AMIRASOLO and Other Essays
Preface "All men who have accomplished anything worthwhile should set down the story of their lives with their own hands. But they should wait before undertaking so delicate an enterprise until they have passed the age of forty." The quotation above was what Benvenuto Cellini, the renowned Italian goldsmith and sculptor and contemporary of Michelangelo, wrote in the opening chapter of his autobiography. Well, I'm now in my sixties and I supposed it's high time for me to write mine. My artistic achievements, I know, cannot equal those of Cellini and other notable foreign artists past and present, nor even of dozens upon dozens of Filipino artists active today and in the past. But no matter. There is no tragedy more tragic for an artist than to die and afterwards be forgotten for good. Leaving a mark is what art making is all about. Artworks---visual, literary, musical, etc.---are the footprints artists leave on this Earth. They are proofs t...