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still life with rice cakes

Posted on May 27, 2006 @ 3:45 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,food,indonesia,travel,wordpress

stilllife singapore bintang rice cake aynaku illustration adobe

This illustration comes from a sketch I took at the dim light of a kerosene lamp. I had left Singapore in the afternoon, giving up some intricate architectural works, and travelling alone I had got after sunset the Indonesian Island of Bintang, Riau Archipelago. It was my first time there; I felt tired and hungry and, longing for a decent accommodation, I found myself finally lodged -as a shipwrecked sailor- in one of those basic A-frame huts which I invariably experience.
There’s nothing in a A-frame but a thin mattress lying on the wooden floor, the outer -very narrow- balcony, no toilette, no electricity. It was a boring wet season night; I had really nothing to do but wait for falling asleep. Yet I was starving! I took off my bag pack some of my properties, sorted them out on the balcony floor and by the kerosene lamp…among them, a couple of ghostly-white rice cakes that I bought at the pier and forgot, shined somehow and quickly ended up into my belly. Such a lucky man, you see! And such a mighty sweetie food made my brains and intestine restlessly at work for long, so I considered the possibility of sketching something, to kill the time. I contemplated for a while the dimly lit and odd set in front of me, did my brilliant sketch and, finally, went to sleep…

Illustration Friday‘s topic is cake

sorry

Posted on May 20, 2006 @ 9:36 am by massimo | Filed under: blog,people,travel,wordpress

gemmologist california dandy aynaku illustration adobe

I met J. during my very first stay in Bangkok. I had just got the Boston Inn after an exhausting flight from Rome and was looking for a room. The receptionist was carelessly keeping me informed of his fully booked hotel, when a rather tall and lean fellow came and politely asked if I would like to share his room. This was a common habit between travellers, so I simply answered “ yes, please” and went upstairs with him. In a few days we became friends and our friendship kept on. J. was a rather solitary, enormously shy young man in his thirties, who always behaved very politely toward others. He seemed to be always sorry, and such a peculiar attitude quickly made me to feel sorry for him! J. had widely travelled trough out Europe and Asia, had an absolute interest in precious stones and later on, attended a course in Santa Monica – CA, the place he came from. He practiced there for a while and after a couple of years was back in Bangkok, got a job as a gemmologist and lived in a comfortable flat. After a couple of years more J. had moved to Sri Lanka, got a new job and lived in a fine villa in Ratnapura, a town you have to settle if you deal with gems… I used to visited him from time to time; he always hosted me in his cosy retreat, which he invariably shared with a native caretaker of some sort, invariably behaving as you would expect from him, a well mannered yet sorry dandy! J. enjoyed talking about art, travels and good food but the final topic was, off course, his beloved gem collection, his ultimate therapy.
Then – as in a Joni Mitchell’s song – my shoes full of tropic sand drove me elsewhere and never I got back in Ratnapura nor I heard from J. anymore. So I wonder if he is still there running his business: that’s the reason why I am using a consonant instead of his real name.

Illustration Friday’s topic is sorry

wayang kulit

Posted on May 14, 2006 @ 2:33 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,fun,indonesia,mythology,travel,wordpress

wayang shadow puppets kentridge guggheneim aynaku illustration adobe

Wayang kulit (shadow puppets) symbolise the triumph of good over evil. They are prevalent in Java and Bali and are without a doubt, the best known of the Indonesian wayang (theatre). Kulit means skin and refers to the leather construction of the puppets that are supported with buffalo horn handles and control rods. The stories are usually drawn from the Ramayana: Rama goes into exile in the forest with his brother Laxman and his wife Sita. When Sita is abducted by the evil Ravana, Rama and his allies head out to rescue his wife and to destroy the ten-headed Ravana. My illustration refers to this show as seen by the audience, at least as it happened to me in Ubud, Bali -1990. A few viewers jammed in room and sitting on the floor. The visual portion of the performance consisted of shadows cast on a cotton screen by an oil lamp. I also remember clearly the peculiar voice of the Dalang introducing the principal characters and suggesting the beginning of the plot.
I was so impressed by the force of this theatrical tradition in signifying the idea of struggle between the forces of good and evil and took a great interest in it, that I couldn’t miss William Kentridge’s Black Box show last winter in Berlin. Kentridge has crafted a complex, multimedia performance combining puppets and animation, employing objects and their cast shadows to develop a fascinating multilayered work.

Illustration Friday‘s topic is angels & devils

pizza connection

Posted on May 6, 2006 @ 9:43 am by massimo | Filed under: beach,blog,food,people,philippines,wordpress

“Pizza Connection” was the ironic name of a cosy, Italian beach-restaurant ran by Gino in Boracay Island.
I was in the business for a while, working as a bartender. The …