Monday, July 09, 2007

Heaven and HELL!

Below, is my submission for both HEAVEN (I know it was for last week, that's okay) and HELL. This was a post I published on my blog. It was a drawing I made last week as I have been fascinated by trees. I have been dreaming of buying private land where there are still giant bamboo groves in the hope of saving them from total destruction. If you click on the image, you may find hidden figures.

Giant fig trees in what was once a staple in Philippine rain forests; denuded by foreign and national logging companies who bribed corrupt government officials. Today, mudslides and erosions are constant problems in the lowlands. When I was eighteen years old, my nursing classmates and I went to the mountains to transplant hundreds of trees on a totally barren and naked mountainside. It was one of the saddest sights I have ever seen. Ballpoint pen drawing on my pocket Moleskine ruled notebook.

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After the war, they walked through the rain forest up in Mt. Canla-on through Mambucal. It was dense, dark and foggy. Then they came to a clearing. Viola! There stood the great tree with it's roots that looked like walls as tall as a man. They chopped it all down and all the other giant hardwood trees to make paper...

10 comments:

DaisyB said...

Wow, so many little details... Pretty impressive. Might be my imagination, but I feel like I'm being watched when I walk through your forest :) Great one.

Ces Adorio said...

Daisy, thanks, but you are being watched when you walk through a real forest! :-)

valerie walsh said...

Really stunning Ces! I love it!

JO said...

Wow, wonderful.

froggie is... said...

how do you DO these? i have never seen such a committed page (and you have so MANY of them) of just ballpoint pen. in all of your work ces, i get so lost in the maze of line and form and black and white but then you completely surprise and delight us with your details - the wingtip shoes (in an earlier post) the hidden figures in this one.

i just love your work. :)

Ces Adorio said...

Ms. Froggie, thank you for asking. I just draw. There is a certain feeling of satisfaction I derive from doing these drawings which take a lot of time away from my oil painting. I love the slow and enormous process it takes to fill a space with the tip of the pen. Shading, shading, shading...that is all I do. :-)

studio lolo said...

Beautiful tree Ces! I think forests are magical, especially ones like yours!

Anonymous said...

I agree with studio lolo - trees ARE magical! Your scene reminds me of the dense forests of St. John, USVI and it almost has an etching quality to it - awe-inspiring work!

cerebrand said...

wonderful, and wonderful and wonderful and fantastic and master's job

cerebrand said...

wonderful, and wonderful and wonderful and fantastic and master's job