Earth Day is Art Day in Baguio City

For the first time, I celebrated Earth Day with my children last April 22. Where best could it be but in Baguio City, home of the environmentalists and artists, real and imagined. It's been quite sometime since I celebrated this event myself. My last and most memorable was when I was still with the groups who were trying to save Pasig River. I joined the fluvial parade and I remembered it mainly because of my dear friend who got mad at the "bangkero" and I quote, "Manong, kung gusto mong malunod, ikaw na lang." The banca "driver" was trying to overtake the one before us. It felt like riding one of those green Krus na Ligas-bound-demonically-chased tricycles. Can't blame my friend. Why would anyone think of overtaking in a fluvial parade? Buti nga di sya namura,eh.

Back to Baguio City. This was one planned vacation for me and the kids. My sister told us about it once she learned of the schedule of activities. What interested us was the chalk drawing activity that will be held in Session Road. I can not describe everything in words, so I'll try to do it in photos:


Me in orange shirt trying to appear like drawing.



My little boy, doing his share and making deadma the ABS CBN Northern Luzon reporters in the background.



My daughter, drawing our family under a rainbow. Looking around she realized it's got to be Save the Earth themed, so she drew this:




Here we are with the bishop of Baguio, Msgr. Cenzon.

We all had fun and learned about chalk art as well. The above sun art was made by one manong whom we watched with fascination. We saw him dropping whole colored chalks in between the sun's rays and then he crushed them with his foot and giving it a splattered paint look. Awesome!

There are many more artworks made by participants who worked alone or as a group. Watch out for my slideshow in this blog.

Happy Earth Day to everyone!