A Thousand and One Lives
| A Thousand and One Lives | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Elito Circa |
| Year | 2015 |
| Type | Hair, Blood and Oil painting |
| Dimensions | 182.88 cm × 365.76 cm (29 in × 36 1⁄4 in) |
| Location | DepEd Division of San Jose City, San Jose, Nueva Ecija, Philippines |
A Thousand and One Lives is an oil on canvas with strands of hair and blood by a thousand teachers and the Contemporary and folk painter Elito Circa. Painted on January 28, 2015, it depicts the dedication for teaching, with the addition of an idealized image of an educator. [1] [2] It is considered the first of its kind in the whole world.
The mural was previously titled “1,000 plus lives” and was later re-titled A Thousand and One Lives, which purports to show it is about the teachers and supporters of education. Central to the mural theme is the education of the person, first with the help of his or her parents, and then of the teachers from kindergarten to tertiary education.
“With our DNA in it, it is an immortalization of the teachers’ lives in the transformation of our pupils through education.”
The Painting
The artist Elito Circa, also known as "Amangpintor", incorporated blood and hair of a thousand teachers in a mural painting for their new building. Circa, who is known as the International “blood and hair painter”, suggested incorporating their blood and hair in the conceptualized theme of the mural with a general content of the mural “Nobody Left Behind” from the motto of DepEd San Jose City Division superintendent Teresa Mababa. He said that the shedding of blood for what one is doing is a very high expression of love. It connotes great sacrifice, he said. In the 6-foot-by-8-foot canvass, two-inch quadrants were assigned to the individual teachers of the schools division.
By schedule, each of the teachers pasted their blood on it and incorporated some strands of his or her hair on it with the use of oil paint. Each of the teachers, who had their annual medical checkup, asked the attending nurse to place an extra blood in their respective vials to be used for the painting. It seems they felt that their lives is encapsulated in this mural. They put in their DNA to express dedication to teaching. Amangpintor completed the painting when all the teachers in the division and others concerned had pasted their blood and hair on the quadrants in the canvass.
References
- ↑ "A Thousand and One Lives TV 5 feature". TV 5. TV 5 Website. 2015. Retrieved 2015-01-30.[permanent dead link]
- ↑ "Teachers paint mural with own blood, hair". Punto. Punto Central Luzon News Paper. 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
