Tess' natural interest in the visual arts borne from family ancestry- great grandfather Aurelio Tolentino, a poet and writer from Pampanga, and Nemesio Dimanlig Jr. who was a portrait artists and the lone philatelic designer of his time, was awakened when she joined Pasig Art Club in 2008 after some two decades of sojourn in New Yor and California where she attended drawing and graphic art classes.

Her studies in the College of Fine Arts and Architecture of the University of Santo Tomas, workshops with Filipino master realist painter Romuilo Galicano and world renowned Portraitist Rommel de la Torre further honed her skills in handling different mediums whose infinite possibilities she finds challenging. Having variety of subjects containing scenes and still life she also does portrait finding the opportunity to capture character as really something to aspire for.

Currently the club president of PAC, the oldest art collective in Asia established in 1957, Tess keeps the members active with group and joint art exhibits and facilitate workshops with the Fernando Amorsolo Art Foundation, Lipeno Youth Artists Club, the Pasig City Museum and other community art projects. She is also a founding member of the Portrait Artists Society of the Philippines.