I’ve been meaning to meet Francis since last year, but maybe the time isn’t right or my resolve was not that strong, that’s why our meetup was always postponed or on hold. Until this April.
“What will you do when you meet people from your past?” someone asked one time. I shrug to anything and everything that is related to the past especially if it was two to five years ago. “Some of the greatest persons in the world were never really ready” so they say, and I deem that to be true in all aspects of life. So, I never really prepare myself for situations like bumping into someone from the past or intentionally meeting them.
Last year, after leaving the corporate world, I wanted to start reaching out again, and find myself along the strokes of a master. I often started the conversation, only to leave them on read or with a cliff hanger of whether we will meet again or never again. I guess I was far from “almost ready”. And just like a domino effect, meeting one person (from the past; Nami for instance) after another, I ended up insisting on meeting with the first person I intended to reconnect with from the start.
“Francis Alingkayon. A contemporary artist.”
This post will become too formal if I introduce him that way here, so let’s leave it at that.
Francis was one of the people whom I first met way back 2016, along with the rest of the local artists. I fell in love with his works when he was still starting, because they were steampunk and odd shapes. Now his works are even more interesting, trippy, and just like Alice in Wonderland, I am diving into a new adventure with his every piece.
The photos above: 2021. With Francis and Jelly.
I visited his place again. Letting nature and art sink in, I am keeping myself as calm as possible, trying hard not to weep. I missed this scene. I missed staring at a piece for hours, listening to the voices of the artists around me. I missed the smell of coffee and liquor together, sipping them simultaneously, like it is the most natural thing in the world. The last time I was here, I was with Jelly, taking photos and having the greatest conversations of our lives. Now I laugh, but with the emptiness beside me I sigh with the thought that I am quite alone again in this journey.
What will come out of this encounter, I wonder.
One thing I hate and love about myself is my workaholic brain. Because, despite my emotional state of late, ideas flow like waterfall that I cannot once again control and limit my mind to particular things. My eagerness to share Francis Alingkayon’s works to the world is now making me list every possible way of showing him off as a global artist.
The photos above: April 2026.
For now, we’ll have to bask in his works. I don’t really know if his art style is to your liking, but to me, it is magnificent in its own ways, and that I am attracted to the emotions that his works bring out in me.
