MMAC: Themes & Painting

The annual Marianas March Against Cancer came about again on Friday, May 22 through Saturday, May 23. My friend Sean blogged about this year's event but could not post any pictures because he forgot his camera. Thanks to Tenta for the pictures within this post.

Ed and I were given the task to come up with a theme for our group. I didn't think that that involved the actual making of the tent decorations but it did give me a chance to pick up a paintbrush and paint. I've got to admit that I am pretty rusty.

We picked the theme Heroes and played with what that word means to people. Super heroes are popular in movies right now, as well as the the T.V. series. When it comes to cancer though, anyone can do something and be a hero. So we played with the idea that a family member can be a hero to someone that is suffering; a child can tell an adult that smoking isn't good for their health; doctors, nurses, and social workers can be heroes; a cancer survivor is a hero. So people liked the idea and bought into it, but in all honesty, I am just always looking for an excuse to dress up as a hero character! There was a lot of art to be done and I have to give props the people who contributed to the effort.

The idea for the boards that were to be displayed at the front of our MMAC tent was to put silhouettes of people interspersed with familiar hero figures.

Here's Tenta giving it a go with the painting.

Here's Aling giving it a go. Looks like the black silhouettes are almost done on this board.Ed is more usually comfortable with a microphone and guitar in hand but he openly explored the visual arts side of his creativity here.

There was freehand painting as well as stenciling. Ed's face mask started looking like a yarmulke after a while. Was it the paint vapours or something else?
Final touches by Jeremy. Aling insisted that we have his favorite super hero character, Spiderman. I thought it was a pretty cool idea to have him in an acrobatic pose and wearing casuals.The boards finally finito!

De coup de grâce! I thought it would be funny to have this logo, and insisted that we needed to have it to tie the theme all together. Turned out nice huh?

Load up and off you go to the MMAC!
Carrying the boards during the parade. We also made these "sound bubbles" playing off the "PoW!" and "Ka-Boom!" graphics from comic books. Our lovely ladies: Sheena, Dianne, Tenta and Margaret!

Here's Manang America! I really wanted more people to dress up. I came as Reed Richards since my Thor costume did not make it in time.

Holding up Mjolnir, our baton: that's Kilili having his turn as the Cap after his mom.

The event was a success. This was a small opportunity to get back into drawing and painting, so I think I will commit some time filling up a couple of canvases during my free time. Kudos to everyone who helped to make this a fun and satisfying event! See you next year!

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber