Soil:Mother Earths Gift

By: Ryan Victor P.Miranda

Wear your slippers, your feet will get dirty. This is the usual order children hear from their mothers whenever they failed to put on their slippers. For many people, the soil is dirty and it is taboo to touch it, much more to hold it. But for the 23 college students of Notre Dame College in Jolo, the soil is Mother Earths gift. It became as a medium for art, to be specific, for painting. I was invited to conduct a soil painting workshop for the 23 colleges students who are art enthusiasts and willing to undergo the painting workshop which I facilitated. They invited me as the lecturer/ facilitator after they learned that soil painting is the project that I conducted for elementary pupils in one of the barangays of Zamboanga City. During the study grant offered by the PYLP and the US State Department last year in Illinois, USA, soil painting is the project that I presented. The facilitators of Dekalb University were fascinated by the soil painting especially so when I told them that this is the project that I will teach in the Philippines in the name of Peace for Mindanao. When I got back to the Philippines, I conducted the same in October, which caught the attention of the media and earned me the invitation to do it in Jolo last Sunday. Soil is a unique medium that both inspires and challenges the art enthusiasts. The process involves fun, aesthetic sense and creativity. The participants did not mind getting their hands dirtied by the soil because they know that they will be able to express themselves through soil painting. Their works of art will be exhibited later in the month of October this year in the college, again, in the name of Peace for Mindanao. On my part, I also found fulfilment and contentment that somehow I have shared my little knowledge with the youth even with this simple medium of art. For those who have not seen a soil painting yet, better do it in the future when there are art exhibits mounted in the city. Man does not live by bread alone. He also needs to know the finer things in life. He need not spend a fortune to appreciate art. Usually, the city government through the local artists, sponsors art exhibits so that the people can also appreciate

Mother Earths gifts, the soil being one of those which is usually taken for granted. The one-day soil painting workshop is too short but it earned me the chance to tour Jolo in one day and made me appreciate the need for brotherly love and peace in Mindanao. To the Lady Artists of Dipolog, Tg Libon Ini, thank you very much for introducing me to soil painting. It opened many doors and windows for me. The next time I will hear a mother tell her child to wear slippers because the soil is dirty, I will just give a sheepish grin.