Jay Harrold Hidalgo has been visible in the art scene for past decade as an artist who continually explores different ways of visualizing meaning through alternative materials and form. One of his series integrated strings and yarns to convey the paradox of freedom in entrapment; another assemblage places six-part paintings in a box, imparting the non-singularity of thought. In his recent series, Jayo sojourns in the Northern part of Luzon to uncover gems in a historic culture that not only produces a wealth of tapestry but also a well of interactions with people and traditions. This creative process places the artist as creative archivist, keeping notes and tracking insights from a perspective of the convoluted now. A current interest in incorporating the masterpieces of heirloom gatekeepers is elevated by Jayo’s fascination with words, scribbles and visual montages. Jayo embeds in his works some phrases, riddles, doodles and randomn Vigures to emphasize the non-linearity of thought. These paintings are a dramatic display of the multifacetedness of contemporary thought as related to our country’s rich colonial history, extremely transnational present, ubiquitous presence and complexly unpredictable future. Seemingly attempting to record the current moment wherein remnants of our past is still possible to trace to get hold of a disarrying time ahead, Jayo is the artist-archivist who is conscious of his duty as part of art history, contemporary times and, at all times, this nation.