Finding Direction

Four years have passed and I'm still at it. From that eventful exhibit at the Ayala Center Cebu, then at the Waterfront Hotel and City Sports Club-Cebu, I am now running my fourth solo here in KAHAYAG. Finally with a bit more ease at celebrating art in public places. Yet to where my art is leading to is still with no defined certainty. There, of course, is a goal. And that is for my art to flourish by creating an impact to people, whoever and wherever I bring it to. As an exhibiting artist, it is my belief that art holds a role in society, like everything else. An artist, therefore, is expected a moral standard if he, or at best his art, is to remain relevant in the community. Art can be a powerful medium if stroked with the right brush, just as electronic-media today has come to consume, or worse, control our lives. Though one is not obligated unto a particular philosophy of and for his art, he/she should be held responsible for whatever effect his/her art might cause. It is in this idea that I try to create a certain element in my work that either in the shade of intellectual angle or in aesthetics that somehow elicit a bit of positive emotion in the end, regardless of its approach. But as much as I contain a more narrow idea in an attempt to create cohesiveness with the collection, sometimes ideas cannot be prevented from splattering just anywhere. And when it gets too exciting, I put some restraint, at least keeping the visual idea hold together. This show in KAHAYAG practically recaps my journey over the three shows that I went through. It is making me pause and think to check on my “creative map”, where the best path for my journey is. I invite you to this journey… the journey that attempts to comprehend the direction that leads to my art. - July 2003