What Is Soulmaking?
What Is Soulmaking?
What Is Soulmaking?
Soulmaking is connecting to our deepest nature. Soulmaking is communicating deeply with the
inner realm, being fully awake and aware by flooding a consciousness with eternal images.
Carl Jung, a psychologist has this to say: "My life is a story of the self-realization of the unconscious.
I can understand myself only in the light of inner happenings. It is there that make up the singularity
of my life."
According to James Hillman, a writer, soulmaking is what happens when we evoke the emotions
and experiences - of crisis and opportunity of love and dying- that give life a deeper meaning.
John Keats also said that only in this world, with all its opposites and audities provide the necessary
stuff of soul-making. In the Christian way, man is formed in the image of God and men has the innate
capacity to reflect that image in the life men live.
In short, soul making is about drawing out a certain experience of the person and transfer this into an
image either in a form of painting or a musical composition or a production.
To become a soulmaker, one does not need to be conscious as to how far one's masterpiece go.
Noy Narciso, a soulmaker takes a deeper perspective in life by crafting stories and transforming brief
moments into magic and symbols. He calls this process "soulmaking"In short, soul making is about
drawing out a certain experience
Learning in a natural environment offers direct benefits as diverse educational health and
psychological. Its indirect benefits range from socials financial.
Yet, despite the good benefits that natural environment learning give to many children, many of
them are losing their connection with nature.
Worse still, there are many children in the urban areas who are particular disadvantaged.
Nowadays, about 10% of children play in the natural environment compared to 40% of adults when
they were young. Reason: due to the influx of dig gadgets and social media. Less and less people
move, play and relax in the outdoor environment. Many of them are confined at home texting, chatting,
or search and browsing in the internet. Others are listening to music of the day. Still others are in the
computer shop playing video games, etc. More sitting than standing walking which is not a good
lifestyle.
This extinction of natural and vicarious experience has a detrimental long term impact on
environmental attitude and behavior.
Therefore, a cultural shift is required both at home and at school, before the situation worsen or can
be reversed.
Such a cultural shift requires commitment from concerned parties (parents, teachers) and stakeholders
(local and national government officials), substantial advocy; a long-term strategy in the educational
system and an irrefutable compelling evidence.
Appropriation Art
Here is a question for you guys. Have you ever copied an image from a photograph, advertisement,
magazines, journals, or other sources? When is it and when is it not?
In this contemporary world, we live in a culture that overflows with images and objects. From television
to the internet, from the mall to the junkshop, we are surrounded by words, images, objects that are
cheap, free or throwaway. You may think that these are already useless and have no importance.
Surprising or not, artists today incorporate these objects into their creative expressions and this is
what we call appropriation in arts.
To appropriate is to borrow. Appropriation in arts therefore is the practice of creating or even borrowing
new work by taking a pre-existing image from another source such as from art history books,
advertisements, media and the transforming and combining it with new ones. Other sources of
appropriated images are works of art in the past and recent ones, historical documents, films, and
televisions, products in the market.
What does the artist do with the image which was appropriated?
Any appropriated image can be photographed or digitally reproduced, copied by mechanical means
using an overhead projector that is attached directly into the artwork or recreated in several ways. The
result can be a real representation of the appropriated object or a genuine transformation.
Sometimes artists recreate an object or repaint it. They may also alter its scale or style to create
a new artwork.
They may also juxtapose (placing it side by side) different objects or images break them into
fragments, or contextualize (glossary) them- that is how they redefine images or objects by placing
them in a new context so that it appears as an original work of art.
Is the use of appropriation significant?
Yes, the use of appropriation in art has played a significant role in the history of the art such as
those in the literary, visual, musical, and performing arts,
In the visual art, for instance, to appropriate means to properly adopt, borrow, recycle or sample
aspects of human - made, visual, and cultural. In most cases the original ‘thing’ remains
accessible as the original, without changes.
Historical Background of Appropriation in Arts
Appropriation in art started in 1970s with Richard Prince re-photographed advertisements such as
for Marlboro cigarettes. His main work is on billboard advertising
In 1980s this art was commonly used by artists. One of them was Sherrie Levine who addressed the
art of appropriating itself as a theme in arts. She often quotes the entire works in her own work, for
example photographing photographs of Waker Evans. Levine plays with the theme of "almost same."
In the 1990s, artists continued to produce appropriation art, rising it as a medium to address theories,
political, and social issues, rather than to focus in the works themselves.
In this digital age appropriation have today become an everyday phenomenon. The new generation
"remix culture" have already taken the stage not only of the visual arts but also of music literature,
dance and film.
According to some artists, by liberating one finally from traditional concepts as originality, they will
lead to new terms of understanding and defining art. Critical observers see this as the starting point
of a huge problem. They say that if creation based on nothing more than carefree processes of finding,
copying, recombining, and manipulating pre-existing media concepts, forms, varies and alters of any
source art will be trivialized, low-demanding and a regressive activity.
Some say that only last people (to include the artists) who have nothing to do are inspired in this way
of appropriating arts, Copying, imitating, repeating quoting original works of art is plagiarism and is a
violation of the copyright law.
To sum up:
Cultural Appropriation: What is it and Why is it Wrong?
The idea of cultural appropriation has entered in the mainstream of contemporary society,
casting doubt on legitimacy of everything.
The reason is: it can provoke anything from a less serious to serious offense - a violation of the
copyright law. It can also provoke the originator, the author of the work that was appropriated to sue
in court the person who appropriated the
work (transformer, borrower, a mild term) - but it remains hard to defend and prosecute.
What is it then?
Cultural appropriation, in terms of art, is when someone adopts, copy, transfer, borrow, transform
something, an object, image, motif, etc. from a culture that is not his or her own-a photograph, a book,
clothing style, hair style etc.
What's wrong with Appropriation?
The problem arises when somebody takes something from another less dominant culture
(especially without the knowledge of the original owner) in a way that members of that culture find
undesirable and offensive.
A. Traditional Motifs
Traditional motifs are used by folklorist in analyzing, interpreting describing the traditional
elements found in the lore of a particular folk group and compose the folklore of the various regions
and cultures of the world based on the motif patterns.
Traditional Crafts
~ Used mainly in Everyday life
~ Ceremonial occasions such as wedding and funeral and s that a person experience only
occasionally in one year or in are considered to be part of the ordinary life.
A. Manufactured by hand
The original features and manual labor of a traditional craft are inseparable term from each other.
If the manual labor a traditional craft is carried by machine processes even while preserving a traditional
technology, it has no meaning because the original features of the craft has been lost.
Handicrafts
Handicrafts is the main sector of traditional crafts. These are types of work where useful and
decorative devices are made completely by hand or by u simple tools.
Weaving
Weaving is another art form of traditional crafts. Materials consist of wool, mohair, cotton,
bristles, and silk. It can be done with all kinds of cloth. Its products include plait, carpets, rugs,
and felt obtained by spinning thread, connecting the fibers together or by other materials .
Weaving is the making of fabric by interlacing threads.
The machine used for weaving is called a loom.
Warp threads are stretched on a frame, and an instrument called a shuffle carries weft threads
under and over the warp.
Tribal communities in the Philippines known for their woven textiles.
Ifugao
Known for their binulan and wanno which are used as shawls to keep their body warm
T’boli
They use birds, frogs and man as their design for their woven cloths
Maguindanao
The malong is a famous male underpants. It is a piece of cloth that’s tied at the waist and looks
like a skirt
Tausug
The kandit is the official costume of the Tausug Tribe
Woven Products
Aside from cloth, there are other objects that are woven in the Philippines, such as baskets,
fans, mats, bilao, fisherman’s net, furnitures and the farmer’s hat or salakot.
Weaving Materials
There are other materials used in woven objects in the Philippines. In Bicol, abaca is used. The
bamboo and rattan are also used, especially for pieces of furniture that are world-class and are
exported abroad.
Embroidery is notonly used for decoration but also as a means of communication tool with the
symbolism in its designs.
Today, the tools in embroidery are croche needle, needle, shuttle and hairpin designed either
as a border or motif and goes by different names according to the implement used as well as
the technique
Embroidery materials include silk cocoon, wool, candle stick bead or any over cloth. Embroidery
as an industry is generally seen in the Ilocos and Visayan Regions.
Woodcarving
The art of putting design on pieces of wood.
In the North, Cordillera carves the bulol, a pagan statue of their gods or anitos.
They also carve bowls and utensils.
Figures of man and animals are also carved.
In the south, the Maranaos and Tausugs are known for their okir-a-datu designs.
The sarimanok is a colorful bird with a fish on its beak. Naga or snake. Pako or fern.
Those are decorative elements of the Torongan or datu’s house.
The Tagbanuas of Palawan use animals and man as a common design for woodcarving
Making musical instruments is a traditional craft that existed for many long years, the materials used
for making musical instruments came from trees, plants, skin, bones, and animal horn. Musical
instruments are classified into string, percussion and woodwind.
Glazed earthenware tiles are used for ceramic and art purpose. Artists usually create animal designs
in these tiles. As a ceramic art, it became world famous for their extraordinary creative workmanship.
Glasswork is another traditional art form. Stained glass was developed many years ago. Church
windows are made of stained glass in different models and forms. Figurines, mugs, drinking glass,
utensils made of decorative glass work very common nowadays.
Jewelry
Favorite accessory of ancient people.
It consists usually of amulets that are used to keep evil spirits away.
T’bolis→use brass for chains and bells. They also use beads and strings to make necklaces etc.
Tattoos are also used to decorate one’s body. They also show one’s place in society.
Metalcraft
Brass, bronze, gold, and silver are heated and poured into molds to make objects from jewelry
to other decorative objects.
Maranaos are famous for their metal craft.
In Batangas, a famous metal product is the balisong, a local knife.
Arts in the Cordillera Region