freedom fighters forever!

Nothing like the old year coming to an end and the new year yet to come which tend to bring on all our. . . .shit. Not here at wonder | wander | world. 

Thank God! Let's keep it real for 2018. 

To all the guilt trippers and nay sayers - life is too precious and time too short to waste on petty trivia and a stupid mindset. 

Happy New Year 2018! To all us women of substance. Knock em dead! 

#resistancefighters #maytheFORCEbewithus #gamechangers

Seasons Greetings!

On December 18, the newly renovated local museum in our hometown of Bacolod City on Negros Island in the Philippines was host to "Talamdan."

A home grown exhibit of the National Archives of the Philippines that documents and records the Spanish occupation and birth of the sugar industry on the island.

The Negros Museum was was built in 1925 by Juan Arellano. Originally part of the Provincial Capitol, it was known as the Provincial Agriculture Building.

rain rain | go away

Winter has come and as the snow falls on other parts of the world we have tropical thunderstorms over her in the Philippines.

It cooled down a sweltering December although it has turned it all gray and drippy. O well.

Happy Holidays to us all!

Change Warrior | medium.com

Issa's Change Warrior blog is now posted online at Medium.com.

Heading home for the winter. Happy Holidays!

ho! ho! ho!

Consider giving with more meaning this holiday season by coming up with a similar action list of your own.

Happy Holidays!

Warm hugs from wonder | wander | women at wonder | wander | world.

grateful thanksgiving

wonder | wander | world celebrates another benchmark for Mahala's illustrated book, "What My Grandmother Told Me."

Now available at Blackwell's at the Wellcome Collection in London.

Congratulations and kudos! Whoopee!

While back in the US, this half of the team was valiantly stuffing her self.

Under the guise of making new friends and celebrating with a Thanksgiving lauriat.

Much blessings and a hefty bounty to be grateful for.

old worlds | old wounds

We love our Westerns at wonder | wander | world! 

Just like the author of Longmire, we are carried along on a lonely pilgrimage into the heart of nature and rawness of life - giving us the space to imagine the world this fictional hero inhabits.

opera + beatbox + overtones = heart music

Dharni is a revolutionary vocal artist who transcends across different genres of music through beatboxing. With just a microphone he can mesmerize any crowd and get us all rockin'.

Recognized as one of the best beatboxers in the world, he has also performed in Europe and the world over the years and gained popular recognition for his creative collaborations.

He has opened for artists like the Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West, Jin, Lady Gaga, Flux Pavilion and Mariah Carey.

Watch him here with the amazingly talented Edyta Krzemie as they both rock their version of The Phantom of the Opera.

music of the spheres

Years of work as holistic and natural seekers, healers, and facilitators have brought on many mysterious and mystical miracles.

Of the countless modalities of healing - sound, being formless - is both limitless and flexible.

On this week's pick wonder | wander | world offers the meditative sound sculptures of Harry Bertoia.

Designer and sculptor Harry Bertoia spent the final decades of his life creating mesmerizing "sonambient" music out of big metal objects.

An 11-CD collection of his recordings has just been reissued.

The act of deep listening takes us beyond auditory sensation.

Piercing our heart. Allowing our soul to take flight. Freeing spirit to explore beyond the beyond.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our favorite vintage haute' couture boutique in New York City - 188 Galerie!

TRICK OR TREAT?

Always fun!

Always precious!

E N J O Y ! ! !

healing with sound

This week wonder |  wander | world pick of the week is a certification program we are enrolled in at the Open Center in New York City. The Integrative Sound and Music Institute Certificate Program. 

The Integrative Sound and Music Institute certificate program is a comprehensive, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary, and highly experiential approach to the study of sound, music, and voice and their powerful effect on the human organism.

Students engage in in-depth study of the therapeutic power of sound and music to transform consciousness and improve well-being. Workshops in this training offer methods and strategies to integrate the sound healing systems taught into a healing practice, including practical applications for professional settings, or for professional enrichment.

• The therapeutic and esoteric properties of sound from Western scientific, Eastern philosophical, and shamanic belief systems.
• How sound has been used to affect human consciousness.
• The intersection of art, science, spirituality, and sound.
• How sound can make subtle but profound positive changes to the body.
• How instruments and recordings can introduce you to higher states of consciousness.
• The inherent mystical phenomenon of sound.
• The latest applications of sound in the field of medicine.
• That we are all vibrational beings: The universe itself is vibrating, and through the careful and conscious use of sound we can tune ourselves to be in greater harmony with that vibration.
• How to develop a plan to build a healing practice.

We are eager and excited to get started! And we'll be sure to keep yu posted.

Inktober 2017: stretch goals

The leaves are falling, the nights are longer, and it's time for our second favourite October tradition. Inktober, Jake Parker's challenge to the community of digital illustrators and artists, asks us to do a single, finished ink drawing every day until the end of October.

We gain momentum through the cycle of working, finishing, posting, and then seeing what our fellow artists have done.

We've come a long way baby!

British-Kiwi hybrid and Atlas Obscura editorial fellow, Natasha Frost, writes about The Miss Subways Pageant. 

Charting the highs and lows of 20th-Century feminism in New York City - from a 1940s beauty queen to a 2017 performance artist.

This contest initially ran from 1941 through 1976 under the auspices of the precursors of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), and was resuscitated as a pageant by the MTA in 2004 as “Ms. Subways.”

This year it has returned again, but it’s nothing to do with the MTA. This incarnation, held at the City Reliquary in late September, was a protest against everything the contest had once stood for.

For Levy, like so many others, Miss Subways was just woven into the fabric of New York’s underground life—a fleeting piece of pop culture and an artifact of the lives of women in a modern city.

new year | new dawn

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish high holy days.

The general practice is to spend the day in synagogue services in fasting and prayer in atonement and repentance. 

According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes each person's fate for the coming year into the Book of Life, on Rosh Hashanah, and waits until Yom Kippur to "seal" the verdict.

Whatever your belief or tradition, wonder | wander | world wish blessings upon you for yet another new year.

Let the sacred shofar trumpet all our prayers to the heavens.

A good and sweet year ahead - Shanah Tovah!

autumn equinox

In the northen hemisphere September Equinox is here. It is officially autumn, the season of change.

The Intihuatana Stone - Machu Picchu, Peru

Right now, the Earth's axis is pointed toward the north star, Polaris, but the gravitational influences of the Earth and sun cause the tilt to slowly change over time. This period of "precession," as the change is called, takes about 26,000 years. ~ SPACE.com

Visit their site to learn what September's cosmic skies have in store for us.

Sit back and relax - enjoy the view and track the change.

crazy climate | wild weather

wonder | wander | world pick for this week is an adorable everyday hero. 

Upworthy had this article on local Mobile, Alabama TV weatherman Alan Sealls.

In these turbulent times we can so easily grow unhinged by bad weather or worse - bad news delivered badly. Either through outright false or misleading facts or presented in hyped up sensationalist drama. 

It is such a pleasure to listen to Sealls tell us in his assured demeanor and reassuring tone that, much as we have no control over the weather, hearing what's in store from this friendly expert can soothe and calm us tremendously.

We are so glad his YouTube video has gone viral and he gets the exposure and recognition he so richly deserves.

Thank you Alan Sealls for easing our fears with some tried and true sanity.

serving up cliches

There is nothing more disappointing than a good story that falls short of its full potential.

Especially a tale layered in facets and nuance that has been willfully destroyed by misguided Hollywood misconceptions.

wonder |wander |world had looked forward to watching this and is so vastly disappointed with the manipulated Hollywoodized version in the story presented of Beatriz at Dinner.

Unfortunately, little of the diverseness and promise in this preview showed up in the full film.

Happy Labor Day Weekend

As usual it's that time of year once again.

Mahala's birthday on September 1.

It is also my labor [of love] day.

In the US it is Labor Day weekend.

Around the world Muslim communities celebrate Hari Raya Haji.

off the beaten path

As the world expands and explodes - ever growing, ever changing - finding pockets of peace or solitude is no longer easy to come by.

Whether it is your thing or not, viewing this precious video about what home means to an acclaimed and accomplished film maker may change that for you.

Amid massive urbanization and modernization, rural Japan persists in idiosyncratic corners, captured lovingly here in Yadorigi: A Village in Portraits.

London- and Tokyo-based director Eiji Iwakawa profiles three inhabitants of a small, secluded farming village in southern Japan.

Following the lives of an organic farmer, a junk collector and a circus trainer, each of them with his own distinct reasons for calling Yadorigi home.

* Also featured in Aeon.

fractured facts

For those of us who spend a lot of time on our feet and walking all over the place, any sort of foot injury can be a major inconvenience.

When one foot is fractured and then the other follows four years later both on different parts of the fifth metatarsal bone, it is time to learn more about this.

Here at wonder | wander | world we are educating ourselves in the hope of progressive and proactive healing as well as preventing any further injuries to ourselves.

Time to devote to research and recreation, to relax, and rejuvenate in stillness and quiet surrender.

American Epic

An extraordinary story of the trailblazing era when country-wide, the music of ordinary Americans was first recorded.

American Epic documents when America heard itself for the very first time. The three-part historical documentary and feature-length film showcases contemporary artists in rural recording sessions.

hand sewn fashion

Last week on the change warrior blog, Issa posted the matching outfits she had hand stitched for herself and Mahala.

Reviving the lost art of hand sewn fashion can be both treasured and therapeutic.

May our project inspire you to get into hand stitching your own outfits, simple or complex.

May it bring you as much joy and fulfillment as it brings us.

Enjoy!

Today's Google Doodle

The poignant spectacle of New York City streets filled with marching women in white marks the 100th anniversary of the civil rights movement with the Silent Parade of 1917. 

100 years ago today, nearly 10,000 African Americans walked in complete silence down New York City's Fifth Avenue.

featured animation

This week's pick is the Oscar nominated film, Song of the Sea - a spellbinding ale bursting with magic, humor, and heart.

This animated feature film follows the story of a 10-year-old Irish boy named Ben (David Rawle) who discovers that his mute sister Saoirse, whom he blames for the apparent death of his mother, is a selkie who has to free faerie creatures from the Celtic goddess Macha.

Directed and co-produced by Tomm Moore.

The original music for the film was composed by Bruno Coulais, in collaboration with the Irish group, Kíla. The film also features songs by Nolwenn Leroy. A soundtrack album, consisting of 25 songs from the film, was released digitally on 9 December 2014, by Decca Records.

May this inspire and ignite more magic in us all!

charting hell

This post is not about the road to hell, paved with good intentions or otherwise.

Neither is it a commentary on our current state of affairs worldwide, hellacious as many of our world leaders have turned into. 

No. No No. No. 

Here we pay homage to all the charts created throughout the ages to map Dante's individual circles of Hell. 

Presented via Atlas Obscura - a tortured topography of torment by some of our world renowned artists . 

Michelangelo Caetani's cross-section of Hell, 1855

summer in NYC

For those stuck in this city's summer heat, there's still a lot going on to entice us. 

A regular favorite of ours here at wonder | wander | world is a visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

staking out territory

History is largely written by the winners. When realities are told only in part or from a limited presentation it can skew our history and misdirect what we believe. Later much more time and resources are spent trying to piece together the facts and present them with more balance.

After five years of negotiations, government officials presented this map,
showing the boundary lines between the British colonies and
the country of the Six Nations and the Southern Indians,
to the King of England, in 1768. NATIONAL ARCHIVES UK

This has been made almost impossible with lives lost and inaccuracies perpetuated to "clean up" our past. Improvement can be relative as well. Have we really come so far from those days and what ruled us then? 

summer reads

On the NYC subway, they posted a sign that advertises their library. How cool is that? 

On the C Train, NYC

Here at wonder | wander | world we compiled our own summer reading list for you too. 

paving paradise

The Museum of the City of New York's online collection reveals what the city looked like at the time.

The series, "The Greatest Grid," features illustrations and photos of New York City's former rolling hills, which were later demolished to create a flat street scape.

Take a look at the city's transformation.

Sheep grazed on west Central Park's Sheep Meadow from the 1860s until 1934, when they were moved to Brooklyn's Prospect Park and later to a farm in the Catskill Mountains.

MORE art from Mahala

Perpetuating our own productivity, this week's wonder | wander | world post features more of Mahala's artistic illustrations.

A recent trip to Venice was the inspirations for these fashion illustrations revolving around the Moretta, or 'mute servant' mask - a Venetian ladies' mask held on by gripping a button between the teeth, rendering the wearer silent.

The second set features some italic practice with dip pens and Diamine inks, using forms by Gaye Godfrey-Nicholls.

Enjoy! May these spark on more inspiration, feeding more projects.

plastic nibs

Ever wonder what to do with all the plastic water bottles piling up in our landfills and seeping into our oceans?

mountains of waste

Aside for packing them with more plastic and building your own earth house?

bullet proof, fire retardant, earthquake resistant

Memorial Day weekend

In the US wonder |wander | world celebrates Memorial Day this weekend with inclement weather and storm alerts.

This year we cannot help but draw parallels between the bad weather and the turbulence of our times. All over the world it seems like things are blowing up and we have lost our grip on major fronts.

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May. On this day we honor the men and women who died while serving in the country's armed forces.

Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War, this became an official federal holiday in 1971.

Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades.

Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.

Stormy as this weekend may be we encourage all to carve out some peace for ourselves and share some loves as we hold our feasts and festivities with loved ones and strangers around the world.

This Memorial Day 2017, build good and long lasting memories we can all be proud of!

botanical illustrations

Our wonder | wander | world find for this week celebrates both the art and beauty of science, as well as the life and work of Maria Sibilla Merian - 17th century entomologist, artist, and adventurer.

In a time when women were corseted in limitations and had few options, Merian made her own profession.

Mental Health Awareness Week

A medical foundation commissioned some illustrations for Mental Health Awareness Week 2017.

The brief outlined points on mental health in the workplace, and how even the most outwardly functional people struggle with it in their daily lives.

Cassini's grand finale

The Cassini mission to Saturn is one of the most ambitious efforts in planetary space exploration ever mounted.

A joint endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), Cassini is a sophisticated robotic spacecraft orbiting the ringed planet and studying the Saturnian system in detail.

After 13 memorable years, the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has entered its final dive, called "The Grand Finale".

Google commemorated the event in a doodle that celebrates the journey of the nearly 20-year-old spacecraft. Cassini has stayed in space these long years and is now beginning the last leg of its exploration journey.

According to NASA's website following the spacecraft, "Cassini will leap over the planet's icy rings and begin a series of 22 weekly dives between the planet and the rings" after a final close flyby of Titan.

The spacecraft, launched from Cape Canaveral in The US in 1997, is now running out of rocket fuel for its mission that will conclude on September 15 this year.

epigenetics on arbor day

wonder | wander | women at wonder | wander | world celebrate and honor two on going themes this month - happy days and science.

The Canlaon Wonder Tree is a 1,328 year old balete or banyan.

Happy Arbor Day! Hope you planted your tree or better yet many trees. 

While we are on the subject of green and growing, let us focus on science in general and epigenetics in particular. 

Say what? 

Happy Earth Day!

Google's doodle to celebrate Earth Day this year is both cute and informative.

Be kind and attentive to Mother Earth and Gaia will continue to take good care of us.

Enjoy Earth Day with these helpful tips!

Easter reflection

Blessed Holy Week & Happy Easter to all!

Happy Birthday Mary Pickford!

America's quintessential sweetheart celebrates her birth anniversary today.

Happy Birthday Mary Pickford!

Pickford used her stature in the movie industry to promote a variety of causes.

Although her image depicted fragility and innocence,

Pickford proved to be a worthy businesswoman who took control of her career in a cutthroat industry.

A true hero - then and now.

elephant parade

We draw aside the curtain this month to give you a peek at wonder | wander | women's latest and favourite commission!

Our crowning glory framed in antiqued brushed chrome.

World Water Day

World Water Day 2017 photos. 

Adrift in a sea of trash.

Why waste water? 

Shut that tap! 

Recycle always. 

Help the planet. 

Be frugal. 

MORE Mahala art

Tooting our own horn here with more of Mahala's art.

Read more at #Peregrinalia: small pleasures. 

Oei Katsushika : artist, daughter, Hokusai's keeper of secrets

We just celebrated International Women's Day [last March 8] and head into our month long observance of Women's History Month.

Here at wonder | wander | world we are focusing our continued gaze on art in general and women in particular.

Father-Daughter Collaboration

Especially in this one particular case, these famous words of Virginia Woolf, another accomplished artist, is all too true and quite sad.

We offer you the rare and unique O-Ei Katsushika - Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter, and secret collaborator on many works of her famous father, Hokusai.