Press Release
"My Eyes Have Seen" painting was featured in Sept. 19, 2017 issue
Of California Tri-City Voice
"Wake, Sleep, Repeat: Repetition in the Everyday"
Adobe Art Gallery, Castro Valley, California
May 20- July 8, 2017
(De)Centered, An Exhibition of Filipino American Artists
Westwood Art Studio (WAS Gallery) , Washington DC, May 13-June 16, 2017
Included in the 2017 Filipino American Artists Directory by Janna Anonuevo Langholz
Burlington County Times
September 26, 2016 Issue
Awarded Best in Show, The Perkins Annual Open Media Exhibition, Perkins Center for the Arts, Moorestown, NJ
Burlington County Times
September 26, 2016 Online Edition
ARTlead cites five of the best artists who have been posting their current-year artworks in the art Facebook group on a monthly basis.Lead artworks for July 2016 are: Rainbowmaker by Marlin Lopez, Emancipation by Larry Carumba, Feast by Rex Beo, Indak by Wellers Vicencio and Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer by Iwag Palattao.
For the consistent high quality of their works and artistic accomplishments for the month in review, the following members are also cited:
JAIME TORRES. Defying his limited knowledge in digital arts, Torres’ visions are born out of sublime moments of imagination and dreams, aimed to inspire and encourage creativity and to enjoy the thought process of discovering visual ideas thru layers of forms, colors and textures. Although there are times he thinks sin allegories and abstract semantics, still, his old school quest for beauty must prevail over the predictability of the absurd.
Flora, his cited digital art for the month, says it with flowers, love or longings, unspoken desires and daydreams. Torres often challenges himself to project insignificant images or subjects, the mundane, the common and ordinary, its own beauty in a different light or visual experience wrapped in digital love.
ZORRICK ENRIQUEZ. Being in the world of art is like having the time of his life by discovering new ideas through his own artistry and interaction with experts he met along the way. Enriquez knows to be on the right track on making his own mark. But for sure, he took baby steps in reaching that goal including active posting of artworks in ARTlead. As of July, believing that he’s making out something valuable through his career, he heard a loud bang when he was announced as champion in an art contest in Lipa, Batangas. It was that same in high school when he finished champion in an art contest.
ALJUS ANDRES. Calling his photography My Street Art, curiosity leads Andres to take pictures wherever footlose takes him, from the streets of his beloved Binangonan to as far as Baguio or Bohol. Posting in ARTlead in July 2015 the photos entitled Synchronize (Urban landscape), Chrysanthemun, Panata Munting Paraiso sa Aking Isipan, Laro, and Go on Peace that was cited as his best work for the month, he woke up early Sunday morning, his mind set to go to church in Angono, Rizal. After the priest sad, “Live and go on peace,” he set his lens to take photos of people outside, capturing a funeral procession.
ULYSSES DUTERTE JR. In the process of building his portfolio of favorite subjects — kids. Duterte Jr.’s main subjects are children of his relatives and friends. The kids always remind him of his happy upbringing having been brought up by loving parents who instilled to him God’s high moral standards. His current paintings show how kids in the current world are so vulnerable to negative influences without the proper guidance from parents and God’s word. He hopes that viewers would see the importance of guiding the kids from infancy and up. He hopes to complete 24 paintings in this series.
ABE LUNA OROBIA. Orobia started July with participation in the Perya exhibit by Canvas Gallery at the U.P Vargas Museum. Jaime Ponce de Leon of Leon Gallery selected his painting entitled The Virgin of Ferris Wheel (Ang Unang Perya) to be part of the upcoming auction. He ended it with the group exhibit entitled The Wall in Altro Mondo Contemporanea at Greenbelt 5 with two oil painting entries To Love Deeply (Tatlong Sisiw ng Pangarap) and Flight. All stated paintings were posted in ARTkead. Attending a faculty curriculum development workshop in Development Academy of the Philippines in Tagaytay from July 13-15 he topped the Student Teacher Assessment Report in college of Saint Benilde, School of Design and Arts on an average of 3.80 with the perfect score of 4.0.
SCHOLASTIC: CHAMPIONING ENHLISH READING IN THE PHILIPPINES. “From 1.0 million, books read through the Scholastic Readers Program increased to 2.6 million the following year,” revealed Frank Wong, President of Scholastic Asia, to Lead during an exclusive interview during the awarding ceremony of the 2016 Readers Cup held at the Isla Ballroom of EdsaShangri-la Hotel on Aug. 4.
“The Reading Program comes with a comprehension check that the reader has to undergo after reading a Scholastic book,” explained Wong to ensure the books read are understood.
With 159 reading partner schools in the Philippines in the Assessment and Enrichment Program for Reading and the Independent Reading Program, Scholastic provides schools with a supplementary Reading program that assesses students’ reading comprehension levels, matching each child with the right books, monitoring independent reading, and enriching classroom reading instruction.
The Scholastic Readers Cup, now in its fourth year, is a champion. Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of English children’s books, is behind this inter-school competition that promotes books and reading.
The highlight of the event was the awarding of the 2016 Readers Cup winners. The schools that read the most number of books in their category (based on student population) were declared winners. The Scholastic Readers Cup champion schools for 2016 — St. Paul College Balayan (28,972 books read), Saint James Academy (80,688 books read) and Dr. Yanga’s Colleges, Inc. (104,248 books read) — each won a Reading Center make-over to make their library an even more inviting place for pleasure reading.
School principals and program coordinators were also recognized through the Scholastic Principal and Coordinator Achievement awards. Winning educators were from schools that achieved the highest average in books read for every student, and the most improved in terms of their students’ reading comprehension skills.
For the grade school with the highest average number of books read per student, Sr. Maria Yolanda Caridad Orpilla, SPC and Joy Magahis, principal and program coordinator respectively of St. Paul College Balayan, were awarded. Students of St. Paul College Balayan read an average of 91 books each for school year 2015-2016.
For high school, the awardees were Fr. Erwin Aguilar, OSJ, and Nora Beleno, principal and program coordinator respectively of Holy Family Academy. Students of Holy Family Academy read an average of 108 books each for school year 2015-2016.
For schools with the most improved students in terms of their Lexile (reading comprehension) growth, the top winners for grade school were Bryan Riddin and Maria Elena Camatog of International British Academy. For high school, the top winners were Dr. Danna Manding and Jayson Esteban of Mother Goose Special System Inc., Urdaneta.
The Readers Cup also celebrates and recognizes the contributions of librarians with the Scholastic Librarian Achievement Award given to the Scholastic Reading Center Managers of schools with the highest average of books read per student. Top awardee was Avelina Villadores, the librarian of Holy Family Academy whose students read an average of 96 books each for school year 2015-2016.
The Daily Tribune
13 Answers: UlyssesDuterte Jr.
· Written by Edgar Cruz , Saturday, 21 May 2016
(Buzzstation celebrates a Duterte in this issue as it starts a series of interviews with Filipino visual artists entitled 13 Answers using the question-and-answer format. An invited artist is e-mailed 20 art-related questions and selects 13 to answer. US-based artist Ulysses Duterte Jr. inaugurates the series. Ulysses finds an unverified blood relationship with presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte, but as his answers show, a love of the visual arts is in his genes.)
The Scriptures apply not only to erotic love (eros), but to the agape love, which is “based on principle.” It preaches that if we apply Agape Love in our daily lives, we will always watch our words to preserve relationships. When salt is used in the right amount, it will preserve food for human consumption.
This is the message of Duterte Jr.’s 12" x 9" acrylic on canvas board Let Your Utterance Be Always Seasoned With Salt (2016).
When dealing with everyone, Duterte Jr. explains, it is vital to follow the apostle Paul’s counsel: “Let your utterance be always with graciousness, seasoned with salt.” (Col. 4:6) Such tasteful, appropriate speech is essential to good communication and peace.
Good communication does not mean saying everything you are thinking and feeling at any given moment, especially if you are upset. The Scriptures show that uncontrolled expression of anger is a mark of weakness, not of strength.
The Scriptures commend the exercising of restraint and discretion, or good judgment, when we speak. “In the abundance of words there does not fail to be transgression, but the one keeping his lips in check is acting discreetly.” (Prov. 10:19; 17:27) Yet, discretion does not mean never expressing oneself. It means speaking “with graciousness,” using the tongue to heal rather than to hurt (Proverbs 12:18; 18:21).
Duterte Jr. starts off this column’s “13 Answers” series of interviews with visual artists where it sends 20 art-related questions and the respondents chooses 13 questions to answer that will be published here verbatim. Works by the artist will be used to visualize responses.
As a visual artist, what is the one thing the public do not know about you?
That I am one of the artists living outside the Philippines. If we are given the same opportunities/shows given to Filipino artists living in the Philippines, they can be proud of their visual artists living abroad.
What training did you get as an artist?
I am a self-taught artist. As far as I remember, I started drawing when I was about three or four years old. I was the graduating class artist of the year both in the Elementary and High School. When I was in high school there was an art gallery attached to our school building which showed Fernando Sena’s works. I studied every detail of his paintings. I was also the youngest member of the Bicol Artists Guild way back in the early ‘90s.
I was able to show with Gus Albor, Renato Habulan, Justin Nuyda and Wilson Belarmino. I learned a lot from their works plus my frequent visits to CCP, Metropolitan Museum, Ayala Museum and other galleries when I visited Manila. I considered those visits part of my schooling. It gave me opportunities to study every painting on the museum walls. Madalas akong pagalitan ng guwardiya dahil halos dumikit ang mga mata ko sa paintings just to see how the artists painted in details. Promdi looking din ako noon kaya natatawa na lang ako noon kapag ang tingin sa akin ng nagbabantay sa museum at galleries ay mula ulo hanggang paa.
Walang Painting sa Fine Arts noon sa probinsiya so I took Architecture in College. I am short of one semester before graduation when I immigrated to the United States. In California I had the opportunity to show with Mark Justiniani, Joy Mallari, Papo de Asis, Alfredo Esquillo and Roland Distor. Again I learned a lot from them. My trips in the US brought me to major museums like the Guggenheim Museum, MOMA, SFMoma. Also I spent a lot of time in Louvre, D’Orsay Museum and Versailles in France. There I’ve learned a lot from European Masters.
Who is the artist who inspires you the most?
Jose Joya. I admire his drawing and painting skills. It was during that one week art workshop that Joya told me to keep drawing and to keep painting. Also his humble spirit and dedication to his work really moved me to concentrate on honing my skills. Sinundan ko ang mga exhibits niya. Nalungkot ako nang maaga siyang mamatay. When it comes to style, I like Salvador Dali. I attended his retrospective show in Guggenheim and there I saw his smallest to biggest paintings. Visiting his museum in France was a highlight of my tour.
What fascinates you the most about art?
Art can make you closer or farther away from your Creator. Many artists say, “they create” but in reality only God can create. We just recycle and use whatever God have created. So to show my gratitude to my Creator I make sure that my works are positive and that they can influence the viewers in a positive way.
Do you paint for money or pleasure?
That’s a hard question. Ito na lang…” It gives me extraordinary pleasure to paint but I want to retire painting.
Who do you think is the best Filipino visual artist?
Me. Just kidding. In a serious note I guess every “dedicated and humble” visual artist can be at his best, not needing a word of approval from others. I hate to see some artists of these kind being forgotten just because “businessmen” did not patronize their art.
Under what condition do you prefer to do your work?
Alone. I like to socialize but when I paint, I prefer to work alone.
Are your works Filipino in spirit?
Most of my models are Filipino in nature but my message is universal. There is no purity in art. Art should be universal.
Does criticism help you become a better artist?
Yes, especially constructive criticisms. I criticize my work too even destroying what I didn’t like.
How do you determine when an art work is done?
The moment one gets the message of my artwork and appreciated or hated it, I know my painting is done.
Are you a prolific artist?
I try to just now. Mahirap maging prolific artist if you have a day job here in the US. But after work I make sure I paint.
Do you associate with other artists to stay competitive or to socialize?
As of now, Facebook helps me connect to artists. It’s harder to socialize here in the US. Everybody’s busy.
What is the question you’d like to ask yourself and how will you answer it?
(Question:) Will my art contribute to a positive spirit?
(Answer:) There’s a lot of negativity in the world right now. I don’t want to be a part of it.
Exhibit Posters (Partial)
"Living With Rocks" One Man Show Poster
"Living With Rocks" One Man Show
Fremont, California 1999
