Walang Pamagat 14, pen on paper, 1999

Island Spice Guadalupe Posada 3, pen on paper, 1995

Island Spice Guadalupe Posada 2, pen on paper, 1995

Island Spice Superstar, pen on paper, 1993

Island Spice Guadalupe Posada 1, pen on paper, 1995

MANILA -- Before he was Damaso, before he toured us around the most historic places in Manila—with his barong, abbreviated trousers and jazz hands—and before he was maestro of the first Manila Biennale, Carlos Celdran was a cartoonist.

He began his career at 14.

The husband of his aunt Patis Tesoro, the Filipiniana designer, got him a job under the legendary cartoonist Nonoy Marcelo at the old Business Day. Carlos would deliver his works every week to the newspaper offices by hand. He would take the bus from Dasmarinas Village in Makati to the EDSA Business Day offices next to Philamlife. When Nonoy moved to another daily, The Manila Chronicle, Carlos would take the the bus and LRT to Port Area.

"It was inspiring for any bohemian," recalls Carlos of working for Nonoy. "First time I saw weed was in a matchbox on his drawing table. I opened it up because I needed a light for my cigarette." The cigarette, by the way, is Philip Morris which he bought by the stick on the bus to the Chronicle HQ. "I felt like such a rebel."

Carlos was then the youngest member of the Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas.

He kept the cartoonist gig all the way until he left for further studies at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992.

A post shared by ARCHIVO 1984 (@archivo1984) on Jun 11, 2018 at 6:50pm PDT

Carlos also completed a Fine Arts degree at the University of the Philippines—which brings us to the current show of his works at the Archivo Gallery in Makati. Entitled "Drawings: 1983-2016," select pen and ink pieces from the show are from a school project back in the day.

"They were T-shirt designs from my past life as the illustrator for Island Spice." He sold the shirts in the UP College of Fine Arts "to make extra money" until he and his sister Anna opened Island Spice, that iconic souvenir store, in Greenbelt 2. Anna provided the capital and Carlos was in charge of concept and illustrations. "It was a lot of work but I got paid P15,000 a month. A fortune back in 1991."

Of the images in the Archivo show, the jeepney drawing was inspired by his daily commute as a UP student. "I did a lot of black and white drawings about jeepneys and life on the streets of Manila that I saw on my way from my home in Makati to Diliman," says Carlos.

While employing Philippine elements, the other images were inspired by book covers done by the Mexican printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada. "His works really resonated with me especially the themes of death and the La Calavera Catrina [a drawing of a female skull sporting only a hat in the European style]."

These days, Carlos is known more as the Manila Biennale impresario, and the storyteller of Imelda Marcos’s foibles and fantasies via the touring one-man-show “Livin’ La Vida Imelda.”

He is also raising funds for a sculpture playground for the kids of Intramuros and continues his guided tours of the Walled City. Good to know that the love and fascination for Manila embodied in his works as a young man still stirs the work Carlos continues to do.

(Drawings: 1983-2016 is ongoing until June 27 at the Archivo Gallery in La Fuerza Compound, Pasong Tamo, Makati. 'Livin’ La Vida Imelda' will be having its last performances on June 15 and 16 at the Mirror Studio, 5th Floor SJG Center, 8463 Kalayaan Ave, Poblacion, Makati -- right next to Mary Grace and Steps Dance Studio.)