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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Junn Gesmundo pours his imagination into his art.

"I like the freedom of painting,"he said. "Imagination is just endless. When you do something that you love it feels so good."Gesmundo moved to Yellowknife from Iligan City in the southern Philippines at age 10. He fell in love with painting in Grade 10 at Sir John Franklin.

He plays with various styles, but concentrates on slick, stylized portraiture in colourful acrylics on canvas.

He painted a couple of reproductions of the famous 1960 Alberto Korda photograph of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara on canvas and on a t-shirt using textile paint.

"I think Che Guevara is a pretty cool icon," he said. "I read some of what he did on Wikipedia."

Gesmundo celebrates other heroes in acrylic including Rastafarian legend Bob Marley and NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

He is also inspired by graffiti art.

"I love graffiti," he said. "I hate the fact that society thinks it's vandalism.

" It's a form of art and a way of expressing feeling and emotion.

"It's creative and it takes time and effort."

Although he never tags illegally, he said he longs for opportunities to create on a concrete canvas.

"I would like for Yellowknife to have a graffiti wall for artists that's legal and that artists can use to translate the images in their minds," he said.

Last year Gesmundo travelled to Nicaragua on a mission trip with the Calvary Community Church to help build a church and establish an eye clinic in El Volcan. Gesmundo has since decided to pursue a career in community service.

He plans to study social work and art history at Mount Royal College in Calgary next year.