The Idea started on AIM.

Started in the summer of 2000, while chatting on AIM with some friends online, John Marie Abaya had an idea. An idea that combined artist he knew on one site, a site that they can showcase their talent and get feedback from their audience. At the beginning the site only had family members. The original name was Abaya Arts; the title was created by using the family’s name and associating it with different medium in the arts. With very little knowledge in building and designing websites, John created most of the site on Geocities, at the time a web building tool from Yahoo. From there, John, Benjamin (John’s twin brother), John Nino (His Nephew), and other various family members added artwork, writings, and pictures onto the site.

It wasn’t long until they got a small audience by promoting it on AOL’s AIM and on various chartrooms. At the time, they had a small audience from various people around the world that actually contributed feedback by commenting on these artwork and other mediums they showed case. While visiting various social networks like Asian Avenue, John befriended old friends that found the site as a way to keep in touch with the Abaya family as a whole.

After a few months of promoting, John was introduced to various artists that wanted to help and contribute to the site. From that point an alliance was made with the new artist. But instead of just adding them under the Abaya Arts umbrella, John wanted to create a new identity with the newly formed alliance.

Artistic Alliance was born.

The sites mostly focus on half a dozen artists that John knew personally. The first idea was to have artist showcasing only artwork they created, but also associate a type of split personality perspectives to them. In other words, do something that you think that another side of you could have made. The idea was fresh but never really took off. At this point, Artistic Alliance was the umbrella that held Abaya Arts and another new group of artists called TBS. The name TBS originated from Benjamin E. Abaya and his love of Hip-Hop and Graffiti.  TBS is acronym for Tag Base Styles and it was created late 2001. Throughout their High School Life, TBS created many hundred pages books that featured unique and creative artists. But at the time, Artistic Alliance also wanted to do spread to a more digital medium like video and music.

At the end of 2001, another crew was formed but with a new identity and medium. Pek Squared Production was created by Fritz Encina, Gianne Javier, Larry Khong, and Alvin Khoo. Pek Squared focus on the video side of Artistic Alliance. They were known for funny and hilarious videos that focus more on a mature humor. Pek Squared was the last piece of the puzzle that Artistic Alliance needed.

Since then, our main objective for our site is to inspire the creative mind.