about me

My Profile picture is a self-portrait (11x17, pencil, pen and ink on paper), and is the illustration for my poem: "My Anthropomorphism To A Leaf" found in chapter 4 of my book "A Traveler's Soliloquies, A Collection Of Poems, Illustrated!"

I am a self-taught artist. My love affair with poetry started when I was a kid memorizing poems by listening, and eventually learned to write poems by reading as grown up.

I am from the Philippines, so my country gave my earlier written poems a sense of place. In 2006, I moved to Chicago and work a full time job as a nurse but I spend happier moments doing my arts and writing.

My first poetry collection: "A Traveler's Soliloquies" are some of the poems I wrote from 2003 to 2011 and are illustrated in paintings and drawings. The cover page is the illustration for my poem, "Unrequited"(11X17 pencil pen and ink on paper), and is found in Chapter 7 of the book. Please note that the poems in this anthology are illustrated, but I'm limited to publish only the poetry part of the collection.

My paintings are conceived from my poems. In poetry, the words are my brushstrokes to create imageries in those times when I still can’t afford the painting materials back in the Philippines. Poetry still serves me well now in my study for painting subjects. All my paintings are titled because they are clear in my mind’s senses before they took form on canvas. Many of my paintings complete the circle becoming poems. My brushstrokes are the words I use to conjure imagery in the mind’s senses.

And when I think of it ~ this circle of my poems becoming paintings, and the paintings’ metamorphosis to poetry ~ I am enlightened that there’s really no single strand that separates them. Sketches and drawings are my scribbling: my drafts. Each completed painting is a finished poetry.

It is my commitment to my craft to achieve such seamless fusion of my paintings and poetry, for both are conceived and born from my heart.

I wish you well.

~ Jeques

favourite books

my websites

http://jeques.wordpress.com/