The document summarizes the experiences of an art gallery owner over two years in three parts. In the first part, the owner took a risk in opening the gallery in an art-indifferent town but did so with an open heart. In the second part, balancing the finances and managing many artists was challenging. In the third part, the owner found both honest friends and those who were lost, but persevered by bringing in artists and performances that made the local art community happy.

1. Tarot Card Reading: Joys and Travails of a Gallery Madam
From a Jan 6 ’05 blog at Multiply
I. The FOOL: Opening up a gallery in an Art-indifferent town was my contribution to Suicide. I mean, not
only squandering your wealth to a dream but sacrificing your integrity as an Artist that could be rated in
some klutzes entry in a world book of records. Like the Fool, I stepped into something new...eager...but
with an open heart.
II. The MAGICIAN (Reversed): Fire goes with brimstone and feathers to Air..but do these elements mix?
Balancing accounts was like discovering funky colors like Bruised Eye Indigo or Pimple Pink. I just
discovered that many hands spoil the broth. There should only be one Sorcerer and the rest are
Apprentices..
III. The EMPRESS (Reversed): The Gallery Owner should be an Owner! Not the Artist...not the
Artwork...Blocks come hither and thither. It was like finding that Creative Juice.. Two years I've ranted
and raved over my depleting fecundity. My friends told me, it was just There...! When I sit before my
canvas to meditate- it takes an hour...wish my forehead could grow hands and paint...my own hands
have stocks in them.
IV. TEMPERANCE: How well do I mingle with the community artists? The approach is not business-like.
It's emotional, it's empathic. I could fill someone's cup but I empty another one's. The artists of Tacloban
are a mixture called "guisado". I should be careful to bring each and everyone's flavor, without
shadowing others...Balancing lives, dreams, artistic expressions...Neli Zabala's magnanimous colors,
Andrew Erpe's dreams in pigment, Dante Enage's social statement..Putting their works on exhibit told
me that there is no difference between Curator and Chef.
V. The MOON (Reversed): In the Gallery I encountered the partnership of Honesty and Trust. How rare is
their circle of friends! Most of my business moves were to be exercised with caution.. Yet I got worn and
torn in places, no matter the caution. Won some friends and lost some of them. As Noli says to me: "You
will know who your real friends are in this business." But I always had these two partners in Mind.

2. VI. THREE of CUPS: There was always fun, novelty and success. Like that Cynthia Alexander gig. I didn't
care much about the expense of bringing Cynthia to Tacloban.. It made the Music Crowd of Tacloban
happy... I, in turn, was brimming! Then there were other productions the Gallery put up: Karangya,
Gypsy Nights, Juu Hachi and Gallery Gigs with partner and kindred spirit Noli..
VII. KNIGHT of CUPS: Friends from Cebu sacrificed to keep the Gallery alive. What they were trying to tell
the Art scene was that Artists should have a Body of Works to sublimate Art...Rudy Manero swam in
with his brush with his underwater scene paintings. Husband and wife Celso and Fe Pepito came to
show the Essence of their Partnership...marital love is not enough to them...Surrealist and Portraitist Eli
Manongas sent in his drawings of dreamscapes.. Bacolod artist Burog Alvarado gave a welcome addition
in pen-and-ink. My favorite Guru in Ananda Marga, Dada Dharmavedananda supplied the gallery shop
with goods from his travels in India, Tareq Shehata, an Egyptian Art Dealer, shared his papyrus and
frames..
VIII. QUEEN of SWORDS: I was Wallis Simpson. Do I have to have to sacrifice an efficient role as a
University professor for this? Shall I give up my efficiency and time for the Endeavor I love? I had to
divide my day into the mornings--the right hemisphere of my brain, my afternoons-to my left and the
evenings to the coordination of both. My cephaloneurons never stop...
IX. THE WORLD: I'm still in that never-ending process in trying to tackle the World Wide Web. The year
2005 will see me selling the artworks online. Doing business on line and using FedEx and DHL as VIPs in
the Gallery line-up. Sending Leyte paintings to the World! In the meanwhile, my latest addition to the
Gallery is a Music Bar which I call The Blessed Bum. Maybe on weekends my children could play their
favorite music and perform.. It's in that artform they have staked their playground.
X. The SUN: UnArtsy people I know tell me: "Give it Up!" "Close it down! You'll squander your money on
this stupid enterprise!" But NO. I will never give up. I unrelentlessly Move On. I'm proud to say that as
Synaesthesia Art Gallery Madam, I unrelentlessly kept it going these past two years, amidst passion, pain
and pathos in my heart and pocket..It may evolve, maybe..Perhaps to other realms of Art, but it will
always be towards our God-given senses...Something which has always been there but we never even

3. cared about to explore. So, like a Rooster crowing in this 2005 morning...Awake Tacloban! See, Feel,
Hear, Touch and Breathe!
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