Almost There!

Nestor Ong sits in front of an unfinished painting and starts to work. Acrylic is mixed with a frenzy, brushes slap the canvas, and an image slowly forms. Books, sketches, CD cases, and vodka bottles warmly embrace the room. The clutter hides a subtle harmony. This is the room of a very busy man. And that's an understatement. Nestor is a father of five and a grandfather of three. He owns a Persian cat named Spree and at one time, owned three cats and ten dogs. He loves lizards (has 11 lizard tattoos), he loves music (has a 6,000 LP collection and a 4,000 Cd collection in Manila), and he loves the color black (his laundry is said to absorb light). Above all, Nestor loves art. In Fact, he loves art so much that he built a successful advertising career (more than 20 years experience) working in multi-national ad agencies like JWT, McCann Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi and Euro RSCG. And when he's not at the office being an award winning Creative Director (Silver and Gold Sword Award, Saatchi Ad of the Month, Shortlisted for Saatchi Poster for cannes, Nominated AD&D), he's actually at home being an artist. A surrealist, to be exact. He paints, he sculpts, he writes poetry (lately, he also explores short film making) - cite any creative expression and he will surely dabble with it like the curious lizard that he is. After spending the week doing something creative, he spends what left of his free time spearheading exhibits, viewing art films, and starting art discussion groups. He organized in Dubai "Los Indios Bravos" (a full Filipino artist group), "Pinxit Society" (a multi-ethnic artist group), and when he started doing digital painting he started "Do Androids Dream in High Res?" (a group of digital artists). When he got sick of all the crap on television, he formed "Cinema Obscura", a group of art film enthusiasts that meet every friday to watch and discuss obscure art films (done by dark horse directors like Gaspar Noe and Parajanov, among others). He is also a founding member of "Filipino Press Club Dubai", a social club formed by Dubai based Filipino journalists. And he still finds time to manage a beatnik band - "Sal Paradise". Where he gets all the energy to do all these is a mystery. Some say that the stress from working overseas sparked an insatiable hunger for creative expression. Some suggest a mad quest for absolute immortality. Or maybe the man just gets bored too easily. But Nestor has no time for crazy talk. He pauses to allow the paint to dry. Another canvas replaces the previous one, this one almost completed. Between the rhythmic sounds of bleeding acrylic, Nestor grumbles- "So much work to do so little time left..."