Visual artist Benedicto Modesto started his career in art early. He has won national art competitions held by telecom giant PLDT and industry leader Metrobank as early as his college days. With these awards also came his alma mater’s, the University of Sto. Tomas Gantimpala ng Kahusayan (Award of Excellence) presented only to a select few who brought honor to the school.
From that point onward, Modesto became a full-time instructor in the academe and started forming his multimedia services agency. As Creative Director and founder of Mind Tap Studios, he was one of the industry partner consultants in Asia Pacific College. He was instrumental in developing the standard curriculum on Multimedia Arts for the school, a new field of study mandated by the Philippine’s Department of Education in early 2000.
He later proceeded to secure his Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the Philippine Women’s University.
EARLY INTEREST IN SOCIAL REALISM
Modesto gravitated towards social realism issues as a student and later maintained this inclination throughout his professional career. His exposure to the works and principles of art maestro Renato Habulan, a known socio-realist, influenced him, as is his natural tendencies to critique and be vocal about matters that ill the Filipino society in general.
As creative director of Mind Tap Studios, he headed the creation of animated editorial cartoons for SMART Telecom and Inquirer.net under the brand Mobytoons. Albeit short-lived as the period was during the infancy of mobile video streaming in the country, his efforts were bold and true to his beliefs.
It comes as no surprise that some of his recent works once again tackle critical socio-realist issues. Issues that span from political inaction to environmental concerns.
A TIME CONTINUUM
In between the early period of his art career and his recent activities, Modesto’s decision to become active again in the field of fine art is a challenging rebirth. He tries to make amends with his past by following his creative calling and picking up where he left off decades ago.
Modesto aims to include technology in, what he calls, his immersion to pure artistic pursuit as he continuously masters his strokes and adapts to the new era of fine art.
