"It might be a disorder in some people, but I find it orderly in the arts."

Ted Nudgent Fernandez Tac-an, creative/art director of the Educational and Digital Center at La Salle University-Ozamiz, shared that his journey through the arts can be called a love-hate relationship. “Art makes me crazy!” he exclaimed.

Ted went to the Singapore Intercultural Theater Institute as one of his backgrounds, delving into performing arts. Meanwhile, since he learned how to walk, he was already the performer in the family.

It was his parents who introduced him to be the center of attention, putting him in make-up and making everybody happy, he shared.

But his journey through the arts was not smooth, in fact, this developed into a paradox where he loved performing but was also sad because there was no opportunity for him to grow in the field, as told by his mother.

“A bit of sadness because when I was in elementary school, my parents wanted me to focus on sciences and mathematics, so I was deprived of the arts, but still, because they don’t know that I have joined different organizations, I am still in the arts,” he laughingly shared.

Further in high school, Ted enrolled in a special science curriculum, or STEM now, although he really wanted to audition to the Special Program of the Arts (SPA), but my mom was very mad, saying there is no money in the arts; why enroll there?”

So, Ted focused more on sciences and mathematics in the science curriculum, but still every afternoon, he goes to performing arts.

“I carried that in my university years. I studied mathematics education, which is very far from the arts, but then again, Teatro Guindengan, a resident theater company of La Salle University in Ozamiz, was with me through my college years,” he said.

A parallel universe of logic and disorder

Ted became a math teacher. He taught math to high school students—a very good one, in fact, because students would come back to him saying he made them understand math easily.

But art is in his heart. “It’s not the same,” he said. He would find satisfaction in his students performing arts and enjoying the stage, whereas, the impact of being a math teacher takes a long time. So there is this parallel universe, the logic of mathematics, “I am not saying that there is no logic in the arts,” said Ted, but the order in the arts is kind of different.

Art is a process and a product, said Ted, emphasizing the importance of a skillful process to make or have an outstanding masterpiece or product.

“Expressing to continue further, expressing or communicating man’s greatest ideas, thoughts, imagination, or emotion, so there is this process, there is this product to express my thoughts or man’s thoughts, emotions,” he said.

On art as purpose

During his exit interview at the Singapore Intercultural Theater Institute, his answer to the question on purpose is to really come back here in the Philippines and become a farmer.

“From a theater school, I wanted to be a farmer,” he said. In fact, every weekend, farming is his gift for mental escape. He would tend to their farm in the province, making him feel very relaxed and content. But in the arts, “I actually don’t know what to plant, what seeds to plant,” Ted shared.

Maybe it is planting seeds of appreciation, he shared. “But not just appreciate, but value art,” he explained.

He shared that because there is so much that is put into the art, whether visual art or performing art, it is not enough to simply appreciate, but more importantly, to add value and put a price on the art. “Pay for the tickets!” he said, not just asking for free or complimentary tickets because this would greatly help artists as fuel to improve further their craft.

Finally, advocate art in this part of the country so that it could be one of the pillars to move forward, he said. (JMOR/PIA-10/Misamis Occidental)