by Reynaldo Padua
Born in a country that was still pulling itself up from the ravages of World War II, Reynaldo had to make best of what chance and circumstance could supply. At age 7, he learned to make his own play-things from cast-offs : bottle caps, scrap wood and string which fashioned into toy cars. He later turned his native creative instincts into replicating the tin lunch-boxes left behind by American troops who helped liberate his homeland, the Philippines, from the Japanese Imperial Army. He decorates the lunchboxes from surplus metal, with images of family and folklore. (At the fair Reynaldo was represented by Angelica, April Anne and Maria Luz Padua.)
