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 I was actually quite late for this interesting artists’ talk. Blame Metro Manila traffic on payday Friday. Thank goodness I was just in time to witness multidisciplinary artist J Pacena II’s recounting of his Japan expoits.

I have no idea if J already recovered from his illness — he was complaining about fever, colds and coughs — but he sure looked really genki when he was speaking.

If it isn’t obvious from this blog’s and my username, I am addicted to almost everything Japanese. So I always ask J about his Japan trip. He really was so fascinated by their customs.

Here’s one of the sample Japanese works he flashed through the projector. This is as far as my zoom could catch.

My design partner, Cris Dumlao, and I stayed at the back with renowned curator Noel “Nuki” Cuizon and talented creative director Wesley Valenzuela. They look really focused here.

A good number of Manila’s artists were in attendance. Who wouldn’t be riveted by the topics? Tutok artists have always discussed timely and socially relevant issues.

Cris quietly conversing with Nuki and Wes. She hasn’t seen Nuki for more than a year and this is the first time she saw him after she arrived from Canada.

I wonder if she promised him that we’d be active in the art scene. Though I doubt we would be in the same circle — since we don’t plan to concentrate on Manila — I would really love for them to visit us sometime. They’re some of the nicest and most respectable Manila artists around. It always feels like such an honor to see them during events such as this.

Here’s hoping to see the next Tutok!
おめでとうございます, J-kun!