spoolartist & son

10,000 questions a day, an unquenchable thirst to fill our serene,white walls with pencil and pen doodles, creating rocket ships out of empty pen cases, unbelievable obsessions of planets, trains, cities, maps, water, iconic architectural structures, chocolates & pepperidge farm cookies.


sometimes, seeing your self in a little person's body can be quite cute and scary at the same time...

SUPER SOVANN - episode # 1

Here's the first installment of my Cambodian superhero project - Super Sovann!

SUPER SOVANN - a super fashionable superhero

SUPER SOVANN - a third world super hero is born!

I've recently doodled my way into creating a comic series in facebook and was happy at how my friends reacted to it. What was funnier is that how I get friend requests from random people I don't know but who just loved it! Here goes SUPER SOVANN!

freedom @ hope

My son Freedom recently had their first ever Christmas theatre production at Hope International School where he studies. Unfortunately at that day, I had a photography class at Angkor Wat (which was booked since last year!) so I totally missed out on this! Fortunately, my wife brought the Sony camera with her and took some snaps of the play...


Freedom doing the greetings...


They performed "Hosanna Rock & Roll" which looked like they were dancing to YMCA by the Village People...


The play was rather politically correct... the three magis were all girls!


Even Joseph and Mary were Asians (Koreans) and they were just too adorable...






With me and my wife coming from a strong theatre background, we were just too proud to see our son up on stage...






Freedom was a cow in the manger scene (at least he's not a lobster, like the Hugh Grant's nieces in Love Actually) and according to everyone, he did an awesome job... his costume was made by Don Protasio no less!

ART BATTLE at the Alley West

Got a challenge from Jam last week to participate in an "ART BATTLE" of sorts with the other artists in town. We were given the "holidays" as theme for our pieces and were each given a week to complete. Art Deli sponsored the competition.


I did an installation + performance called "Borderline Precious". It was my reaction towards how the festive season is celebrated across borders and how each culture, tradition and religion redefines Christmas to suit their beliefs.


Jam on the other hand, did a three piece work called iBuddha and iJesus, made on his ipad.


Mike Mahalo, a British artist, tackled the rapid commercialization of the holiday season and entitled his digital art piece "Chri$tma$".


Cambodian artist Savann Oun made a three dimensional piece made of mesh wire, a painting on a woven mat, candles and mosquito coils to depict "Christmas garbage", seeing how people would celebrate the holidays for months and end up with a pile of trash. His piece is a reaction as a Buddhist to an otherwise Christian celebration.


The main objective of the Art Battle is to resuscitate a dark, neglected part of the Alley West and turn it into a street gallery for the public. Another Art Battle is scheduled next month but with a different set of mechanics.

To vote for your favorite piece, please go to www.facebook.com/artdeli and click on "like" corresponding to the photos of the pieces that you love.

my emails hacked!

Dear friends,

I am very saddened to inform you that all my outlook based emails have been hacked for the past week, as confirmed by my IT Consultant today, that’s why I haven’t been receiving very important emails. What makes it worse is that it was done by my former IT manager and two other people who worked for me:

Brewster Bonifacio – my former IT Manager
Vincent Rufo – my former Assistant Photographer
Kristian “KC” Enriquez – my former Sales Manager

The three of them have put up ArtWorx Studios to go against my company, Spoolworks Studios (see how close their name is to mine?) since November 2009. I have been aware of them but I welcomed them without holding anything in mind. This is even with the fact that they are using my works and photos as part of their portfolio. My IT Consultant traced the origin of the hack to their ip addresses.

I am deeply offended however, to find this electronic ad below promoting their works and what makes it funny is they emailed it to ALL of my outlook contacts in one go, strangely, even those they DON’T KNOW! Some of you might have never heard of them, and you’re probably surprised to receive their electronic ads. Some of you emailed them back to me asking if I own this company or if I am involved with them. The answer is NO, and for those who have sent me important business emails, kindly resend them to my other address: spoolworks@hotmail.com or iam@lovenramos.com


Thank you for your support.



Loven



This is the electronic flyer they sent to all my clients!
They even copied our family Christmas greeting lay-out for this ad!!! See below...



See the uncanny resemblance?

Now you be the judge. There goes intellectual property rights to you.

The funny thing is that these people used to work for me and they were part of my family at one point. I took Brewster in as one of my first employees because he was fired from his work at Shinta Mani Hotel. Vincent Rufo is Brewster's best friend and I hired him out of Brewster's insistence to give his friend a chance. KC and I worked together when I first moved to Cambodia and was one of my founding partners in Spoolworks. He left me twice without any explanation and a few months later, him and Brewster and Vincent put up their own company... ARTWORX STUDIOS.

I don't mind the competition and all, but with their efforts of trying to destroy me by hacking through my email servers and my client database, as well as buying my domain www.spoolworks.com and linking it into their website, that's definitely below the belt!

What should I do?

Any suggestions?

a new blog si born!

Siem Reap Life is your virtual window into the latest happenings, the most interesting places and faces, the best bargains for wine, dine and local shopping as well as the most fabulous experiences you can possibly have in Angkor town.

More than a guidebook and definitely not a critique, it is honest, informative and straight out of the heads and hearts of residents. Our blog authors are of diverse backgrounds and interests. Thus, you get a whole collage of point of views and always a perspective you can relate to.
Whether your just traveling through or soon taking up residence, get in-depth and intimate with Siem Reap, check-out Siem Reap Life!

www.siemreaplife.com