osacnab series - salmo ag berso

i have taken theology at the ateneo de manila university when i was in college, but really didn’t put myself into it seriously. all i was thinking then was to pass the course and keep my scholarship. even after college, i was not really keen on the spirituality of things. maybe i can attribute it to my youth – when everything seemed easy and superficial, when i felt invincible, i didn’t have fears and i didn’t have time to reflect on things.

it was not recent, i think it started when i was building my farm and living the rural life, that i found i had loads of time at hand, that i have gone more retrospective of things and events in my life. for one, i marvel at the miracles that happen right in front of me at the farm – how nature works perfectly. and i have come to realize, that it is beyond man to understand fully how things are planned and why things happen, but when one is open, meanings just seem to fall into place and we see things differently.

but this post is supposed to talk about the next event happening at my gallery this july – a one-man show of art and his rendering of a subject that i felt, at first, i was incapable of understanding, even grasping. i was even afraid i had to call on the spirits to let me appreciate his works. and guess what i needed to do? i had to get a crash course on the subject. and here is what i have, so far, understood, after going through some passages in the the book of psalms:

the book of psalms represents a rich tapestry of prayer and praise. some psalms reflect a texture of deep despair, others glow with a deep peace in the lord's strength, still others bubble with an exuberant exaltation of the most high god. they cover the range of human emotion and experience. what they all have in common is prayer, a reaching out to god from every imaginable experience.

and this is what our featured artist for July had worked on – his renderings of psalms & verses.

and i just couldn’t keep these tears from blurring my vision, right now, as i know the tapestry of my life experiences is captured in the mixture of colours and strokes, that only a master of this subject is capable of doing. find the richness and splendour of your own life experiences in the masterworks of Nunilon Arnold Bancaso, Jr. – priest.

the event happens on 2 July 2011, 6pm, at the cafe des artes, villa esperanza, san nicolas, baao, camarines sur, philippines.