Imagination: Where Illusion and Reality Meet
After reflecting on grounding in art, the moment when the brush touches reality… it’s time to write about the other force that drives creation: IMAGINATION.
Artists live between two worlds. One is the physical world of materials, tools, and technique. The other is the inner world, where images, possibilities, and ideas appear before they exist. Imagination is what allows an artist to see something that is not yet there.
Without imagination, art would only copy reality.
But imagination is different from delusion.
A Quick Getaway to El Nido, Palawan: Sunsets, Coffee, Beaches, and Creative Inspiration
Last year, I lived in El Nido for six months without ever feeling the desire to fly out or leave the island. I didn’t need a long-term or work visa to say I was living there, and I never had to do visa runs because I wasn’t a tourist, the island is in my own country.
Recently, though, I only went back for a quick getaway. I usually consider any trip between two weeks and one month a “vacation,” so this one definitely qualifies as a quick escape. I also had a few things to sort out while I was there.
Sketching in El Nido
A snapshot from a session at one of my favorite coffee spots in El Nido. I go there for the captivating view and for a Filipino breakfast that’s actually worth it, without me having to touch the kitchen.
I realized the last time I drew hills or mountains was for a commission I did for a friend, an ink on paper, simple drawings, but it had my signature labyrinth-like lines. This one is more of a pencil sketch, unfinished.
Come Back to Now
The finale of the Snake Year was personally compelling. The universe has its own astounding timing. And frequency is real, in the most tangible, physical sense: something I witnessed in real life, with my own eyes, in an actual moment, not online, not symbolic, and not imagined. It felt deliberate. Unmistakably on theme.
I appreciated it. And then, I came back to now.
Coming back to now is a practice.
It’s not glamorous, not loud. It’s catching your mind drifting… and choosing… gently, to bring it back. Back to your breath. Back to the texture of this exact moment. Back to what’s actually in front of you. Now is where your power is, where your choices live, and where your energy gets to create.
“Sweet, Sweet Fantasy, Baby”
While doodling my unicorn again, I found myself thinking about fantasy. Not as magic, a pause button. Comfortable. And, at times, dangerous.
Fantasy isn’t always harmless. It becomes a problem when it replaces action. Fantasy gives the mind what reality hasn’t yet delivered: clarity, certainty, perfect outcomes. It lets desire exist without risk. Wanting without moving. Imagining without building.
The longer someone stays inside fantasy, the easier it becomes to delay real decisions. Action introduces effort, failure, and uncertainty. Fantasy protects us from all three. This is why fantasy fades the moment a person starts to act. Not because the dream collapses, but because growth no longer needs it.
Fantasy is useful when life feels unreachable. But presence begins when the dream stops standing in for the work.
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