The Life and Times of a Filipino-American
Day 70 of self-isolation.
To alleviate some boredom, I’ve been drawing a lot lately with the intention of animating my sketches. I wanted to create a little character doing The Carlton, but since it has no neck or visible torso, it’s just doing a weird dance — and I followed the frames exactly. It’s still cute, nonetheless.
Here’s the original:
And here’s mine:
Day 53 of self-isolation.
Living by yourself during a pandemic and being furloughed can prove to be mentally and emotionally taxing, but I’ve found ways to combat cabin fever and subdue any feelings of anxiety.
I’ve been making stuff.
Whenever I’m down or feeling alone, I’ve tapped into my creativity to relieve any sense of boredom or desolation. The action of making something and producing a piece of art brings me joy, and it let’s me escape from the fact that there’s no one to talk to or hang out with. That’s always been the case even before the pandemic, but during these times it feels more germane. I’ve been cooking and baking a lot, trying to create my own recipes and sharing the photos. I’ve been gardening so that I have herbs and vegetables for these recipes, and when society reopens I have a nice backyard space I can host people in. Of course, both of these hobbies are dependent on whether or not I want to gain more weight or — in the case of gardening — relies if the weather is suitable, so I’ve turned to an old hobby: making dog videos.
Sure, it’s been a year since Nico passed, but I have a lot of footage I’ve taken over the years, leading up to her death. Life thereafter and work became so busy (not to mention allowing myself a time to grieve), so the ideas I had only remained ideas. Fortunately, with all the free-time forced onto me and the lingering sense of boredom, I’ve picked up these projects again. Making videos and generating beautiful or funny things have kept me sane, giving me something to do during those waking hours of idleness and silence. They also make me cherish the time and the memories I had with Nico. What’s better, it’s been cheap: I have the footage, I have the skills, and I have the software, so I haven’t spent anything to create new movies (well, I did buy some tracing paper from Amazon, but that’s for an animation I’ll be making later).
So here are some videos I’ve been working on for Nico’s still active Instagram page. I haven’t released all of them yet (I’m staggering them, week by week), so I guess you can call these exclusives.
I truly want to make more videos (and take pet photos again), but considering that I’m furloughed (ie, money is tight) and our socially-distanced circumstances, I can’t adopt a dog right now. I promised myself that I would give myself a year after Nico passed when I’d open my heart and my home to another pet, but then COVID-19 happened, my paycheck getting reduced in half happened. So I’ve been asking friends with pets and friends themselves to submit videos to me: dogs and cats just sitting in front of the camera, maybe some bark, some humans doing a little bit of acting or light stunt work. Just to keep myself preoccupied and sane, I have to keep creating more content. I feel if I stop, I think I’ll fall back into my own head again, overcome by loneliness, boredom, and financial anxiety. If you want to help, read and fill out this Google Spreadsheet (it’s essentially a call sheet for pet and human talent), and then email/text me some videos.
God knows how long this pandemic and lock-down will last, but we each need to keep ourselves busy and sane. I found my way, have you?
Day 37 of self-isolation.
One of the few blessings of being confined to my apartment and working from home is that I’m able to pickup and resume some old projects and ideas. For instance, I’ve been drawing again.
I can’t recall the last time I picked up a pencil and a pen, but it feels good to sketch. It may have been years since I’ve drawn something, so as I was inking some sketches for a video project I want to work on, my hands (and thus lines) were a little shaky. Still, there’s a sense of therapy just to create something outside of a computer screen.
What I’m currently drawing right now is for a long postponed Nico video, which would include a few animations. I shot footage before Nico passed, but as I was coping with her death and life got too busy, I put off the project. With everything at a weird standstill now, resuming this and other projects is keeping me sane. Ironically, I do need to find or record little, high-pitched screams.
Stay tuned!
I’ve lived in New York for over a decade, and that entire time my dog Nico has been with me. She would have been 14 today.
Here’s my tribute to her and the city I love. After she had her tumor removed and was declared cancer-free, I knew we were still together on borrowed time. Throughout the course of her remaining year, I wanted to take Nico to some of her favorite spots: Williamsburg, Prospect Park, and all the old places she used to know for the 10 years we’ve been in New York. I also wanted to take her to places she’s never been before: Coney Island, Washington Square Park, etc. I’d bring my camera with me, and so this video was made.
The polaroid scenes were obviously taken post her passing; I truly wished we had more time to visit these places.
The significance of the white bandana is important: I gave it to her when she was first adopted in Urbana-Champaign, and she wore a white bandana when I let her go in arms, in the confines of my apartment in Brooklyn. A white bandana was Nico’s signature look (well, aside from the husky aspects or the heterochromatic eyes). I carried a spare each time we went out to shoot, just to swap whatever fashionable bandana I initially put on her with a white one. Consistency, folks!
This video also serves as my eventual love letter to New York. When I leave, I want to remember this city with the dog I loved so much. Being with Nico definitely helped shape who I am today.
Happy Birthday, Nico. Always and forever.
I went to Artechouse at Chelsea Market with Alex the other day, where Turkish digital artist Refik Anandol had a projection/data visualization exhibition called “Machine Hallucination.”
Nearly the entire boiler room underneath Chelsea Market was illuminated by several 16K laser projectors, displaying a dataviz algorithm-driven video made up of 100 million social media photos of New York City — essentially, “Machine Hallucination” is an abstract movie made of shapes and colors derived from what users post about New York. I loved the concept, and it could have easily been one of my class’ thesis projects (if they had a ton of money, that is).
Although the visuals of the video and the idea were very cool, the overall experience was a little underwhelming: one entire side (the entrance down to the boiler room) had no projections whatsoever, and the pillars and sharp corners of the room didn’t make the projections as seamless as they could be. It didn’t feel as immersive as I had hoped it would be. In my opinion, if they somehow curved each of the room’s corners (including the floor), the overall projection — and thus experience — would have been more exciting. Edges are just so restricting.
The fact that I had to pay a $25 entrance fee also kind of hindered the fun.
Nonetheless, Artechouse was indeed worthy of being visited and photographed (the Instagramabilty of this place factors very high). The exhibition and Artechouse itself was hardly publicized, so it wasn’t too crowded. Would I recommend going to any of Artechouse’s future exhibitions? Sure, but make sure you’re comfortable paying that much.
Here are some of my photos:
