Manila Ukiyo-E HIDDEN BEAUTY a solo show by Marius Black

You know those moments when you suddenly see something and you take a moment to appreciate it? Those moments when you're riding a jeep or when you're out fora walk and something suddenly catches your attention even just for the split second that you've glanced at it.

People in the streets, sleeping, selling food or walking ahead of you. Admiring them even before it registers in your mind that what you're seeing is actually beautiful, when you're silently at awe at what you're looking at and then go on with your business as if nothing happened. It's about that. This is about admiring the hidden beauty of Manila.

Most of the time when we see people working hard, pushing their carts or simply just sitting in a certain way, we look at them silently,not even thinking about it. We look not because someone told us to look,we look because for a moment, for some reason, we are captivated with them.

We admire them for who they are and what they are doing and we keep it to ourselves.We tell no one about it. But seeing them this way, discovering them in this very moment, a picture of them is forever embedded in our in our minds.Not because we want to remember it, but because we have seen something of beauty no one else noticed.

Beauty not in the sense of fashion or glamour, beauty not in the sense off lawless actresses that mostly plague our TV, screens and magazines,but it's a different kind of beauty. It is beauty of life unfolding,right there before our eyes.

Like catching a flower in bloom, people blossoming not because of their new or expensive shirts and dresses, quite the opposite. It's beauty of having to live life to the fullest even with worn out clothed and patched-up pants. Living life, even if one is going through tough times. Accepting one's self even if one has flaws and short comings. It's about capturing the hidden beauty of the resilient Manila.

As an artist, I'm no stranger in surviving the roller coaster ride one calls life. I'm no stranger to the struggle and difficulty of selling my artworks and paintings on my own.This route is not easy, more often than not,people give up on being an artist and painting altogether upon realizing doing so,no matter how good you are,can't produce a steady income.

I've been there: the gnawing feeling of hunger, uncertainty, of thoughts giving up and suicide, thoughts of death and the seemingly endless chasm of self doubt, still I strived. And after numerous failures and tries,I was finally able to create something that made it all worth it. Yes, it has been a tough journey for me.But like the people I paint and like many Filipinos have proven, life is hard, but it's not impossible to succeed.

To my surprise, my Manila Ukiyo-E series has been widely accepted(even around the world)and is still being appreciated by numerous people who can relate to the struggle of life, along with the lesson that: Beauty can be found almost anywhere, only if we learn how to see them.

"It comes out in the art"is what people say when I tell them that I enjoy making these artworks of mine.And as simple as that may sound, I'm glad to have it because it's actually something rare to have in life.The joy of making and creating, what you love to do and have it be appreciated by others.

HIDDEN BEAUTY is about discovering the grace of the people living in Manila that is often overlooked.This exhibit is about the people who I randomly see whom I find inspiration from, the strangers I encountered to which when I paint them, I seemingly get to know them a little better even if they do not know me and they do not know I have painted them. This my way of sharing what I see beautiful in our city.

Not everyone has seen these moments I'm about to show you,but everyone knows when they have witnessed and felt something similar. It's because we can see beauty all around us, we can all find the hidden beauty of Manila.Learning that true beauty lies beyond what we see in our own eyes.And maybe in doing so,we might learn to appreciate people for who or what they are.

Accepting them,treating them as people just like you and me,even if they have flaws because we all do, because no one is really perfect, and it's okay to have imperfections. It's perfectly human.

And being human is what makes us beautiful.

Marius Black
Manila
2019

Manila Ukiyo-E Hidden Beauty
a solo show by Marius Black
Event page: https://bit.ly/2Xh2Mn3
ON June 14, 15 and 16
(3 days only event) 6:00PM
NO ENTRANCE FEE

@ Sigwada Art Gallery
1921 Oroquieta St. Sta. Cruz, Manila,
Philippines

ARTIST'S BIO:
Marius A. Funtilar also known as Marius Black is a 33 year old Filipino artist. He studied in the University of Santo Tomas taking up Fine Arts Major in Painting and graduated Cum Laude in 2007. He has since exhibited both group and solo shows in numerous galleries such as The Ayala Museum, Vinyl on Vinyl, KANTO Artists – Run Space, Metro Gallery, the NCCA Gallery and many others. He is a traditional painter and the founder of Kuro Saku, a tandem art group with his wife Guada. They write, draw and self-publish their own independent comic books, manga, art books, poetry and short novels.

Manila Ukiyo-E is an art series Marius created back in late 2017. The process of producing a single artwork is both tedious and fascinating. First he takes candid pictures of random people he sees on the streets. He then prints and traces the outline of the photo on to paper. Then pencils and inks the outlines and scans it to his computer, after which he prints them via laser printer on to watercolor paper. He then paints the colors on each print by hand using gouache, color markers, highlighters and other water based media. Thus each Manila Ukiyo-E piece he creates is both a print and an original artwork hybrid. The whole process he says, is a modern version of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints.

Manila Ukiyo-E has been featured on numerous publications and prestigious websites including:

Business World Spark Up: https://bit.ly/2WpQYll
Esquire Magazine PH: https://bit.ly/2XiBMDI
The Guardian : https://bit.ly/2XaFBL3

Manila Ukiyo-E's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/ManilaUkiyoE/

#ManilaUkiyoE #ManilaUkiyoEstories #MariusBlack
#KuroSaku #Manila #UkiyoE #Art #ArtPh #ArtExhibit
#HiddenBeauty #SigwadaArtGallery #artshow #gallery

TIRADOR

TIRADOR is an artwork about a man waiting for something while he and his bike are parked in dingy spot in Blumentritt. He looks at something, in all probability he's looking at you, in a way that is quite demeaning, as if he's trying to size you up if you'll put up a fight or not. He might be looking for valuables, a golden ring or an expensive watch or that phone you carelessly tucked in, in one of your loose pockets. He sees people not just naive men or women; he sees them as a mark.

He's a thief. Disguised as a tool merchant, he's actually on the lookout for dangling earrings and unbolted baggage and loose wallets he can easily pick without notice by the inattentive passerby. He might not even be the one to do the deed himself, he can point his toothpick on the target and one of his accomplices might follow that person and takes their valuables. 

I'm from Tondo, and near Blumentritt, where most of the thieves thrive in Manila. They sometimes work alone or with partners and other thieves in tandem, zeroing on you, their chosen victim, like a pack of wolves ready to pounce at the right moment. While you, unaware of it all, the mindless hit that you are, is just walking without a care in the world, smiling and slowly pacing yourself and all of a sudden... BAM!

Your necklace, your cell phone or your wallet is gone. Before you can even react or scream for help, they, like a well practiced dance, are rushing away, like a gust of wind, like a Pelican snatching a fish from the sea. Silent, like a flying stone from a fired slingshot. 

You might be asking, how was I able to tell that this guy on my artwork is a thief? To be honest, I really can't for certain. Let me be clear, this is just speculation, I don't want to degrade this man who's just minding his own business at the side of the street to be, a hundred percent, thief. Although with that said, there are some things one can notice to deduce someone's intentions by just looking at them.

I really don't mean to judge people, so let's just base it from my experience with people or let's be more  cautious and mindful of our surroundings. With that said, there are tells for everything. And what I am about to explain is that of the thieves where I'm from.

For one thing, it's the way he looks. See that look of him? Really truly see it. It's like he's up to something no good. It's like he's trying to read off of you like you're an open book, like you're made-up of words, and he is doing exactly just that. I know because that exactly is what I'm doing to him now, reading his physical tells and body language. 

He and most thieves where I live, and probably all over the world too, do the same thing. They read people who are an easy mark. They deduce if you'll put up a fight by your movements alone. They can tell if you have a black belt in karate or if you're a push over in school by the way you move. They choose their mark by reading the body language of their target. You might be unaware of this and might be saying this is absurd but it's nothing to dismiss. 

There are a lot of studies on knowing a threat just from reading their body language. Security personnel like guards and police all study this to determine who is a potential threat. They are on the lookout for people who act an unusual way, people who move either too stiff (because they're concealing a gun) to move or too jittery (because they are nervous of pulling off a heist) to stand still. 

Body language is what authorities use to survey individuals of their behavior because it's their job, not only to neutralize a threat when it does happen, but it's also up to them to stop or detect people with seriously bad intentions before they can actually do it. Kind of like "prevention is better than cure" type of deal. They don't get all of their hunches right, but it's better safe than sorry. I mean, if they're wrong, it's only a minor inconvenience for their suspect, but if they get it right then it means safety for everyone. 

The term "poker face" is also somewhat based off on reading one's body language. It's a tell one notices when playing a game or poker to tell if his opponent is bluffing or telling the truth. It's a common thing to try and read your opponent's hand by reading his face if he has a legit hand to win the game or he's bluffing just letting you bet more of your money while he has a losing hand. 

What's fascinating about all of this is that if you do know this, if you're aware of it, you'll know how you can prevent being a target of manipulative people and thieves alike. There are many ways to do so and you can research on your own, but the first thing to fend off thieves and people who prey upon you is simply just being fully aware of where you're at and being protective of your stuff. 

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that, the less people see of your expensive stuff, the more of a target you are. Showing off your new iPhone and filling your body with shiny and expensive jewelries when you're in a rural and crime heavy place is a sure way to be a mark. Unless, of course, you want to boast your new things just so people would envy you, then you deserve it. 

Be extremely aware of where you're at. Like I said above, you might be safe inside your school or office space , but if you're in public, especially a heavily dense area of people and poverty, you can bet that it's not a place to flaunt your belongings. You are actually the one putting the mark on yourself in this case, it's like painting a big red X on yourself to be picked on by pirates.

I tell you, it's not really a good experience to be a target. You might get traumatized by it and might be afraid to go out for a few days, or you might even be afraid to pass by the same street ever again. To me that's one of the worse things that can happen, being afraid of the city you live in. That you can no longer enjoy walking by yourself in your own hometown fearing of getting mugged again because you can't learn a lesson on humility of dressing adequately so that eyes aren't on you every time you go out.

In addition in making yourself a target, especially here in Blumentritt, is if you're too obvious that it's your first time here. You know that look you do when you're lost and confused? Yeah the thieves pick up on that fast and read it off you in a quick glance. Either you're from the province and you just got off a jeepney or you just got off of the LRT1 who's just trying to visit a friend for the first time, undoubtedly you will be a target. Just by the way you seem to not know where to go once you descended from your transport, and I tell you, Blumentritt can be a very busy place to navigate to even if you already are used to its daily chaos of cars, tricycles, street vendors and yes, even thieves. 

Another tell you're a newbie or a can be a potential target is when you're wearing your backpack on your back. I think a lot of people are already aware of this one but in case you didn't know... in Blumentritt, Tondo, Divisoria, Quiapo and in other crowded places in Manila (even in the trains and as well as long lines), you have to wear your backpack in front of you. Like uh, well... a "front pack". This way, no one can access or easily open and pick anything in your bag while you're idly waiting or walking the streets. It's really a big tell, especially to the pickpockets because it signifies to them that you've never been robbed this way before and so, like a virgin tree, they pick the fruits of your labor. 

The worst thing that can happen is you die. You get mugged and you fight back and you get stabbed and you get hospitalized and you die even before you get to the hospital. This actually happened to me. I got mugged, fought back (because I didn't want them to give them my backpack), they stabbed me and punctured one of my lungs. Before I even got to the hospital, I had a near death experience. I saw that bright light everyone talks about when they have a NDE, my loved ones flashed before my eyes, my dreams flew away from me all because I thought I was a tough guy, walking alone in a dark unlit street. Miraculously, I survived but it's not an experience I'd be willing to go through again. 

To be honest, it's not just in Blumentritt you should be hypersensitive of your belongings and surroundings and of the people around you. It's good practice to be aware of all of these wherever you go because thieves, pickpockets, scammers even con artists do go to malls, theme parks, hotels and might even be your co-workers and envious friends (in real life and on Facebook). 

All of them can steal from us and have our priced possessions be sold on eBay or be peddled in the streets if we're not too careful. We also shouldn't trust anyone so easily. In my experience, trust should be earned and not be given away to anyone like the free fliers you get from strangers. If you do trust anyone you come into contact with, that just gives people (with an agenda) a tell that you're one gullible motherfucker. This is not a harsh view of the world either, it's just how nature is. 

Wolves and lions band together and hunt the weak and prey on the unfit. They gang up on them and devour what they can when they corner their hunted. They are hunters after all, and so it is true in our social order. The wolves of our society also prey on the weak and the untrained and inexperienced, even the good hearted... especially the good hearted, for they see that their kind hearts see no evil in others, and are therefore are the first to be toyed with, used and abused by those who are more narcissistic, cunning and wily. 

And yet, good people still survive. Good hearts still prevail. Not because our souls are affected by the corrupt, but because the thieves can only steal our possessions and our money, our time and hard work and sometimes, even our words and ideas. But in the end, they can only steal so much, but in truth they will never steal our soul.

Our will, our soul, can produce anything effortlessly with ease if we are true to it. It does not really matter if someone steals our things, we can just buy them again. It doesn't matter if they steal our hard earned work of art and stories, because we know there's more of where that came from. I think our soul can produce more and more endlessly and tirelessly even if it's easier for others to steal our work.

Instead of learning the right way of how to create or figuring out how to make something, instead of earning something from hard work, they take if from others by secret and sleight of hand. Thieves believe that they can't produce something of value on their own. They take what is not theirs, especially great ideas by others, because they have accepted that they will never be that good no matter how they try. Because thieves think that the only talent they have is stealing something when no one is looking. But that isn't true. 

Anyone can do anything if one puts enough effort into it. They can get a job though recognition of the good work they do and even flourish by trying their best and being creative in their chosen field even if they are just making ends meet. If they instead put their scheming into good use, they might even have a name for themselves. It's not going to be easy, but nothing really is! 

If they're smart enough to outwit people through conning them, I think they can be smart enough to think of a way to be able to work productively without having to stick a knife to someone who looks weak. A factor of this might even be minimizing your goals to a realistic level so that you don't end up stealing someone else's ideas to gratify your false sense of ego and grandeur. 

If you've given up on trying your best or living a simple life without fucking anyone over by stealing from them, then you have robbed yourself of hope. You can figure things out, there's no need to steal or try to be thieves. I think that's a bold statement for me to say, but I think it's just an excuse people tell themselves because it's easier to rob someone than to give it a shot to think of one's own brilliant ideas. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that even thieves have souls. They steal because they think that it's all they're good for and it's all they're good at, but to be honest, one can be who he truly believes. If you believe you're only good in stealing, or just good at being mugged by strangers in an ally, then that's all you'll be.

It's what we do even the odds are stacked against us, even if some people see others only as thieves waiting for their next target. It's what we do in these times of hardship and not the judgement of other people that truly defines us of who we are. 

Tirador is a Filipino word which means slingshot in English. Tirador actually means a lot of things here, like I said above, it could also mean a thief. But it can also mean far worse: a shooter, killer, hit man or contract killer. It's far deadlier than the thief I described that can be found in our cities, but if you think about it, they can be one step close to a hired killer if these thieves were tasked instead of taking something, they are paid to take a life. 

Some of them might think, "Hey, we're already doing bad things and getting away with it, what's the difference?" Like I said, I was stabbed when I got mugged, I don't think that was a contract killer by any means, but I did feel death. And I don't think that the thieves that mugged me aimed to kill me in the first place. It's just to scare me off so that I'd give them my stuff, but that's not what happened. I fought them and they fought me back, to a point of killing me. It's not as romantic as stealing in the movies when a life is involved. 

To which I say; they don't deserve only this one path in life of stealing and killing. Even if they have wronged me. I still believe in some way, that everybody is redeemable if they change their ways for the better. Even if they think that they have hit rock bottom.

I once heard from a self help seminar I was watching on YouTube (and if you know about this one, do let me know), that if you've hit rock bottom, that all-time low, that deepest darkest and most depressing state in your life, imagine yourself just being a rubber band. The longer and farther you stretch yourself to one point, like when you're in the bottom,  when you let go, the farther you'll shoot yourself from where you once was. Like trying to kick the deep end of a swimming pool to ricochet yourself to safety. 

What I'm trying to say is that, the reason I painted this man, aside from being a great subject to paint because he may or may not depict a thief pretending to be a tools sales man, is because I still found beauty in him. Not just the colors of his gritty and do it yourself patched-up bike, not just the striped rag he wears on his head that really makes him look like a pirate along with that protruding tooth pick.

It's also that look he gives. He's just himself, which I think what makes him beautiful. Unapologetic, old and wrinkled, weathered and seasoned, on the verge of starving and yet, still surviving.

I maybe a hypocrite by saying this (although I might not extend this awe to everyone), but like the wolves and lions and other predators that we see hunting their food, their hunt amazes us. As much as we want to save their prey, as harrowing it is to watch them devour a lamb or a wildebeest, we stand spellbound and let it unfold. 

Like we all do when someone is mugged or has their earring taken and the snatcher flees away fast like a leopard, running away from the herd and masses, as he weaves himself in the field of rusted houses and labyrinth-like alleys.

There is some beauty to be found in the ugliness of how the city we live in has changed some people, of how they have learned to survive and be untamed as hyenas in the wild.

Even if it's only for a second, only a glimmer of their true selves is revealed to us, a glimpse of their animal nature unfolds. In the slightest we see a man free of rules.

Like when releasing the band, the stone mid air.

A moment of silence, before witnessing the chaos.

Caused by a Tirador.

TIRADOR

hand painted art print

9 × 12"
Marius Black 2019
Manila Ukiyo-E

FIELD TRIP

FIELD TRIP is the story about a woman in Blumentritt with her two kids riding the cart she pushes as she collects recyclable materials she can sell. She picks discarded plastic bottles and other materials that she might able to use. Thrown away tarps that she can construct to a makeshift roof on their heads in case it rains and some dismantled cardboard boxes that she can turn into matting on the floor as a makeshift bed.
 

FIELD TRIP
hand painted art print
9 × 12"
Marius Black 2019
Manila Ukiyo-E

 
Along with her are her two kids, they aren't in school for obvious reasons, but in a way, this is like a field trip for them. They get to see a lot of places all day, they get to know which stuff are useful even if it's considered trash by others and they also get a to spend time with their mother teaching them the harsh truth in life at an early age along with the virtue of not giving up. This is probably the only education that they'll get in their life time if we think about it.

Back when some of us were still students, we all went to field trips organized by our school. It doesn't really matter where we go, as children or even as teens, anywhere outside the classroom is a destination preferred by any student. Factories and cultural places are the main ones, there's also museums and heritages.

But the one thing that actually fascinated me aside from the places we went as a kid is how my fellow students and even teachers behaved during the trip. I noticed that my classmates adorn caps and even bought toys and at one point in high school someone even bought liquor. The teachers also were more relaxed and friendly, not the terror you see every day in class. Everyone behaved differently as if they weren't the same person in school. I guess maybe, most of us felt it was a vacation away from the prison like school.

This reminds me of this one school trip that we went to when I was in third or fourth grade. We went to Enchanted Kingdom, and of course, that's far away as being educational as you can possibly get but more of a fun thing to do with your classmates. I mean what is there to learn there right? Aside from learning that the Rialto as a fun and safe ride and that the Condor was never really going to be fixed. But lessons are always found in any situation I learned.

My classmates and I were all excited to go, we knew that magical place was a great way to play all day and for a kid of that age, it was a big thing to have a day for the sole purpose of play, more so when you're with your classmates and aren't really monitored all the time by your teachers.

And yet the experience for me there wasn't the most pleasant one. It started off well and good as I remembered, a couple of classmates of mine started with the bumper cars and went straight to the simple rollercoaster after that. We then went to the Rialto next but soon I realized that most of my classmates gone to different rides, mostly the scary ones that got me spooked at that young age.

They went for the Space Shuttle which had a long line of people waiting for their turn, they went along but I was too scared then to come with them and so I was left by myself. To be honest, I was just tagging along with them; I wasn't really close with any of them you can say. But as a kid, you aren't really thinking of those kinds of things yet, but I was able to realize a hard truth that day. I realized, I really didn't have any friends at the time.

I spent the rest of the day alone in Enchanted Kingdom, I still saw my classmates although the magical land, but I was too shy to tag along with most of them because of what I realized earlier that day. That no one really wanted me in their group that I really didn't fit in that much with them. And I was that shy to insert myself, being more afraid of being rejected than riding the Space Shuttle.
It was the first time in my life that I really felt I was by myself, even if I was everywhere I looked I was

surrounded with current and former classmates of mine. And even if they did see me, no one pulled me to go along with them for a ride, no one pushed me to go on together to the scary ones either. I guess at the time, it never really crossed my mind that no one really liked me that much in school back then. No one wanted to be at my side and go on adventures with in a strange place.

It was a strange feeling for me indeed at that young age feeling loneliness, I wasn't too young to not let it get to me nor was I too old to know what exactly I was to do. It's different kind of loneliness being left alone at the house or being the last one left at school because your parents forgot to pick you up after dismissal.

I felt really alone at the time because here we all are at a place where you can choose to do what you want to do in the theme park and no one really chose to be with me. I guess I should've got the hint earlier in the day, where no one really wanted to be my seatmate in the bus. This one felt different, because there were no rules.

There wasn't a teacher there to tell us to be partners with or to tell us our alphabetical sitting arrangement, no seatmates, no student number, it was my first real taste of how it really is in the real world. I do however actually have a lot of friends outside our school, I guess that's because everyone looks the same inside our school with our uniforms, not being able to be different and to stand out apart from the other.

But outside our school I was this adventurous kid who got in trouble a lot and I had more reputation of infamy, but the pranks I pulled at our street when I was a kid didn't really got to my classmates and school, and so there I just a quiet and boring boy who always followed the rules. But realizing I didn't have any friends in our school really made me sad at the time.

So I think after that I sought after friendship inside our school and I was lucky enough to find a few real and good friends who I will treasure up to today. They aren't that many, and in life we don't really need a whole lot, only the true ones, and the ones we should keep.

Today, even if my best friends and I really don't hang out anymore or keep in touch that much, when we do see each other, it's really easy to feel good and safe when you're around them. Catching up and knowing that you had adventures together like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer did. As well as because like they were for me, saving me from my loneliness, they too feel that they weren't alone when no one was really a friend to them.

One saving grace about my time in Disenchanted Kingdom, is that even though I felt sad, I was able to find that they sold root beer floats there. As a kid I really love those, and even if I didn't have much allowance at the time ( I wasn't even able to have enough money for tokens in the arcade as much as some of my classmates did) I was able to afford the float. And yes, that simple and sweet treat really lifted my spirits up when I finished having it.

So yeah for this excursion of ours, I was able to learn a hard lesson in life about loneliness and a good place to get a root beer float, all for the price of a student field trip.

Schools have to organize a field trip in order to educate children and teenagers about how it really is in real life. The factory, the scenery, the small town which specializes making butterfly knives, see the steps on how to make things, the scenery and waterfalls and many fields of our country, so that we get to see how all the things we learned at school so far can really be applied in the field.

The purpose of field trips is not just to know how the things we all consume get made, but it also teaches us how we can interact with other people and on how hard it is to work on this one thing we all consume every day. It does not only give us a glimpse of how working people in jobs actually look like, but it also shows us who we can be in the future belonging to the working class and day job going masses. "This is how to survive." the teachers silently whisper in their minds and wish that their students would realize. Which I think what that one Eraserheads song didn't get.

In relation to the family in the artwork. They are already in the field, no more training wheels like when you pass a test or grade on a subject, this is real life. When you pass here, you live. When you fail and keep on failing, you die. It's true that these children might not even know how to read or differentiate the difference between the alphabet and algebra, but at least they would know how to survive.

Sometimes school is filled with bullshit. Maybe not always, and maybe not to all, but for most of our student life then, we've all thought of that one question; "How am I going to use this information after I graduate?" Some might scoff at this question and say that they are ungrateful of their education, but there is some truth to it.

We really can't use all that we've learned in school. We actually can't even remember all the things we did learn then now, even if we once got a good grade at a subject. Maybe you can remember almost everything but I don't. And I think the reason is because we fail to grasp the practicality of learning the basics and fail to see the importance of it all when we ourselves, as students, are still even figuring out who we are and what we want to be at that point in our lives.

I guess it might even be more effective to let student choose what they want to be in life after teaching them the basics of reading and math, so that everything they learn after what field they chose would be extremely helpful to them and have gained their interest already. And I think schools right now are veering towards to although I wish it was actually started much earlier. As well as art as a subject have more value in like sir Ken Robinson pointed out in his now internet famous TED Talk.

It's actually more effective to learn when we are actually doing something, instead of just putting therefore I conclude in our problem solving essays. Meaning, we should just go straight to hands on instead of long lectures, and I'm not dismissing long lectures, what I'm saying is YES to long lectures on the field I want and NO MORE long lectures on the things that aren't related in the field I'm in.
I'd also be the first to say that no one really can just focus on one subject only for the rest of one's life because it might not bring out new ideas and new forms of creativity. Although that's where free time to do whatever you want should come in. What one decides to do and his other interests would make an individual, in any field, be different from his own peers.

And yet it's not the teachers and schools' fault either. They give us the best knowledge and information that they think we would be able to use in life after we graduate.

When he was still a kid, Stephen King was asked by his uncle Oren to come with him to fix a broken screen. His uncle needed a screw driver to do so, so he told little o'l Stevie to get his tool box in the garage. Stevie did so and upon returning lumbering the toolbox, he asked his uncle why he had to bring that heavy tool box if he only needed one screw driver? His uncle responds:

“I didn’t know what else I might find to do once I got out here, did I? It’s best to have your tools with you. If you don’t, you’re apt to find something you didn’t expect and get discouraged.”
-On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

It means of course that it's better to be ready with anything than just bringing or learning one thing at a time. Or going back to the garage to get the pliers in the tool box but in the case of our analogy, going back to school to learn how to do fractions.

For the school to teach us what they know, it's just best guess. The basics we have to learn when we're younger to give us a fighting chance in life once we finally leave their prison. That when we're finally free, we don't go coming back. But in truth, and based from my experience, learning doesn't stop.

No one really graduates in life. I believe we can only really graduate when we die. When there is nothing more for us to learn, we expire, we move on. And maybe even then, we still have a lot more to learn.

Heaven aside, even graduate students have a hard time getting jobs and surviving today. Some of them also have a hard time talking to people, socializing or even courting girls. Some have been so inexperienced with life outside school that once they finish, they lock themselves up in rooms because they failed to understand social dynamics.

In Japan there are people known as Hikikomori, they are reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. Nearly half a million Japanese youth have become social recluses.

They haven't learned how to properly apply what they've learned in school to real life, they have been recluses because they fear rejection and failing in real life. Afraid of making mistakes because of how they felt when they were rejected by a woman they like or modern society. They failed to realize that these things happen in real life and it's not something to be ashamed of but to be seen as a learning experience.

They were the lonely me who felt sadness back in at Enchanted Kingdom, but the difference is, I took it as a challenge to change and better myself and seek out friendship. I didn't see it as me being inadequate, or being an embarrassment. I didn't put myself in high regard then so when I fell, it didn't hurt as much (or maybe they just don't know where to get good root beer floats).

Maybe that's why the Hikikomori, or other recluses and millennials today around the world and in our society fails in real life and in relationships because they think that they are a failure because they can't achieve perfection in their life, which I think is how they see themselves. Flawless but also without experience and friendless. That's why Role Playing Games are so addictive to them, because they can reset their game over and over without consequences. They can start anew every time and play it to perfection.

Real life is the real game, and no, no one here gets a flawless victory. We all get damaged and a broken tooth. We all get sick and all get scars. Imperfection is what makes us beautiful and what makes us all unique. It what makes us human. College graduate or not, no read nor write, it doesn't really matter, real life is only worth living when you're happy and alive.

People think that if you get good grades in school, if you always have a high score on a test and you have perfect attendance, you already learned all you need to know. What they fail to realize is that, it's far more different in the real world.

Not everything can be quantified to a grade, there is no grade, only performance. There is no single test to pass... everything's a test! Your boss, your clients, your enemies, your neighbors, your friends, your best friend, your wife and even your children will test you.

That's why I don't think that these two kids riding the cart with their mother are really that unlucky in life. Sure they might not have the best education money can buy, but they do have the best teachers; their loving mother and life. Telling them only the harsh truths and not useless candy coated bullshit.

They can find treasures when most of us only see trash. They find unity where most of us are too busy to be with our family. They find happiness in simpler things, like a discarded a diesel bottle and a broken comb. All of their flaws and shortcomings, makes them who they are.

Maybe due to the extreme harshness of life in the future, the two children might grow up as thieves and hoodlums. But I prefer to think that because their mother guides and teaches them, in still doing what's right while facing adversity and even if luck is not on their side, I think that they would still grow up being honorable and self-actualize men with honor and resilience in their hearts and minds.

All because at a young age, they are taught how to survive in the real world that some of us have a hard time doing because of our self-grandiosity, easily shattered expectations and inflated egos.
Yet these children, persevering and adapting, toughening up every day, like unravelling diamonds from coals, these children, whether they know it or not, they are already mining the field.

FIELD TRIP
hand painted art print
9 × 12"
Marius Black 2019
Manila Ukiyo-E