The Museum of Contemporary Art and Design held a 3-session online writing workshop with Mr Budjette Tan, writer of Trese. For three Saturdays beginning 15 May, 25 participants had three-hour sessions facilitated by Mr Tan to work on an original piece. Their works were responses to Meg Cranston’s instructions which is part of do it (MCADManila).
Workshop sessions begin with Budjette Tan using Trese and his other works , showing participants possibilities of structuring stories, how to draw inspiration from ordinary objects, and to address some challenges the participants faced while working on their pieces. Some of the exercises he gave them were writing a 2-4 page story where characters discuss their fears without naming these and a 4-page story about a haunting. He gave them guidelines as well to help them with the feedback sessions when participants were placed in different groups to discuss their works.
In the discussions, Budjette Tan also shared tips on conveying emotions and thoughts of characters, working with artists, and publishing based on his experience as well as that of writers he admires such as Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore.
Stories written by the participants during the workshop are available to read and download here.
About Budjette Tan
He supposedly grew up in a haunted house and was told to sleep early
because there were aswang outside their bedroom window. Who would’ve
known that these stories would later influence and inspire him to write the
comic book TRESE, co-created with artist Kajo Baldisimo.
Their comic book is a three time winner of Best Graphic Literature of the
Year in the Philippine National Book Awards. (2009, 2011, 2012)
He is also the writer and co-creator of “THE DARK COLONY Book 1:
Mikey Recio and the Secret of the Demon Dungeon”, which also won the
same award in 2013.
Budjette was a co-editor for Alamat Comics, The Lost Journal of Alejandro
Pardo: Creatures and Beasts of Philippine Folklore, The Black Bestiary:
An Alejandro Pardo Compendium, and the upcoming SOUND: A Comic
Book Anthology, which features stories from Southeast-Asia (co-edited
with Charis Locke, published by Difference Engine).
He now lives in Denmark with his wife and son; where he works as one of
the Creative Lead in the LEGO Agency. By the way, his name is pronounced “budget”, but please don’t ask him any questions about finance.
About Meg Cranston
Contemporary artist Meg Cranston who primarily works in sculpture and painting, as well as other media such as video and performance. Graduating with an MFA at the Californian Insitute of Fine Arts, Cranston has also been trained by notable conceptual artists; Huebler, Asher, Baldessari.
Adopting a “conceptual approach to art-making” from her teachers, the subject of her works have also been described as teetering between autobiography and anonymity. For example, in one of her installation pieces Magical Death (2002) exhibits personal themes – an implication of “artist as martyr”- as Cranston organises a display of piñatas cast from her own body.
Her recent works have been exhibited at the Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, Germany, The Getty Museum and MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Los Angeles, K21 Museum, Düsseldorf and ICA, London. A recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Cranston is also a currently the Chair of the Fine Arts Department at the Otis College of Art and Design.
