cultures provide a glimpse of the indigenous wisdom of the people which speaks of their religious worldview and deep connection with the Earth.

However, globalization, along with information and communication in hi-tech form, very much affects the cultures of peoples and nations in the world today. The global market regime continues to erode the cultural rights of local communities in the world. It has furthermore accelerated the commodification of human cultures towards the eradication of the culture of life. Under the influence of hi-tech media and the global cybernetic information process, our cultural identity, cultural sensibility, cultural awareness, cultural competence and cultural values are being dismantled. This is a process of one-dimensional homogenization of local and national cultures of life. Elitist globalization that excludes and marginalizes the traditional and local indigenous practices, beliefs and worldview (cosmology) continue to separate humanity from nature.

What is very alarming is that the global market will exchange cultural commodities, which may occupy the main process of the market. Globalization is commercializing the popular, mass and indigenous cultures into commodities in the market. This is causing several problems, such as homogenization, cultural desertification and identity crisis, as well as drastic injustices in terms of the cultural powers of communication and information.

Living with Folk Wisdom is a compilation of traditional wisdom, beliefs, values, practices and worldview among local communities in the Philippines. While some of these practices demonstrate Filipino worldview attempting to influence natural processes, the dearth of these beliefs and practices manifest egalitarian and interrelated connection with nature. This book gives importance and relevance of the cultural diversity of local communities which is an essential component of envisioning a sustainable future.

Researchers and educators gathered on November 25-27, 2005 in Benguet State University for a seminar on Filipino cultural identity showcased best practices in integrating indigenous culture in the curriculum. This “cultural creative” group lauded the initiative of colleges and universities in using the local wisdom, practices and traditions in their curriculum as an effective tool for cultural development, identity and national progress.

The work of Dr. Abercio Rotor is an interesting material which can be used across disciplines like Biology, Social Sciences, History, Culture and Indigenous Studies. Today, there is a demand for a new cultural movement and initiatives that are truly life-enhancing in local communities. Documenting the wellspring of wisdom and resources for a sustainable life, Dr. Rotor counters the current cultural process under the dictates of globalization. This opus is his cultural creativity which is very much demanded for life, not for profit in the market.                                     

                                               x      x      x

Test on Global Warming, True or False, 25 items)

Global warming is grave concern of each 

and everyone of us. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Depiction of Global Warming, painting in acrylic by AV Rotor

1. Biofuels are healthy to the environment and economy especially in underdeveloped countries.

2. It is wise to store carbon waste such as from CO2 emission and coal waste deep into the earth; anyway fossil fuels have been kept the bowels of the earth for millions of years.

3. Methane has higher impact in global warming than CO2 emission, which means that animal husbandry is a major generator of global heat.

4. Greenwashing is the practice pf making environmental promises favoring hype over substance, a disparaging term usually applied to corporations such as automakers that tout new hybrids but still peddle gas-guzzling SUBS and lobby against increased-mileage requirement.

5. The ozone hole is getting bigger above the equator because of increasing heat while the ozone above the poles remains intact.

6. The hottest in household energy savings is the replacement of conventional incandescent light bulb with Compact Fluorescent Light bulb (CFL)

7. Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs may cost 2 or 3 times more than conventional light bulbs but consume only one-fourth of electricity; besides they last very much longer.

8. Planting trees, scientists tell us, is not a wise measure to curb global warming, because trees absorb the heat of the sun.

9. It is the light of the sun – not its heat – that is used to covert water and CO2 during photosynthesis to produce sugar and O2.

10. The US alone contributes 50 percent of the total annual CO2 output which is 32 billion tons.

11. The ozone hole is getting bigger above the equator because of increasing heat while the ozone above the poles remains intact.

12. China’s economy has been growing steadily at an average rate of 10 percent in the last decade, thanks to its fast growing industrialization.

13. Today’s CO2 in the atmosphere which is 379 ppm in 2005 is higher than anytime in the past 650,000 years.

14. Of the 12 warmest years on record, 11 occurred in the last 20 years, mainly from 1995 to 2004.

15. There is a new law in Japan that at least 20 percent of rooftops of buildings are made green in the like of a high rise garden – similar to what we can aeroponics.

16. Total water on earth as ice and glacier is around 2 percent.

17. Chlorine, methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide contribute to acid rain. Acid rain and global warming have no connection to each other.

18. Asia is the last region to clean up its cities – Orientals are not as meticulously clean as Americans and Europeans.

19. It is now accepted unanimously that industrialization is the culprit of global warming.

20. Global warming has something to do with the disturbance of the tectonic plates leading to more frequent and stronger earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruption.

21. The effects of global warming are the concern of governments and big corporations because they have the power and resources to curb its effect. We, ordinary citizens, are but by-standers, but we should be willing to abide by the rules they set.

22. Penguins and white bears are drowning in the Arctic region because of the melting of ice.

23. Converting corn into ethanol requires more energy in the process than the net energy output/ produce.

24. The name Rachel Carson rings every time we talk about pollution, a subject in her book, “Silent Spring”.

25. An Inconvenient Truth is based on Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit , an international bestseller written by Al Gore, former vice president of the US.

Our living planet, once a Paradise, can be restored by no one but each and everyone of us.  

Test Global Warming ANSWERS:1F (competition with food and nutrition),1T, 2F, 3T, 4T, 5F, 6T, 7T, 8F, 9T, 10F (one-fourth, 11T, 12T, 13T, 14T, 15T, 16T - 1.90. Of the total freshwater (2 %), glacier and ice make up 78.19 %, 20.58 %groundwater, and 0.82% rivers and lakes, soil 0.41%; 17F, 18F, 19F (There are doubting Thomases.), 20T, 21F (It's a concern of every citizen of the world.), 22F(Penguins are found at the Antarctic), 23T(We have yet to perfect the technology; ethanol from sugarcane is more efficient.), 24T(Pesticides killed the birds that herald spring.), 25T.

RATING
24 – 25 outstanding
20 – 23 very good
16 – 19 good
12 – 15 pass

Below 11 - Read more and keep abreast with the developments about the issue. 

Talisay - "Signature of autumn" in the tropics

Talisay or Umbrella Tree (Terminalia catappa) loses its entire crown during the amihan (cold months). The cooler the wind blows all the way from Siberia, the redder the leaves become before falling off the tree. 

Photos and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor

Talisay signifies autumn in the Philippines 

I wait for a gust of wind
to shake you up and make you
a skeleton in the blue sky;
your nakedness is also mine
in the passage of time.

One by one your noble death
is proclaimed, each leaf a page,
falling in peace and dignity;
dying to tell the world the story
of the greatest mystery. ~

A Valley of Life and Death

A Valley of Life and Death
Mural and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

A valley of death, so stories go,

     for the old and the young, too;

and who would dare this fateful

     place but a lonely soul?

A valley of tears with barren shed,

     evil on nature its final bed, 

with a sprig of promised peace

     and temporary ease.

A valley of life of verdant green,

     once a full blooming scene;

life of the river down the sea,

     a world of wonder and free.  

A valley of promise, heed its call,

     words in the pulpit and hall,        

and in make believe by painting, 

     not at all worth praising.

A valley of suffering takes its toll;

     blind and deaf, the prayerful

waits for the angels to be sent   

     to this valley of death. ~   

Original title, "Dirge over a Watershed Mural." The wall mural is found at St Paul University Quezon City along Aurora Blvd.  It needs restoration.   

How long can a river eel in captivity survive ?

The backyard as laboratory and workshop (2)
The case of a river eel that has survived confinement subsisting only on algae for three long years - and going.~   
Dr Abe V Rotor

Come rainy season and the rivers are abundant with freshwater eels. It's their breeding season and soon the tiny glass (transparent) eels take the characteristic shape and form of the common eel - elongated like snake, and slimy to catch which is true to its vernacular name, palos, a term given to a person who can evade capture and escape from confinement.

That is why of the half a dozen eels Celing, who lives near a creek, gave us, only this one in the photo survives to this day after three years of captivity in a glass aquarium. What I found about the river eel may not be found in the books.
1. River eels are extremely shy, they seldom get out of their dark hiding place, especially during the day. They hang up on guard now and then and retreat at the slightest disturbance.

2. Gregariousness is incidental to their confinement, given freedom they move separately on their own.

3. They are not the voracious predators as claimed. Sword tails and guppies live for sometime with them in the same aquarium.

4.River eels do not eat commercial feeds, bread or meat. They subsist only on algae or lumot growing on limestone, and on the bottom and sides of the aquarium. That's why sunlight is very important for the algae to produce biomass and oxygen which are vital to life. 

5. The limestone rock (CaO), releases calcium to neutralize acidity of the water, while its crevices provide an abode to the eels, hiding them from view and light. 
  
6. They don't need aerator or filter.  Simply add water to maintain water level. Excess algae and accumulated detritus however, must be removed as necessary. 

We kids in our time believed in a huge eel hiding below an overhanging kamatchile tree along the Bantaoay river in our hometown.  "Don't go near its cave!" We were warned every time we go fishing. Well, I grew up with this rich imagination and never saw themonster.

Then in the early sixties, a huge eel was caught in a flood tunnel under the Public Market in Sampaloc. It must have come from the fish market and grew up with plenty of food from the wet market.

It was then that I connected the two giant eels -  the one in my childhood, and the one twenty years after. Tales are true after all.

And I am adding to this tale the fact that here is a eel that has survived in confinement subsisting on algae alone for three long years - and going.~   

Giant mottled eel.  Angler Seishi Hagihara (Sulawesi Island, Indonesia ) with a Giant Mottled Eel (Anguilla marmorata) caught in Poso Lake.

Maori legendary eel, New Zealand; giant eel lurking from its nest (Australian Museum). Acknowledgement: Internet Images,Wikipedia for photos.  

Would you kill a firefly?

Yes, man is insect buster, self righteous, self-proclaimed - but would he dare to kill a firefly just the same? 
Dr Abe V Rotor
 

BOREAL FIREFLY  Photuris lucicrescens. 

beneficialbugs.org400 × 298 Search by image

A firefly on a leaf. Fireflies might be both pollinators and predators

Acknowledgement: Firefly Tour at Kuala Selangor Guiddoo - Guiddoo World Travels Pvt Ltd

www.guiddoo.com1276 × 850Search by image

Firefly Tour at Kuala Selangor Guiddoo

 Field study of insects. UST Graduate School.  Amadeo Cavite 

Man is the insect buster; self proclaimed, strong and bold;
He conquers his greatest enemy, wasting no time.
He has read enough books, and turned away from the old.
He’s Pied Piper now in new adventure in his prime.

To the rescue, he rid the world of aliens and all their kin;
"I am Gulliver," he said to the imagined Lilliputians,
With gloves and boots, armed with tools of the modern kind,
He saw himself riding to the West against the Indians.

Make way for this nemesis, the bugs run for your lives;
They dropped dead, crushed, unbearable was the pain.
Their shelter stormed, their nests torn, so with their hives.
It’s reminiscent of Pompeii where the ruins reign.

The air is stilled, there’s no more music in the night;
The pond is clear, but where have the fishes gone?
Plants still bloom, but their flowers are no longer bright.
Where are the bees and butterflies that meet the sun?

Frogs no longer croak, silent are the fields and the trees;
Where’s the cicada shrilling with joy, the cricket at night?
The melodious songs and calls of birds that never cease.
The mayfly’s visit, or the moth’s over a candlelight?

Suddenly the world became still. Didn't Rachel Carson
Tell in Silent Spring the birds didn't arrive one spring?
Or in biblical times, didn't a cloud of death over a zone
Killed creatures one by one, the survivors migrating?

Where have all the sweetest sugar and flowing silk gone?
Their makers, the busy bee and the the naive worms?
They too, have been stilled forever by the same poison
That killed the evil ones and their ugly forms.

Didn't Alexander the Great die on the Euphrates
Of malaria? Or the Pharaoh Menes of bee venom?
Thousands died building the Panama Canal and Suez,
And more death blamed to insects still unknown.

Who would like the fly around? But without it the dead
Would litter the ground, more so without the Scarabid.
Who would eat remnants of an enemy, diseases they spread?
For certain man doesn't like to die first? God forbid.

His joy to conquer lies in his genes, even against his kind,
Much less the lowly crawlers, for revenge or just game;
Yes, man is insect buster, self righteous, self-proclaimed -
But would he dare to kill a firefly just the same? ~

Art World Travelogue through Drawing and Painting (20 Exercises)

Dr Abe V. Rotor
PHOTO
Pamana (Philippine Eagle) returns to its home, painting in acrylic by the author

I. Introduction
Art World: A Travelogue through Drawing and Painting, is a sequel of Handbook for Drawing and Painting. These workshop manuals are designed to teach basic drawing and painting techniques to children of school age and young adults. Their emphasis is to tap the latent talent of children, in  Cultivating Creativity, Skills, Values and Personality through Art.


The approach in this volume is unique. The participants go through an imagined itinerary that takes them to different places and introduces them to experiences which they are likely to encounter in life. There are twenty exercises to be accomplished as class work or home assignment, fifteen (15) are designed for individual work, while five (5) are for group work..

Ideally, this manual provides the needs of a summer workshop which is conducted for at least ten sessions, with three hours per session. One exercise is done in the classroom, and one is given as home assignment. An on-the-spot session can also make use of a number of exercises from this manual, such as Flying Kites, Inside a Gym, and Market Day. Each exercise will be graded and at the end of the workshop, the participants will be rated and ranked accordingly. The top three graduates shall be awarded gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Computation of grades is based on the Likert Scale, where 1 is very poor, 2 poor, 3 fair, 4 good, and 5 very good. The general criteria are composition, interpretation, expression, artistic quality and impact. The details of these shall be discussed by the instructor at the onset of each exercise.

Like the other two manuals, the author offers this volume a respite from cartoons, advertisements, entertainment characters, programs filled with violence and sex, computer games, and the like, which many children are overexposed via media and computers. It is his aim to help create a more wholesome culture where certain values of a growing child and adolescent are developed and nurtured. Art through this means becomes principally a vehicle for development, notwithstanding the gains in skill acquired.

For each exercise, the instructor shall explain the requirements and procedure with the use of visuals and through demonstration. If there is need for group interaction he shall also serve as facilitator-moderator. He shall choose the appropriate music background for each exercise to enhance the ambiance of the workshop.

With brush and colors one can go places and create scenarios as vivid as what a pen can do. It reminds us of the masterpieces of Jules Verne which he wrote many, many years ago, notably “Around the World in Eighty Days”. More than fiction we embark on a trip for life, real and inevitable. The pleasures await us, so with difficulties and hardships. The journey takes us closer to Nature and appreciate her beauty , it leads us to meet people and learn how to be a part of society. Here we plan our lives, make things for ourselves, enjoy success, face failure, and at the end we return to reality once again. Our journey takes us back to our loved ones, and with an Angelus prayer on our lips we draw a deep breathe of gratitude.

Thus one can glimpse from the outline of our itinerary that Part 1 introduces us to the natural world, while Part 2 integrates us into society. The last part provides a window through which a growing child and an adolescent see the other side of their present world, the real world in which they will spend the rest of their lives.

All aboard!

Exercise 1
Sunflower Field
Lessons in radial symmetry, uniformity, and unity; farm life and scenery.

The sunflower has a central disc, surrounded by a ring of bright yellow petals which resemble the rays of the sun. But the most unique characteristic of the sunflower is that it faces the sun as it moves from sunrise to sunset. Because of its “obedience” to the sun, botanists gave the plant a genus name, Helianthes, after the Greek sun god, Helios.

Draw a field of sunflowers. Central Luzon State University in Munoz, Nueva Ecija, is the pioneer in sunflower farming. Imagine yourself to be at the center of sunflower farm. It is a bright day. Walk through the field among the plants as tall as you. Examine their long and straight stem and large leaves. Touch the large flowers, smell their sweet and fresh scent. Observe the bees and butterflies visiting one flower after another. Make the flowers prominent in your drawing. Remember they are uniform in size, height and color, and they are all facing the sun. Make the sky blue with some cloud to break the monotony.

You are given thirty minutes to complete your work. Use pastel colors on Oslo or drawing paper. Fill up the entire paper as if it were the whole field and sky. You may draw butterflies and bees. And you may draw yourself as you imagine yourself in a sunflower field. Here are suggested musical compositions for music background. “Humoresque”, “Minuet in G”, “Serenata”, “Traumerei”, “On the meadow”, “Spring Song”, “Ang Maya”.

Exercise 2
Fairy Garden
Introduction to fantasy, richness of imagination, and familiarity of make-believe stories.

This exercise relies principally on fantasy. We are in fairyland. What kind of garden is this? It is a garden made by our imagination and dreams. It is a garden in the world of Jonathan Swift’s second book, “Gulliver in Brodningnad”, where Gulliver was a dwarf in a land of giants where everything is big.  Imagine yourself a dwarf among mushrooms, mosses, grass, and insects. But here everyone is friendly, you imagine you can even ride on an ant like in “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!”, if you have seen the movie.

Here harmony of nature and creatures is at its best. There are no cars, buildings, highways and sky ways. The amenities in life are very simple. Nature is left alone in her pure state.

Use Oslo paper and pastel colors. Draw a part or section of that garden in your imagination. Do not draw the whole panoramic view. Include the things that make that garden in your imagination, one that belongs to fantasy land. “The Last Rose of Summer’”by Flotow fits well in this exercise. How about Schubert compositions? Ballet music like, “The Dying Swan”? Let us try these for background music.

Exercise 3
A Hut by the Pond on a Mountain
Lessons of peace, tranquility, and of unspoiled landscape; feeling of being on top of the world.

The title alone tells a story. It is picturesque. Here one imagines himself to be in a simple hut made of wood and stone and grass which shelters a woodsman or a hunter on Mt. Pulag in Benguet which is the second highest mountain in the Philippines after Mt. Apo.

There are no houses, buildings; no road, except a trail. The trees are gnarled and stunted. They are covered with ferns, epiphytes and mosses which make them look haunted. Feel the great comfort the hut gives you after a long day hike, and how soothing is the cool and clear water of a pond nearby. There are water lilies growing on the pond. Their flowers are red, orange, white and yellow. Sometimes a breeze come along, followed by drizzle, then everything is quiet. Enjoy stillness. It is a rare experience to one who has been living in the city.

Draw first the mountain top where a pond and a hut are found. There is an faint trail which is the only way. The trees are dwarf and sturdy. They are bearded with mosses. Mist will soon clear as the sun penetrates through the trees, and makes a prism on the mist and dewdrops. Selections from the sound track of “Sound of Music” provide an ideal musical background.

Exercise 4
Lighthouse at the Edge of the Sea
Lessons in the wild, where Nature can be at times angry and cruel to those who do not take heed of her warning.

Here we are at the end of the land, and the beginning of the vast ocean. We stand on the coral reef and stones where we are safe from the angry waves. Above our head is a tall structure, strong, painted white, and on top of it is a strong light which guides seafarers at night, keeping away from dangerous rocks and shoals. This is an old lighthouse in Calatagan, Batangas.

Draw the waves breaking on the rock at the foot of the lighthouse. Give life to the sky. Put some moving clouds, some sunset colors. This is a sign of bad weather. There are sailboats leaning with the wind, their sails distended. They burst in different colors and designs, breaking the gloom. Other boats lay in anchor, their sails lowered, while others have been carried to higher ground. The shore is deserted now, except a few fishermen securing their paraphernalia in their anchored boats. Let us play Antonin Dvorak Jean Sibelius and other Scandinavian compositions. They have a special touch that creates the ambiance for this topic.

Exercise 5
Rainforest
A lesson on different kinds of plants and animals living together in a forest, the richest ecosystem in the world, their organization, adaptation and relationships.

As we enter a tropical rainforest, the trees become taller and denser, grasses disappear, and shrubs and vine plants called lianas take over their place. In the center of the rainforest are massive trees several meters high. Their trunks are huge, it takes several persons to wrap a tree with their arms stretched. Sunlight is blocked, except rays seeping through the green roof. We imagine we are inside the forest of Mt. Makiling in Laguna.

We walk through the forest by first clearing our way with a bolo. Be careful, the ground is slippery. In the rainforest, rain falls everyday, in fact anytime, from drizzle to downpour. That is why it is called rainforest. Be careful with wild animals and thorny plants. Do not disturb them, just observe them. Look for reptiles like lizards and snakes, amphibian like frogs and toads, fish swimming in a stream, birds singing up in the trees, insects of all kinds, animals like deer and monkeys.

Draw a cross section of a forest showing the different creatures. Show their interrelationships. For example a snake eats frogs, frogs eat insects, insects feed on plants. Observe the trees are of three levels. We appear very small standing on the ground floor of a seven-storey natural building that is the forest. Joey Ayala’s compositions on nature fit best as background music in this exercise. Why don’t we try some songs of Pilita Corales and Kuh Ledesma which are appropriate for this topic? “Sierra Madre”, for example.

Exercise 6
Riceland
Lessons on the Central Plains, birthplace of agriculture and seat of early human settlement, rice granary of the country, where typical farm life is observed.

Rice, rice everywhere with few trees, no mountains, except Mt. Arayat. The wind sweeps over the plains and make waves and soothing sound. Suddenly a flock of herons and maya birds rise into the air. Herds of cattle lazily graze. Their calves are playful and oftentimes get lost. You hear both parents and calves calling one another. There are carabaos which like best areas where there is water and mud to wallow in..

Because we are in the Philippines we do not have zebras, lions, tigers and leopards. These animals live in Africa and on the vast plains of North America. We are going to draw a Philippine scene instead. We have our Central Plains where we grow rice. Here the farmer plants when the rains come and harvests towards the end of the monsoon. His hut in the middle of his field is made of nipa and bamboo. It is small. Beside it are haystacks that look like giant mushrooms. Children help on the farm, they mature and learn to live with life earlier than city kids.

Draw a typical ricefield scene in Central Luzon. It is like Fernando Amorsolo’s seceneries of rural life where there are people planting or harvesting rice. A carabao pulls a plow or cart, a nipa hut is surrounded by vegetables, haystacks or mandala dwarf the huts and people around. It is indeed a typical scene that gives an excellent background for our native songs and dances like Tinikling. Ang Kabukiran song fits well as a background music for this exercise. Let us play Nicanor Abelardo’s Compositions. Filipino composers like Padilla de Leon, Verlarde, Canseco, and Umali excel in this field.

Exercise 7
Waterfalls
This exercise makes us reflect at where a river abruptly ends. The energy and scenery of a waterfalls stir our imagination and make us think about life.

Here we follow the river. It meanders, then at a certain point it stops. But it does not actually end here. As water seeks its own level the river drops into a waterfalls and continues its journey toward the sea. We think of Pagsanjan Falls in Laguna or Maria Cristina Falls in Mindanao.

As we stand witness to this natural phenomenon, we are awed by its strength, it roars as it falls, sending spray and mist that make a prism or small rainbow. It pounds the rocks, plunges to a deep bottom before it becomes placid as if it has been tamed, then resumes to flow, seeking a new course toward its destiny.

Look around. Trees abound everywhere and make a perfect curtain and prop of a great drama. The background music is a deafening sound. And it is just appropriate. Be part of the drama. Be still and capture the scene. You have thirty minutes to do it on Oslo and pastel colors. Let us play heavy music from Beethoven, and Ryan Cayabyab. Toward the end of the exercise let us have a Rachmaninoff or a Listz composition.

Exercise 8
Inside a Cave
Looking back at the past, the home of our primitive ancestors, window of early civilization, and study
of a Nature’s architectural work.

Have you ever been inside a cave? Jules Verne wrote a fascinating novel, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. Look for the book or tape, or find somebody who had read it. It is a story of three daring men who traveled down a dormant volcano and explored a huge cavern, a world in itself inhabited by strange creatures of the past.

This exercise leads us to a cave in Callao, Cagayan, or Tabon in Palawan. On the face of a cliff are openings. We enter the biggest one. It is dark and scary. We hear bats, dripping water, and the wind making its ways through the cave. We see tiny lights like hundreds of distant stars. These are crystalline calcium deposits, phosphorescent materials, and glow worms. They cling on the stalactites which are giant teeth like structures hanging from the roof of the cave. The stalagmites are their counterpart rising from the cave floor. When both meet, they form pillars of many shapes and sizes. See that beam of light coming through the roof? It is a window to the sky.

Now draw the view from here and show the main entrance which frame the stalactites and stalagmites, and the seeping beam of light coming from the opening at the sky roof. You have thirty minutes to do it. Play a tape of Johann Sebastian Bach as background music. Robert Schumann’s symphony fits as well.

Exercise 9
Shanties and Buildings
Lesson on contrast – between beautiful, high rise buildings and ugly shanties; between affluent
and poor, modern and undeveloped communities. It is ironic to see high rise buildings as a backdrop of shanties in Pasig and Makati, our country’s business capital.

It means there are very rich and very poor people living together in one place. It reminds us of Charles Dickens' “Oliver Twist” and the Bastille before the French revolution. These are stories about inequality, and where there is inequality, many social problems arise, such as unemployment, disease and epidemic, drug abuse and problems on peace and order. Play the tapes, “Les Miserables” and “Noli Me Tangere, the Musical”. We can use these also in other exercises, like Typhoon and Angelus.

Here we stand viewing the dwellings of the so-called “poorest among the poor” which line up the sidewalks and esteros. They are found under the bridges, on vacant lots, and even on parks and shorelines. What a perfect contrast they make against the skyscrapers! This view is what you are going to draw. In each sector, include the inhabitants in their own lifestyle.

Exercise 10
Market Day
A place where people meet people, the pulse of our socio-economic life, where all walks all of life converge.

Everyday is market day in Divisoria, Baclaran, Pasay, Balintawak, and many public markets and talipapa in the city. In the province, Market Day comes maybe once a week, and when it is on a Sunday, the market comes alive after the mass.

Here we are going to meet people, we meet the common tao. We are among them. We are going to draw a complex scene. Here are the things we are going to put in our drawing. Let us play a lively tune, “Gavotte” and Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”. Because Amadeus Mozart music is light, let us have one or two of his compositions toward the end of the exercise.

1. A noisy crowd, people, people everywhere.
2. People selling and people buying.
3. Stalls and stores, carinderia, vendors and hawkers.
4. Wares, commodities, goods, services
5. Tricycles, jeepneys, trucks, carts
6. Festive moods, decors, colors, antics.

This is a group work. Each group has 5 to 7 members. Use one-half illustration board. Before you start, each group must convene its members and plan out what to do. Then it is all yours. You are give the whole session.

Exercise  11
Building a House
A step-by-step follow-me exercise in building a house, making it into a home and ultimately a part of a community

This is quite an easy exercise. But it needs analysis and imagination. Your score here will greatly rely on the interpretation of the theme. That is why you have to pay attention as we go through the step-by-step process. Do not go ahead, and do not lag behind either. Draw spontaneously as we go along. Our musical background is “Home Sweet Home” a classical composition you must have heard in “The King and I”. Let us also try the music of Leopoldo Silos, Buencamino, Abelardo and Mike Velarde Jr. in this exercise.

Let us start.
1. First put up the posts
2. Put on the roof .
3. There is a floor, maybe two, if you like.
4. The walls have windows.
5. Stairs meet the door
6. Extension for additional room, kitchen, etc. as you wish.
7. Think of the amenities for functional and comfortable living.
8. You are free now to complete your house
9. Make it into a home.
10. Make it as part of a community

The proof if you really made it good is, “Do you wish to live with your family in the house that you made?” Let us see. Exchange papers with your classmates who will correct and score your paper. What is your score?

Exercise 12
Flying Kites
Reviving an old art and outdoor sport; taking part in a friendly and festive competition.

It is summer time. It is also kite flying season. When was the last time you flew a kite, or saw a kite festival?

Well, this is your chance. Let us see if you know how a kite flies. First of all, a kite must be light and balance, and with a string and fair wind, it rises and stays up in the sky. Notice that the wind keeps the kite up as if suspended in the sky. This where the art of aerodynamics comes in. You learn more about it in books and tapes about kite flying.


Here we go. This is a composite exercise. Just like in Market Day (Exercise 10) you will group yourselves into 5 up to 7 members. Plan out your work. Kites come in many shapes, figures, designs and colors. No two kites are the same. Be sure your kites fly against the wind, and only in one direction. Do not let them get entangled. Your setting is a park where there are people watching and cheering. Kite flying is both a festival and a competition. There are prizes at stake. The setting is in San Fernando Pampanga. Here beautiful Christmas lanterns are also made. Saranggola ni Pepe gives an excellent musical background. Let us play Frederick Chopin and imagine the light notes from his composition blending perfectly with the flying kites.

Use pastel or acrylic on illustration board. You have the whole session to complete your work.

Exercise 13
Camping
A test of survival, a life without parents and home, gathering around a bonfire, and counting stars.

Let us go camping like boy scouts and girl scouts. Let us go to a summer camp. Check the things you bring. Do not bring a lot of things, only those which are essential will do. You do not want to carry a heavy load, do you? Besides camping has its rules. Read more about camping. Let us play “Moon River”, “You Light up my Life”, Tosseli’s “Serenade”, and Antonio Molina’s “Hating Gabi”.

After this we play “Nature Sounds” which are recorded sounds of frogs, birds, waterfalls, and insect. To fully appreciate these sounds we will observe complete silence while we all work.

Like “Market Day” and “Flying Kites” (Exercises 10 and 12), this is a group exercise. Group yourselves into 5. Set your camp,on Tagaytay Ridge overlooking Taal Volcano. From this imagine view there are tents are of many colors and designs. There are big and small ones, round and triangular in shape. There are tents set under trees, tents in the open, along a trail, even on hillside. There is a central area where a large bonfire has been set. Around it are people singing, dancing, telling stories, others appear cooking something on the embers. Why don’t you join them?

But first, finish your drawing. Use pastel colors or acrylic on one-half illustration board. You have the whole session to do it.

Exercise 14
Sailing
Pure joy of adventure at sea, freedom riding on the wind and waves, a test of courage and endurance

Have you ever gone to sea? Have you ever ridden a sailboat or banca? I am sure all of us have. For those who may have forgotten it, or were very young at that time, here is a way to relive the experience. Let us have a rowing song as background., “Like Volga Boat Song”, or  music about rivers and sea, like “Over the Waves”, “On the Blue Danube”.

Let us go sailing in Manila Bay. Sailing is both pleasure and competition. Get your boat, and organize yourselves into a crew. Be sure you are ready when the race starts. Other sailboats are also preparing for the race. You can not afford to be left behind. The wind is building now. Is your sail set? Do you have enough provisions? Water, food, first aid kit, fuel, tools, map, flashlight, and others things. Review your checklist.

Group yourselves into 5. Assume that you are in your boat moving with other boats. This is the perspective of your composite drawing. Draw on illustration board using pastel or acrylic colors. You have the whole session to finish it. Ready, set, go!

Exercise 15
Views from an Airplane
Leaving our world down below and seeing it as a miniature. How small it is! Rather, how small we are!

As the airplane we are riding on soars to the sky we lose our sense of familiarity of the places below us. Then our world which we left behind appears as a miniature. And we are detached from it.

What really is the feeling of one flying on an airplane? Nervous and afraid? Excited and happy? Most probably it is a mixed feeling. Now let us imagine ourselves cruising in the sky one thousand feet up. We get a clear view below. The most prominent are the landscapes. See those mountains, rivers and lakes, the seashore. See the infrastructures – roads, bridges, towers, parks, and the like. Next, buildings, schools, the church, houses, etc. Imagine yourself to be above your hometown or barangay..

This is an individual work. Use Pastel colors and Oslo paper. You have thirty minutes to finish your drawing. Let us play “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and “Up, Up and Away”.

Exercise 16
Building an Aquarium
An exercise on doing things ourselves, following basic rules in maintaining life and keeping environmental balance.

An aquarium is “ a pond in glass”. We can build one in our backyard or in our house. It may be large or small depending on the kinds of fish we want to raise as pets.

Why this exercise? We want to try our hands not only in making things, but to play a role as guardian of living things. Can we make a stable and balanced aquarium? Are we then good guardians? Is so, can we say to our Creator we are good keepers of Earth?

Each one will make his aquarium, using pastel colors on Oslo paper. Be guides by these components or parts of an aquarium.

1. Clear water.
2. Sand bottom with rocks
3. Light
4. Aquatic plant
5. Fish, one up to three kinds (Your pet)
6. Snails and scavenger fish
7. Air pump to supplement oxygen and filter the water

Describe in class the aquarium that you made. Let’s play “Life Let’s Cherish”, “Fur Elise”, and Peter Tchaikovsky's songs and waltzes as background.

Exercise 17
Inside a Gym
A lesson on sportsmanship, physical fitness, will to win, humility in winning and dignity of losing.

It is sports season. Intramural! We are in a sports center. Join the parade of athletes, go with the beat of lively music, cheer with the big crowd. The gymnasium has covered courts, swimming pools, and arena. Competition is in basketball and other ball games, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, fencing, martial arts like aikido and taekwando, darts, and many more. We are in Rizal Coliseum.

This is composite drawing. Group yourselves into five to seven members. Each one imagines himself a player in his favorite sport. Draw at least three kinds of sports. Complete your work by including the crowd, other athletes, and the festive atmosphere. Play some marches. Get a tape of the Philippine Brass Band.

Plan out you work as a group. Present your finished work in class.

Exercise 18
Typhoon!
Preparedness, learning to deal with disaster, lending a hand.  PAGASA Bulletin: Signal No. 3 And it is going to be a direct hit.

List down the things to do. Imagine you are in one community. Choose your members, five to seven per group. Prepare for the coming super typhoon.

When you are through with your list, pause for some time and let the typhoon pass. Do not go out during a typhoon. Stay at home or in your safe quarter. If it is direct hit, the winds will reverse after a brief calm. The second part is as strong as the first. Think of Typhoon Yoling or Typhoon Undong which had more than 100 kilometers per hour wind at the center. (Music background from Gustav Mahler, George Bisset, the Spanish composer and violinist, Sarasate, and Igor Stravinsky’s “The Firebird” and “Fireworks”).

The typhoon has passed. What happened to the community. Did your preparation help you face the force majeure? Draw the scenario of the typhoon’s aftermath. Imagine yourself a boy scout or a girl scout, or simply and good citizen.

Exercise 19
Building Bridges
Reaching out, connecting places and people, building friendship and love

After the typhoon many roads and bridges were destroyed. Our houses may have been destroyed, too.
There is a different kind of destruction that you and I must prevent to happen in our lives by all means . Destruction of relationships. Our teachers tell us that a broken house is easier to repair than a broken home. Aristotle always reminded the young Alexander the Great, “ It is easier to make war than to make peace.” Relationships endure as long as the bridges connecting them are kept strong and intact. And once they get destroyed, do not lose time in rebuilding them.

Let us reflect on the illustration below. There are bridges washed away by the typhoon and flood. You are going to rebuild them. Analyze and imagine that these bridges are not only physical structures. These are bridges to reach out a person in need, to share our talents, to say sorry, to comfort, to congratulate, to console, to amend, to say what is right, to befriend, to stand for a cause, and many other virtues. With these, - perhaps even by our very intentions alone - we are also building a bridge with God.

With a solemn music as a background (“Meditation” from “The Thais” by Massenet), complete the outline on the attached page and be guided by the aforementioned scenario. Take your time. This is an exercise in meditation. Show and explain your work in class.

Exercise 20
Angelus
Time for reflection and retreat, retirement for the day, time with the family, thanksgiving

This is the end of our travelogue. We come home from our journey at last. It is Angelus. It is a time to put down everything and to thank God for the day – for our journey.

It is time with the family, with our parents, brothers and sisters. It is time to say the Angelus Prayer. Let us pause for a moment and meditate. Isn’t it wonderful to be alive? This is God’s greatest gift to us.

With a background music from “Messiah” by Georges Friderick Handel, “On Wings of Song” by Felix Mendelssohn and Toccata and Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach, compose the scenario of a family at Angelus Let us have also our own Nicanor Abelardo’s “Ave Maria”. This is a highly individual exercise. Work in complete silence. You have all the time in this session.

About the Author
Dr. Abercio V. Rotor combines science and humanities as professor, artist, writer, and entrepreneur. One may be surprised to see him teaching art to children with the same enthusiasm he taught for many years biology in the graduate school, and teaching farmers through radio and extension. And he likes being called Tito, Ka Abe, Manong, Prof, Doc – or simply Abe for the different roles he play. “I really love to teach children,” he confessed. “Their minds are like a fertile field, with lots of sunshine and rain - and no weeds,” he explained.

A self-taught artist, Dr. Rotor was discovered by the late Ka Doroy Valencia who commissioned him to paint childhood scenerry  in Batangas. Since then Dr. Rotor began to combine art with science. When he retired as director of  NFA and government, he began devoting his time to art and teaching. Two museums, the Grain Industry Museum and the St. Paul College Quezon City Museum, were put up under his direct supervision. One can see his huge paintings, dioramas, and many collections in these museum. He has held a dozen group exhibitions with children he taught in summer and weekend workshops.

Dr. Rotor holds a doctorate degree in biological sciences (Meritissimus) from the University of Santo Tomas where he taught as a professorial lecturer in the Graduate School. A well-traveled man he has visited the great museums of the world such as the Smithsonian, Tel-Aviv Museum, Egyptian Museum, Mexican Museum, and the Singapore National Museum.  He visited as a pilgrim the Holy Land, Rome, the Pyramids at Giza, the Great Walls of China and the Aztec City of the Dead in Mexico. With these experiences one can imagine Dr. Rotor conduct workshops, taking his young students to a wonderful world in a special kind of travelogue. “After all those years it is good to be with young people, telling them a great story, the story of life – through art.” He concluded.

Workshop References: Books Written by Dr. Abe V. Rotor (See list in this Blog); visit avrotor.blogspot.com