When Michael Glinski aka Batuti has rented the space/warehouse of Debbie Toribiong where the stuff of the closed Image Restaurant were stored (including the piano), he hired me and James dela Cruz to improvise the place and make it like a gallery.
We used local materials (bamboos, local woods, corals, etc.) to make it a unique art place. Michael also produced a very unique aquarium where the carefully selected small fishes were put including the moving mollusk and brain coral.
He is closing the lights of the aquarium only at night time. He puts also many of his paintings around the place and on the walls where a realistic rain drop is so real that you will think that it's not a painting but real raindrops.
I remember one day when it rains very hard and there are some leak on the roof. We put some basin where the water is leaking. He had some rugs to wipe away the wet parts of the wall and floor.
When he finished wiping the floor and walls, I said to him, "Here are some more rain drops",--pointing to the real like raindrops painting. His reaction to it is like a reaction of every gay person like him. But it's a very good compliment by addressing the fine part of his art works.
The warehouse/art gallery didn't click as it is located not in the place where easily seen or near the main road. It is about 30 meters off the main road.
Finally, Michael was able to find a space/concession at Palau Royal Resort and it became more popular with his Palauan nickname "Batuti" as the name of his "Batuti Art Gallery". Batuti in Philippine language is pebble stone.
Michael rented a house about 5 kilometers from PRR. He asked me and James to do the tile flooring of that house. He pays us like what big companies are paying their workers. Sometimes, my wife Flor was given extra job with James working on handicraft/woodcraft being ordered by foreigners mostly Americans.
James, whom I called "Jack of All Trades", knows a lot of things but master of none. He is the one who designed the landscape of Palau Royal Resort with Lazar Tmechtul, his employer for some years, for $70,000.00. He showed me the artist's layout of that landscape with the names of the plants written in their scientific names.
Sources: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
December 29, 2002 -- January 07, 2018
Chess and Music (Perfect Combination)
The Beginning of Chess in Palau
By Roberto Hernandez
Soon to be published as a book
Music and Me by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
March 15, 2012 -- April 18, 2013
http://palau-chess.blogspot.com
April 25, 2013 -- January 07, 2018
The History of Chess in Palau
By Roberto Hernandez
June 09, 2002 -- January 07, 2018
Island Times Newspaper
Feature by Raquel C. Bagnol
December 28, 2006 -- January 03, 2007
