Honored to be among this group of artists selected for the KALA Veterans Residency Program. When I was awarded the KALA Fellowship I was the one veteran they selected to be a Fellow for 2023-2024. I've been working at home getting my ideas flushed out so when I begin making work in January 2024 I can hit the ground running.

I haven't been able to get to KALA to begin working since I received the fellowship. Life took over and you know how that goes. But this past week I finally made it and began scanning images out of a souvenir book from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Since I don't have Adobe Illustrator, I also cleaned up a vector file of my art from the Manila Men vest made at the Joan Mitchell Center in NOLA. I'll be using this art to make silkscreen patches on heavy material and sew them on more suit vests. I'd like to have a collection of older Filipino men in NOLA wear them and get their photos, but that may be a reach. Will see. Anyway, I can't wait to finish my drawings on zinc and plastic plates so I can start making drypoint prints next time I'm at KALA.

I was invited by Edmund Arevalo to show a piece in the Tambayan Collective's exhibit, You Are Welcome, featuring a number of Filipino artists work in Los Angeles.

In July KALA formally announced the nine recipients of their 2023-2024 Fellowship and I'm happy to say that I'm one of them. I'm looking forward to creating new work during my residency there in Berkeley, primarily printmaking and silkscreen.

Today is the day I'll be de-installing all my work at Martin Luther King, Jr. Tech Academy in North Sacramento. Yesterday I was interviewed by Education Reporter, Sristi Prabha with Capitol Public Radio. Sristi's working on a feature story about Twin Rivers Unified School District's Artist Residency Program and my experience with the 1,500 seventh graders that took field trip to visit the two galleries on the MLK campus. 

Our last Twin Rivers School District Tour ended the middle of April. We did around 35 tours and spoke to close to 1500 seventh graders within the school district. It was a great experience and I hope to somehow stay involved in some capacity when I can.

My awesome docents! Thom, Matt, myself and Juliet. Zahra was out the day of the photo.

For my birthday my wife planned a trip to drive the Mississippi Blues Trail. We started in Memphis then made our way south visiting Clarksdale, Greenville, Indianola, Avalon and back to Memphis. We visited around 40 markers, listed to music and stopped at the gravesites of some major blues musicians. It was an amazing trip. My highlife was visiting the grave of Mississippi John Hurt near Avalon in a wooded area. We also visited the grave sites of Robert Johnson, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Charley Patton, Sam Carr, Jessie Mae Hemphill and Memphis Minnie.

Last week was our first full week with 7th graders coming to MLK, Jr. Tech Academy to tour the two galleries and meet myself and the docents, Juliet, Matt, Thom and Kahara. They've been great!

I had a bit of anxiety in the beginning, but this week I feel like I'm finding my groove and the students have been pretty engaged. I'm learning a lot about working with students and I'm learning a lot about myself too. I'm glad that I can give something of myself to this community and the kids. Keep moving forward!

In December I was selected as an artist in residence working with Twin Rivers Unified School District in Sacramento County. Three classrooms at Martin Luther King, Jr. Tech Academy had been converted to gallery spaces when artist Milton Bowen was working with the district. I selected works that addressed my identity and Filipino culture as well as being good examples for the students to learn from. In one gallery I installed a  case which included my sketchbooks so they could also see my process. That gallery also includes work in various materials. 

Seventh graders district wide will be coming to the gallery over the span of the residency totaling about 2400 students. Game time begins this Monday morning 2/6.