AS SOMEONE who appreciates and loves art, Sharee Mae “Chingkee” Te, the owner of Chingkeetea, started their annual two-day art fair where Cagayan de Oro artists showed off their works on August 25 to 26 at Chingkeetea Velez branch.
Dubbed as "Soft," the art fair is to give the local artists a venue to display their art, such as illustrations, photographs, music and poetry.
"Ang objective ni Soft actually is to gather local artists, to promote creativity, especially sa mga kanang mga bag-o pa gani, dili kay confident sa mga art nila. So naa silay murag place for it (Soft’s objective is to gather local artists especially the new ones so that they can have a venue for their art)," Te said.
Now on its third year, the event involves three highlight activities: the Makers Market, launching of KRNA's debut EP album: "The River Gold", and the released of their art zine "Indigo."
According to Te, around 14 to 15 local artists participated in the Makers Market, displaying and selling their artworks, prints, merchandise and handmade products in their respective booth for the visiting clients.
Carlo Ferruccio Ocier of Scribbles Studio, for his part, expressed gratitude to be a part of the few local artists featured in the art fair.
"We're very lucky as one of the few artists nga na feature diri sa ilahang event. Tsada sa feeling nga ma feature and then opportunity to sell our wares and our talents," Ocier said.
"Ga boom pa man gud ang art scene sa CDO (Cagayan de Oro), for me, so mas ma cater pa, mas ma nurture pa ang local art scene sa CDO with this kind of event," he added.
Meanwhile, the first issue of Indigo, a zine by various artists in Cagayan de Oro was released during the event.
The 10-paged zine consists of illustrations, photographs and poetry from local artists, including Chingkee Te, on the theme: "Not Then, Not Later."
"Na inspire ko sa mga international magazines na dili sya limited na puros kanang usual nga photographs lang. Gusto namo nga very interactive sya, like if mapansin nimo, naa sya'y mga postcards na dili kailangan nakadikit nga pwede nimo i-tear nga mga cards (I was inspired by international magazines who are not limiting to photographs. We wish for it to be interactive and if you noticed there are post cards that can be detached)," Te said.
"Hopefully sa next pud mas modaghan sya na variety like pwede ka magsulat, so very interactive sya. Yun yung initial namo nga plan for Indigo," she added, explaning that they were not able to follow the initial plan because of their busy schedules.
Through this event, Te said she was hoping that this initiative will give way for local artists to showcase more of their art, their skills/talent to the public.