I met Mark who greeted me all of the sudden when im fanning my river-profusing sweat. We talk abit about Singapore Bienalle which he and Mayumi is going, and he mention that 98B would love to invite me to give a talk about my work soon, which is awesome. Then i walk around slowly and absorb the surroundings, the goods sold, the craft and art stuff, the artisan. I stop at this stall that's selling Philippino's art signages. The last time i was scared to talk or ask him, i've been wanting to ask about the meaning of the signages he created. From the beginning when i came here to the Philippines i was already smitten by the Jeepneys art, the airbrush and the sticker arts on Jeepneys, the traditional ice cream trolleys or my friend Naomi called 'dirty ice-cream' was really fascinating me. They're so vibrant and interesting.
His name is Fabo introducing himself to me while shaking my hand firmly. Then he gave me a stool to sit down while i concentrating browsing through his signages on the records. He's still got some leftovers from his previous artmarket neatly arranged on the wall, after i ask for each one of the meaning, i ended up buying 1, which says 'House of love' or 'Tahanan ng Pag-ibig'. The newer stuff that he has is the writings on the vynil records, and after asking for their meanings, i bought 3 of the small vynils with writing that says 'Music is our weapon' or in tagalog 'musika ang aking armas'. I think maybe this is a perfect gifts for friends who are musicians back home.
Fabo told me about his history, surprisingly he was an art director in a few ad agencies, what are the odds, meeting another artist selling his goods in art market with advertising history? He use to be working in this agencies in the Philippines Mccann Erickson, Y&R and a few months in Publicist in Dubai, before coming back to the Philippines because he missed his family so much and participating in art market for fun and to promote his artwork and his children's drawings. Which i bought 1 of his son's drawing printed on a thick card. I Shared with him some photos i took on Jeepney's art and asking him if i could meet the artist or maker of the Jeepney's sticker art. He said he can help ask around for me especially the ones near my place or area in Cubao but he warned me to bring a trusted Philippino friend if i don't want to get cheated, but for sure he told me that they charge per color. Most sticker art on Jeepneys here have basic colours like Orange,Yellow,Red,Green, Turquoise and Blue and i can imagine my art recreated by the artist in this form of sticker art, i hope i can find it soon. Maybe i can commission maybe 3 pieces for the future exhibition. He also explain to me the difference between Jeepney's signages where in North they use black background and the South where he came from they use white background, its some sort of identity that naturally forms between the art of the north and the south.
Because i bought quite a number of his artwork, he gave me a free postcard of his artwork a Jesus riding a bicycle and a Buddha hitching a ride, its cute and quite similar to my character doodles on bicycles. Lastly before i left, he shook my hand firmly and i move on to the next stall and the other and the other, and ended up bought a comic zine from a local artist and also a postcard by this illustrator girl, i ask her to put her name on her postcard illustrations as she didnt't sign anything but its a cute picture of tye-dyed rainbow shirts on clothing lines, bought 2 for friends back home.
Then i walk back to 98B stall and met Mark again and he introduce me to the rest of the 98B members and i ended up buying a couple of his silkscreened-birds-purses, 2 tote bags and an old nofx tshirt in the old thsirt bundle which cost only 20Pesos = RM1.50 sen
I ended up eating my late lunch at the same place again called 'Tropical Hut', local fastfood but not as processed as McD's. THe menu set is quite similar to other local fastfood joints, mine is always Bangus fish, egg, rice, simple as that...and lotsuv chilli sauce and vinegar for the kicks.
The whole journey is tiring. coming here and going back. I message Dindi that i can't make it for the party that night, and later i found out that its her anak's birthday party, they cook 4 whole chicken and veggies for me, probably Dindi wanted to me to feel bad for not coming, yes i do feel bad i couldn't make it to her anak's birthday party but i gotta rest and promised Dindi i spend the whole of Sunday with her and watching a movie together the next day. 1 destination per day here in the Philippines if you don't want to burn out of flat out or soaked in sweat.
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