Tempest Drawing

Joel Geolamen won for Mindanao in the Philippine Art Awards (2013). He learned painting first before the alphabet; and the skills were honed further in grade school as his classmates asked him to do their art projects. In high school at Maryknoll High School of Sto. Tomas in Davao del Norte, he polished his skills, excelling in various art competitions both local and regional. But even then, he was craving for more than drawing and painting to express his thoughts and ideas. At the age of 15, while still in high school, Joel found a medium that would match his unbounded creative ideas. And it happened by accident... "A photograph I was holding got wet by accident. And that instant I discovered its color sequence. I then played with the four layers of color, deconstructing its images and creating my own images on its surface using an etching pen," he narrates. He was determined to perfect this new visual strategy after achieving his Bachelor of Fine Arts major in painting degree from the Ford Academy of the Arts in Davao City. At 18, his journey in art exhibitions began, supporting civic groups in the Mindanao region and occasionally traveling to - Manila, for further studies and art appreciation seminars. Geolamen's personally developed technique is a delicate creative process that parallels a surgeon's hand in operation. He gives artistic meaning to the simplest of things and is able to transform them into sublime motifs for his delicate art. Since his first solo exhibit, Geolamen has gone a long way, widening his artistry to film via cinematography and art direction.