A eulogy for a friend

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive – perhaps for some purpose which we ought to re-examine. Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

I am big on the idea of a eulogy, a place to commemorate and celebrate life. I know because of the five deaths in my family . Each tribute about my loved one touched me so much that it gave comfort to know my loved one touched others. I vowed to share this experience to those who lose their loved ones. Sometimes, the family cannot really think of all of these preparations if there is no funeral coordinator. I also know because when I suggested the same to the father of Apple Book, the four year old girl who died in the Willie Revillame show ULTRA tragedy, he loved the idea. SInce then, I often ask the bereaved family about their plans for eulogy. The brother of AJ loved the idea and so bloggers and friends organized AJ’s memorial.

A eulogy is quite simple. You tell a story about a fond memory, character attributes or something you want to share that is poetic or meaningful. It could also be a song. AJ’s tribute included podcast clips from his FabCast friends and Juned shared AJ’s answers to formspring that added a lot of laughter.

Our tribute to AJ was indeed beautiful and poignant. There are facets of a person’s life that can be gleaned from a variety of friends, colleagues or family. For instance, AJ’s mom had no idea what a blog is.. but she shared an insight about his son only a mother will ever know. A friend delivered his tribute called a Timely Powerful Message, recalling the of the time he saw AJ at the hospital and their podcast days.

Along with his eulogy, he shared soundbites of AJ that came from Fabcasters’ podcast.sessions, It reveals the wonderful, unique person that AJ Matela is.

My daughter wrote more about it in “What is death trying to teach me?

I’m sure you’re familiar with the old funeral cliche, ““Death is a celebration of life.” When the priest said it in his homily, I snorted and wondered if that was supposed to be comforting. I’ve experienced enough death in my life to know that death is no celebration. How are you supposed to celebrate the past when you have an entire future to face without that person in your life? Yet a ““celebration of life” is probably the best phrase to describe the memorial service that took place later that evening. AJ has been sick for a while and his family has had several months to accept this fact. So with a lot of the grieving behind them, they had enough sanity to pay attention to the highlights of his life. Many bloggers spoke about their favorite memories and how they remembered him as a kind, friendly, very fashionable person who loved life, fought for LGBT rights, and remained one of the greatest friends they’ve ever had.

Here is my eulogy for AJ.

Gifts from AJ

I am honored to be here to be part of tonight’s memorial to honor and celebrate what AJ gave to us.
I consider myself blessed to have known such a wonderful person. He was also charming, funny, and fun. AJ was charismatic and he could always catch you up in his enthusiasm and love for anything!

I met AJ in 2007 and other bloggers will probably talk about a similar meeting. Yes I am a blogger, who deals with grief support advocacy and participatory media. I too lost a brother when he was 28 years old. I too lost my precious son. A total of 5 deaths in my immediate family.

What I would want to share to his family and loved ones are two legacies AJ left behind for me to remember him by. They are all related to my blog advocacy. These legacy will continue to live on in my heart and in my treasure chest of memories and perhaps in yours.

1. Ernie, the Travel mascot

AJ first introduced me to Ernie during one of our blogger trips in 2008. AJ would let Ernie sit on a chair or on any flat surface and then take a picture. He used to say it is his travel mascot. I found it cute. Looking at AJ with Ernie, an inspiration hit me. Why not have a travel mascot myself? So I copied AJ. No, I didn’t copy Ernie. I used Kippy Cat or rather I re-discovered Kippy Cat from the box of toys of my precious son that I had kept throughout the years.

Kippy Cat was Luijoe’s comfort toy when I travelled in the past. Kippy Cat never left my son’s side while I was away from him. When I returned home after a travel, he rubbed Kippy Cat’s nose on to my nose.

Holding Kippy Cat close to my chest, a flood of happy and poignant memories lifted me to high spirits and I felt the comfort of my son’s love. That is how Kippy Cat became my mascot. The comfort my son felt before is now my comfort.

Aj knew this. I dedicated a blog post just for Ernie and Aj in 2008.

He probably never realized it…but he showed me a creative way of handling grief triggers.

This legacy will always be part of my advocacy and to others who want to use creative ways to deal with their loss.

2. Mobile live streaming

My other role as a blogger is participatory media where social networking tools come handy such as mobile live streaming. Today, you can see live streaming done everywhere in the Senate, the Supreme court, and other government offices. Blog Watch our citizen media site’s coverage of the May 2010 campaign period was not complete without live streaming. I first learned about live streaming using mobile phones from AJ during iblog 5 in April 2009. AJ covered most of the proceedings with his Nokia phone until its battery died. I was quite intrigued. I only knew live streaming using my laptop.

He explained to me the various sites that support live stream such as qik.com , ustream.tv and justin.tv with the use of a software that can be downloaded to the phone. I knew all this because I sat beside him all throughout iblog 5, sometimes being his reliever when he had to talk on stage.

I think of him whenever I do my own mobile live streaming.

Sadly, this was the last time I ever talked to AJ in person. This is our last photo together (I regret not having a photo with him when I lost 20 pounds lighter from that photo) Yes, I got busy with citizen media and did not attend much blogger events since middle of 2009. I am filled with regrets, with questions of ““why? If only? I should have…why God? ” but I am also aware that all these are part of my grief talking .

And though these memories may bring back pain, they bring back memories of joy as well. All these because pain is the price I pay for someone who touched my life.

He also leaves behind the people who loved and cared for him, for truly, it is in us that AJ will live on. How? Because we – the ones who were touched by his grace – will share with the world, the parts of us he was able to influence. This is what a man truly leaves behind when he passes.

Yes, I am comforted with the knowledge that AJ will be forever alive in my heart and in my memories.

AJ, I love you. You will be forever missed by each and every life you have touched. Until we meet again my friend, your precious legacies will be carried within my heart.

I would like to end with a quote from Thomas Campbell.

To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die.
~Thomas Campbell

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.
~Norman Cousins~

Visit the info page of 1000 Volunteers for AJ Matela on how to help AJ’s family.

Other blogposts by AJ’s friends who will all miss him:

The gift of grief: Stories of 9-11 families

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

I would say to those who mourn…look upon each day that comes as a challenge, as a test of courage. The pain will come in waves, some days worse than others, for no apparent reason. Accept the pain. Do not suppress it. Never attempt to hide grief.–Daphne du Maurier


Anna Sereno holds a portrait of her son Arthuro Angelo Sereno via dailymail.co.uk

It’s been 10 years since the 9-11 tragedy. Does 10 years take away the pain that the families and loved ones who lost someone in the 9-11 tragedy? Eleanor Roosevelt reminds us that “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”


Photo courtesy of jofercreams

I will never know how survivors and families feel right now but let’s take a peek on how 3 families dealt with their loss.

Abigail Carter, a widow used to ask herself “Would we ever be “happy people” again? I didn’t see how.”

Ten years later, she is baffled “that in many ways our lives are better now than when Arron was alive”. I have often mentioned that with a death of a loved one, there is hope for a new life and a new normal without our loved one. Abigail adds that “There is a heavy debt of guilt whenever I realize that our new life wouldn’t exist had Arron not died. Through our pain, we discovered our strengths, learned to appreciate life and have empathy for others. We were awakened into life by death.”


A police officer hugs a woman who gave him flowers and a missing-person poster at the edge of the World Trade Center worksite. In the aftermath of the attacks, the city of New York was not an anonymous metropolis of 8.4 million strangers, but an extended family united in grief. Photo courtesy of sabby

Like Abigail I experienced the loss of a loved one and still long to be with my son, willing him to exist in some new form. I know now that my son may not be here physically but he lives forever in my heart and in my mind. With the death of Abigail’s husband, it gave her courage. She is author of “The Alchemy of Loss: A Young Widow’s Transformation.”

I lost my fear of death – something I’ve come to see as the unexpected gift of grief. I’ve unmasked an entirely new universe of possibility. I was able to move across the country alone with two kids, write a book and teach. I stopped worrying what people thought and began thinking magically, realizing that the only person standing in the way of, say, writing a book, was myself. I learned to be brave enough to trust my intuition, get help when we needed it, find allies and live with no expectations – a flexibility that invited what I can only express as mindful evolution. I muddled through “dad” experiences, like starting the lawn mower and teaching our daughter to drive. The kids learned compassion and forgiveness and to live with an unnamable absence.

Alissa Torres, pregnant with their first child at the time of Eddie Torres death wrote “a 210-page graphic memoir, or as she calls it, “an adult, literary comic book,” about her marriage and first year as a widow and single mother. American Widow (Villard, $22) is illustrated by Sungyoon Choi.” “It embodies my grief. I can open it and see this grief and remember it and remember Eddie. But I can also close it and live my life in the present tense seven years later and have a happy home for my son.”

Writing this comic book is a creative form of expressing grief.

Losing a child is a devastating loss to all parents because a child never dies before their parents. Robert and Brooke Jackman lost their youngest daughter in this 9-11 tragedy but they transformed their grief into hope.

Ten years later, the Brooke Jackman Foundation, which they founded to promote literacy for at-risk children, has donated nearly 100,000 books and 10,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to kids in the greater New York region. And on Saturday, the foundation will hold its second annual read-a-thon to commemorate 9/11, as well as its own anniversary, at the Winter Garden in the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan.

They started this event to honor their daughter Brooke and all those who lost their lives on 9/11 by showing that tragedy and loss can be turned into hope.

Barbara Kingsolver on grief says that “you don’t think you’ll live past it and you don’t really. The person you were is gone. But the half of you that’s still alive wakes up one day and takes over again. ”

Most of us who lose our loved ones search for meaning or rationalization about the tragedy. It is incomprehensible for our child to die before us. Doing creative projects or reaching out is one way of turning the grief to hope. It is the gift of grief. Abigail wrote a book, Alissa wrote an adult, literary comic book while Robert and Brooke Jackman started a foundation to promote the quiet power of literacy, which transforms lives and makes our world a better, safer, more peaceful place.

The only cure for grief is action. -G.H. Lewes

“Grief and recovery and resilience are very individual experiences and there is no template,” says Dr. Robin Stern, a co-author of “Project Rebirth.” “Grief is not a pathology. We all love and we all lose.”

Dealing with the loss of a loved one in a tragedy is not like the Kübler-Ross model which is more popularly known as the “Five Stages of Grief.” It is important to understand that grief is not a linear process or straightforward path. Grief is more like a roller coaster ride. Even 10 years after 9-11, twinges of sadness come to these families but it does not mean they have not moved on.

Love never dies and if one tears, it is a sign that love lives on.


Photo by getty images

Life is eternal, and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
~Rossiter Worthington Raymond

Here is a video of 9/11 resilience

On World Suicide Prevention Day, save a life

by ⋅ 1 Comment

A follower on twitter once appealed to me for help because he wanted to kill himself. Whether it was a joke or not , I replied back if he wanted to talk. This did not sit well for one or two twitter followers who thought I should not have replied to that person in public.

See, I try to help anyone I can in Twitter whether it is about traffic, the weather, the location of a shop or just about any mundane thing. Why can’t I help someone crying out for help?

Are you uncomfortable helping out someone who could kill himself/herself? Would you rather ignore and hope it is all a joke. Well, I have seen the effect of suicide deaths in family and I know that these families never had any idea their loved one would die through suicide. When a child dies or a loved one takes their own life, the storyline is heart-achingly derailed.

Family members often blame themselves, thinking they could have done something to prevent the death. To lose someone suddenly is indeed a shock, but a suicide makes grief more complex. Those left behind can feel such guilt and regret. Why couldn’t I save him/her?

While most would see someone who had taken their own life, we see someone who died of an illness. On average, almost 3, 000 people commit suicide daily. For every person who completes a suicide, 20 or more may attempt to end their lives. Prevention can mean something as simple as asking, not ‘How are you?’ but ‘Are you okay?’

It helps to know about suicide prevention.

I added a Suicide Prevention page to save a life. Suicide prevention is everybody’s business. What many are not aware is not we can educate our community that suicide is a preventable public health problem in the Philippines. Suicide should no longer be considered a taboo topic, and that through raising awareness and educating the public, we can SAVE lives.

Consider the facts on suicide:

1. Every year, almost one million people die from suicide; a “global” mortality rate of 16 per 100,000, or one death every 40 seconds.

2. In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide is among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 years in some countries, and the second leading cause of death in the 10-24 years age group; these figures do not include suicide attempts which are up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicide.
Suicide worldwide is estimated to represent 1.8% of the total global burden of disease in 1998, and 2.4% in countries with market and former socialist economies in 2020.

3. Although traditionally suicide rates have been highest among the male elderly, rates among young people have been increasing to such an extent that they are now the group at highest risk in a third of countries, in both developed and developing countries.

4. Mental disorders (particularly depression and alcohol use disorders) are a major risk factor for suicide in Europe and North America; however, in Asian countries impulsiveness plays an important role. Suicide is complex with psychological, social, biological, cultural and environmental factors involved.

World Suicide Prevention Day is today, September 10. “It promotes worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides.

The sponsoring International Association for Suicide Prevention, the co-sponsor WHO and other partners advocate for the prevention of suicidal behaviour, provision of adequate treatment and follow-up care for people who attempted suicide, as well as responsible reporting of suicides in the media.

At the global level, awareness needs to be raised that suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death. Governments need to develop policy frameworks for national suicide prevention strategies. At the local level, policy statements and research outcomes need to be translated into prevention programmes and activities in communities.”

To help show your support and raise awareness, organizers suggest that you light a candle at 8pm and place it in a window in your home to honor the day.

Read my Suicide Prevention page to save a life.

Ernie, AJ Matela, Kippy cat and me

by ⋅ 3 Comments

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.

I first met Ernie during one of our blogger trips in Tagaytay. AJ Matela would let Ernie sit on a chair or on any flat surface and then he’d take a picture. He used to say it is his travel mascot. I found it cute.

So I copied AJ. No, I didn’t copy Ernie. I used Kippy Cat. I know I am such a copy cat.

During my trip to San Francisco , (my first since my son’s death) in 2008, I brought Kippy Cat along with me. Kippy cat was Luijoe’s favorite toy that comforted him when I used to travel in the past and left him home with my husband.

It pained me that I was never able to fulfill my son’s wish that we would travel to the US together. Perhaps it is one of the reasons that I lost interest to travel before 2008. For years, I was consumed with the myriad reminders of my son’s life and death. It wasn’t an easy journey. Today, I now know that death may have taken away my son but he lives forever in my heart and in my memories. Perhaps he might not have visited the states with me but he is right here with me in spirit. So Kippy Cat is now my travel mascot, pretty much like Ernie is to AJ.

With the news that AJ died last night, I feel deep sorrow. It is my grief talking. He had been sick for a long time now . It is painful to see someone like AJ die so young.

I am thankful to AJ who reminded me that I can always bring my Luijoe in my heart when I travel. As I hold Kippy Cat close to my chest a flood of happy and poignant memories lift me to high spirits and I feel the comfort of my son’s love.

Now there is an added dimension, I wil always remember AJ for this. AJ wil forever be alive in my heart and in my memories.

When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.

I can only imagine the grief that AJ’s parents and loved ones are having right now but we can help them in our own little way.

Let’s help AJ’s family We need 1,000 Volunteer-Friends who can help AJ’s family. Please join us.

AJ may have left us but he will always live in our hearts.

To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die.
~Thomas Campbell

How to help

Visit the info page of 1000 Volunteers for AJ Matela

Other blogposts by AJ’s friends who will all miss him:

Charmed by Marzipan, the celebrity cat at Astor Theatre

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat. ~Jules Reynard

I am not easily impressed with celebrities, whoever they may be—actors, actresses, politicians or what not. But meeting Marzipan was different. It was my daughter who told me all about Marzipan when she watched a movie at the elegant Astor Theatre. If you are in Melbourne, you probably know about the Astor Theatre built in the 1930s. It still retains the old-fashioned double-bill format. The original art-deco furnishings create a unique atmosphere for movie-goers.

As I walked past the winding staircase of the theatre, my daughter caught sight of Marzipan snoozing on her basket. She patted the furry ball and pretty soon, Marzipan stood up posed like a queen.

What a cutie. There she stood with her haughty yet regal cat look.

Her paws were crossed just like a fine lady. How regal.

I felt honored when Marzipan jumped up to my lap. You know that feeling when your celebrity-idol smiles at your direction? That is how I felt when Marzipan snuggled on my lap and allowed me to caress her. There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat. Simple joys, I know .

Many know that Astor Theatre is known for its unique programming to the legendary Astor Choc-Ice but the celebrity of the house is what everyone loves most about the theatre. That is what I want to believe. I am such a cat lover.

They say “a meow massages the heart.” Marzipan can’t make purry sounds. She is close to twenty years old and may be even deaf.

Playing both well-loved classics and recent releases, the Astor Theatre offers a variety of films. I came an hour before the film began (though I didn’t watch any) and snuggling up with Marzipan in their sumptuous couch and eating Choc-Ice is just so heavenly.

There is more to the Story of Marzipan.

Some nineteen years later, after startling a variety of viewers each and every time she runs across the banister during Poltergeist or sashays up and down the auditorium steps during 2001‘s Dawn of Man, after achieving a level of local fame long-standing members of staff could only dream of, not to mention playing to the sympathies of passers-by who then feed and provide an excess of blankets for her, Marzipan is still able to scale the theatre walls and somehow mysteriously hears the FOH Supervisor call her for dinner despite her being apparently deaf.

And what of it? Marzipan is the kind of kitty who adores everyone’s endless and unbridled attention. What cat wouldn’t? She has a whole team of ushers to clean out her kitty litter, not to mention more than five hundred friends on facebook. She’s the only one at the theatre who’s received postcards from patrons when they’re on vacation and she’s usually the only one the journos want to feature in their photographs of the theatre too. Receiving the biggest cheer of all at our 75th Anniversary Celebrations in April of this year, Marzipan is Melbourne’s little darling and yet she remains as down-to-earth as ever. Well, maybe every now and again she has a moment of diva about her…

I am so charmed with Marzipan as with all cats. Marzipan sat on my lap as long as she could while I patted her neck. She didn’t want to play favorites she jumped on to my daughter and other movie-goers who were seated in other couches.

Oh , cats are just so independent. Cats come and go without ever leaving. With a sigh, I let her go.

When I went back to my hotel, I added myself as one of her fans in her facebook page, Marzipan the Astor Cat.

There are two means of refuge from the misery of life – music and cats. ~Albert Schweitzer

Saving the (Tassie) Devils and other threatened species of the world

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

I never really knew much about the animal kingdom outside of my country not that I was indifferent. I was just unaware of the endangered species of other countries. I knew our Monkey eating eagle is one of our more endangered species but other countries? I never even knew much about Tasmania until I visited my daughter in Melbourne. It was her idea to see Tasmania. My travel to Australia drew out my curiosity of the unusual flora and fauna of this continent. One of them is the often misunderstood Tasmanian devil. Being aware about the care of these animals will surely give me a deeper understanding in caring for our own Philippine animals.

My fascination with the Tassie devils and other natural Australian animals prompts me to write this entry but there is more than that. The fact remains that National Threatened Species Day which happens to be on the 7th of September each year is just two days away. The day is to commemorate the loss of the last known Tasmanian tiger in captivity, which sadly occurred in Hobart in 1936.

It was a tragic loss and everyone in Australia is working hard to make sure the Tasmanian devil doesn’t follow in the tiger’s footsteps.

I have been to two animal sanctuaries here in Australia but the Bonorong Wildlife sanctuary gave me the opportunity to be up close with the animals.

Bonorong houses 17 fantastic devils. A number of their devils are hand-reared and have amazing personalities. I thought these devils were evil animals based on their namesakes. Devils are a very misunderstood animal. I was utterly amazed when I saw how friendly and playful the devils were with their keeper.

As you can see, this devil lost one of his legs. Bonorong assists injured and orphaned wildlife and even gives support line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I spotted this devil with a joey. Population of devils were not a problem before the Europeans arrived. Traditionally their numbers were controlled by food availability, competition with other devils and quolls, loss of habitat, persecution and roadkills. But the greatest recent threat to devils across Tasmania is the Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD).

Around 70 percent of the Tasmanian devil population disappeared as a result of the disease, and if the current rate of decline continues, devils could become extinct in the wild in 30 to 50 years, says Elizabeth Murchison, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England. Murchison, a native of Tasmania who grew up seeing devils in the wild.

The Tasmanian devil can still be saved from possible extinction. Securing a population of healthy devils, away from disease, in zoos, wildlife parks and free range enclosures around Australia is something that is being done now. Looking after this population over the next 25-50 years, while continuing the fight to maintain devils in the wild may help but it costs a lot of money. There is this one site that shows you “How can we save the Tasmanian devil? One devil at a time!”

I wonder if these devils will suffer the same fate as the Tassie Tigers. It would be sad to see animals get extinct. I hopped on to Kangaroo country which lifted up my spirits. The kangaroos seemed a bit intimidating at first but I got the hang of it as soon as I knew how to feed them.

I learned females are safer to feed but I caught a male kangaroo wanting to be fed. Scary so I just threw food in his direction.

It is amazing how these kangaroos can be friendly. They are also gentle with the children.

Seeing a baby kangaroo is just so heart warming. The joey seems so cozy with her mommy.

It would be great if the Philippines have an animal sanctuary instead of a zoo. People will learn to appreciate the animals and learn to protect them.

I would have never appreciated any of these experiences if it were not for my daughter  who wanted to visit these wonderful animals.

The Philippines should have a similar sanctuary and wildlife park for all our threatened species.

Wait, our marine life is already threatened. When is the Philippine’s National Threatened Species Day ? Do we even have one?

Most of the photos here by my daughter using a Nikon D7000. Some photos are from my iphone though

There is no must in art because art is free

by ⋅ 1 Comment

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. Edgar Degas

The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) at Hobart, Tasmania is just amazing and thought provoking. It is not art for arts sake. The MONA is a $200 million, quixotic project of Tasmanian businessman David Walsh. He commissioned the Museum from architect Nonda Katsalidis, filled it with his own art and made admission free. You know how they say “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.” As I moved from one art piece to the next, I often ask myself “what is the message here? or what is the artist trying to convey?”

Whether I’m painting or not, I have this overweening interest in humanity. Even if I’m not working, I’m still analyzing people. – Alice Neel

Visitors to MONA get iPods when they enter the museum. As you walk around, ‘The O’ displays information about the works near you and plays you interviews with the artist.

I am not visually literate but so this nifty iPod help me understand some of the ideas. I have seen the case of the closure of Mideo Cruz exhibit by the bishops and other creative expressions whose concept and presented ideologies they do not agree with. Some of the pieces can come off disturbing and interesting at the same time.

I am interested to see the perspective of the artist and their thought process. “Walsh, the owner of MONA has a scientific mind with an artistic temperament. In Andrew Frost’s interview for ABC TV, David Walsh says that if he could make art, he would. He has an intellectual fascination with Darwinian evolution, time, ancient cultures and the dark areas of our humanity.”

I’m painting an idea not an ideal. Basically I’m trying to paint a structured painting full of controlled, and therefore potent, emotion. Euan Uglow

At MONA you are invited to physically and mentally relax. On the main floor, there is a bar and lots of cool furnitures to lounge about on. My daughter and I are lucky that there was no entrance fee but soon a $20 fee will be required from visitors aside from the fee of the ferry boat. The Os invite you to listen to the commentary and absorb yourself in a private bubble. Nonda Katsalidis’s grand architecture is modest and calming in the exhibition spaces.


(White library by Wilfredo Prieto. White books, shelves, tables and chairs. Born 1978, Sancti Spíritus, Cuba; lives and works in Havana, Cuba, and Barcelona, Spain 2004-6)

“In the interview on The O with Monanism artist Jan Fabre, he says that ““art makes us understand we are unbearable”.
In another context, Australia’s only living Nobel laureate writer, J.M.Coetzee, asks ‘Where does the discontented feeling come from, unique to mankind, that we are not well, and what is it that we desire to be cured of?’ (In ‘Italo Svevo’, Inner Workings: Literary Essays 2000-2005, Knopf: North Sydney, 2007, 1-14)”


(Cunts and other conversations by Greg Taylor and friends. 150 life-size porcelain portrait sculptures of women’s cunts. Born 1959, Bega, NSW, Australia; lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. 2008–9 . A gallery of 150 vaginas from all ages 18 to 78 years old .)

The brilliance of MONA’s sex art is that it brings a wider audience to have this impolite conversation about ourselves, sharing one of the most powerful insights in the history of ideas.

“Walking around MONA, you see $200 million dollars worth of private wealth and it is shocking. How can any mortal accumulate such an obscene fortune? Then you think a little more on it and see the positive side. Can MONA provoke Australia’s winging, polluting mining magnates and other billionaires to do something meaningful with their lives and all that damn money?”

I heard David Walsh was a gambler , very gifted with Math and this made him acquire so much wealth which he used to buy Art pieces.

At the MONA, I am lost in my thoughts, often wondering how artists thinks. Here are just bits and pieces of the rest of MONA.


(SCHATTENSPIEL (SHADOWPLAY) HANS-PETER FELDMAN Trestle tables, turntables, lamps, electric motors, plastic figurines. Born 1941, Düsseldorf, Germany, where he lives and works 2005)


(Fat Car, by Erwin Wurm. Porsche Carrera chassis, body and interior, with polystyrene and fibreglass. Born 1954, Bruck an der Mur, Austria; lives and works in Vienna, Austria 2006)

Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity.- Damien Hirst

I’m painting an idea not an ideal. Basically I’m trying to paint a structured painting full of controlled, and therefore potent, emotion. – Euan Uglow

You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat. Renoir

Here is a video done by my daughter while I finish the rest of this entry.

Museum of Old and New Art on Vimeo.

I am not much of an art critique so let me give you a Review of David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania from a MONA visitor.

Review of David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania

There is no must in art because art is free. – Wassily Kandinsky