Art leads of July 2016

ARTlead cites five of the best artists who have been posting their current-year artworks in the art Facebook group on a monthly basis.
Lead artworks for July 2016 are: Rainbowmaker by Marlin Lopez, Emancipation by Larry Carumba, Feast by Rex Beo, Indak by Wellers Vicencio and Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer by Iwag Palattao.
For the consistent high quality of their works and artistic accomplishments for the month in review, the following members are also cited:   

JAIME TORRES. Defying his limited knowledge in digital arts, Torres’ visions are born out of sublime moments of imagination and dreams, aimed to inspire and encourage creativity and to enjoy the thought process of discovering visual ideas thru layers of forms, colors and textures. Although there are times he thinks sin allegories and abstract semantics, still, his old school quest for beauty must prevail over the predictability of the absurd.
Flora, his cited digital art for the month, says it with flowers, love or longings, unspoken desires and daydreams. Torres often challenges himself to project insignificant images or subjects, the mundane, the common and ordinary, its own beauty in a different light or visual experience wrapped in digital love.

ZORRICK ENRIQUEZ. Being in the world of art is like having the time of his life by discovering new ideas through his own artistry and interaction with experts he met along the way. Enriquez knows to be on the right track on making his own mark. But for sure, he took baby steps in reaching that goal including active posting of artworks in ARTlead. As of July, believing that he’s making out something valuable through his career, he heard a loud bang when he was announced as champion in an art contest in Lipa, Batangas. It was that same in high school when he finished champion in an art contest.

ALJUS ANDRES. Calling his photography My Street Art, curiosity leads Andres to take pictures wherever footlose takes him, from the streets of his beloved Binangonan to as far as Baguio or Bohol. Posting in ARTlead in July 2015 the photos entitled Synchronize (Urban landscape), Chrysanthemun, Panata Munting Paraiso sa Aking Isipan, Laro, and Go on Peace that was cited as his best work for the month, he woke up early Sunday morning, his mind set to go to church in Angono, Rizal. After the priest sad, “Live and go on peace,” he set his lens to take photos of people outside, capturing a funeral procession.

ULYSSES DUTERTE JR. In the process of building his portfolio of favorite subjects — kids. Duterte Jr.’s main subjects are children of his relatives and friends. The kids always remind him of his happy upbringing having been brought up by loving parents who instilled to him God’s high moral standards. His current paintings show how kids in the current world are so vulnerable to negative influences without the proper guidance from parents and God’s word. He hopes that viewers would see the importance of guiding the kids from infancy and up. He hopes to complete 24 paintings in this series.

ABE LUNA OROBIA. Orobia started July with participation in the Perya exhibit by Canvas Gallery at the U.P Vargas Museum. Jaime Ponce de Leon of Leon Gallery selected his painting entitled The Virgin of Ferris Wheel (Ang Unang Perya) to be part of the upcoming auction. He ended it with the group exhibit entitled The Wall in Altro Mondo Contemporanea at Greenbelt 5 with two oil painting entries To Love Deeply (Tatlong Sisiw ng Pangarap) and Flight. All stated paintings were posted in ARTkead. Attending a faculty curriculum development workshop in Development Academy of the Philippines in Tagaytay from July 13-15 he topped the Student Teacher Assessment Report in college of Saint Benilde, School of Design and Arts on an average of 3.80 with the perfect score of 4.0.

SCHOLASTIC: CHAMPIONING ENHLISH READING IN THE PHILIPPINES. “From 1.0 million, books read through the Scholastic Readers Program increased to 2.6 million the following year,” revealed Frank Wong, President of Scholastic Asia, to Lead during an exclusive interview during the awarding ceremony of the 2016 Readers Cup held at the Isla Ballroom of EdsaShangri-la Hotel on Aug. 4.
“The Reading Program comes with a comprehension check that the reader has to undergo after reading a Scholastic book,” explained Wong to ensure the books read are understood.
With 159 reading partner schools in the Philippines in the Assessment and Enrichment Program for Reading and the Independent Reading Program, Scholastic provides schools with a supplementary Reading program that assesses students’ reading comprehension  levels, matching each child with the right books, monitoring independent reading, and enriching classroom reading instruction.
The Scholastic Readers Cup, now in its fourth year, is a champion. Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of English children’s books, is behind this inter-school competition that promotes books and reading.
The highlight of the event was the awarding of the 2016 Readers Cup winners. The schools that read the most number of books in their category (based on student population) were declared winners. The Scholastic Readers Cup champion schools for 2016 — St. Paul College Balayan (28,972 books read), Saint James Academy (80,688 books read) and Dr. Yanga’s Colleges, Inc. (104,248 books read) — each won a Reading Center make-over to make their library an even more inviting place for pleasure reading.
School principals and program coordinators were also recognized through the Scholastic Principal and Coordinator Achievement awards. Winning educators were from schools that achieved the highest average in books read for every student, and the most improved in terms of their students’ reading comprehension skills.
For the grade school with the highest average number of books read per student, Sr. Maria Yolanda Caridad Orpilla, SPC and Joy Magahis, principal and program coordinator respectively of St. Paul College Balayan, were awarded. Students of St. Paul College Balayan read an average of 91 books each for school year 2015-2016.
For high school, the awardees were Fr. Erwin Aguilar, OSJ, and Nora Beleno, principal and program coordinator respectively of Holy Family Academy. Students of Holy Family Academy read an average of 108 books each for school year 2015-2016.
For schools with the most improved students in terms of their Lexile (reading comprehension) growth, the top winners for grade school were Bryan Riddin and Maria Elena Camatog of International British Academy.  For high school, the top winners were Dr. Danna Manding and Jayson Esteban of Mother Goose Special System Inc., Urdaneta.
The Readers Cup also celebrates and recognizes the contributions of librarians with the Scholastic Librarian Achievement Award given to the Scholastic Reading Center Managers of schools with the highest average of books read per student. Top awardee was Avelina Villadores, the librarian of Holy Family Academy whose students read an average of 96 books each for school year 2015-2016.