"The UNICEF representative saw my works at my one-man shows and picked the ones he deemed suitable for reproduction on UNICEF cards and even jigsaw puzzles," said 54-year-old Baldemor, who held his 116th exhibition in Metro Manila earlier this month. "I did not have any say on the UNICEF's choices. In fact, I ended up buying back from collectors the paintings reproduced on UNICEF cards."

Baldemor's "Stars of Good Blessings" exhibition in early December saw him put on display the original paintings seen on UNICEF cards. Galerie Y's two showrooms, one in the Megamall and the other one in the Glorietta, invited the art-loving public to see Baldemor's cheerful depictions of Christmas festivities.

Clusters of Christmas lanterns called "parol" in Tagalog dominated most of the paintings. Also highlighted was the church worship or midnight mass associated with traditional Philippine Christmas observance.

Baldemor called attention to the "misa de gallo," the nine-day novena requiring the faithful to hear mass at the break of dawn or at the first crow of the rooster. This old practice culminated with the sung Christmas Eve mass.

Filipino values like the giving of importance to the family also found their way into Baldemor's mostly acrylic paintings.

In some of his designs, Baldemor incorporated other Philippine festivals like the Lukban Harvest Festival with town residents tapping their agricultural produce as decorations on the facades of their homes in mid-May. The Carabao Festival in Sariaya, Quezon province, also landed on one exhibited painting.

Baldemor has since 1990 given away the reproduction rights of 15 paintings as his generous gesture of helping poverty-stricken Filipino children through the UNICEF. The price of each UNICEF card has varied from year to year. It has been pegged usually to the cost of one vaccine at the moment, according to Baldemor.

Over one million greeting cards featuring the masterpieces of Baldemor have been sold over the years, thus helping UNICEF raise the substantial gross amount of 23,418,550 Philippine pesos for UNICEF's charity projects.

Baldemor also has created a mural titled "Pasasalamat (Thanksgiving)" in the lobby of the UNICEF building in Vienna, Austria. He began the work of art, using mixed media, in his own country but completed it in Vienna. The work was finished off with "lahar" or volcanic sand from Mount Pinatubo, which Baldemor brought all the way from the Philippines.

Baldemor was born in Paete, a Philippine town known for woodcarving. In fact, he himself is also a sculptor who likes working on wood. For example, his "Bunga ng Kasipagan (Fruit of Hard Work)," circa 1992, was carved on narra wood. "Filipino Family" was a camphor wood piece he did during a sculpture camp in Japan in 1999.

Baldemor travels a lot, sketching and painting as he blazes a trail around the world. He has received many grants from different countries. His trips have always been capped by exhibitions. Jottings from his journeys eventually find their way to a regular column in one of the most widely circulated Philippine dailies.

The talented, hardworking and friendly Baldemor makes an ideal Philippine participant in the international exchange program of the Taipei Artists' Village. Major festivals in Taiwan like the Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival will without doubt make Baldemor's fascinating painting subjects.