MANILA, Philippines - Painter Joey Velasco’s new paintings on oil bring a renewed and continuing dimension of moral awareness and a deep spiritual purpose — the glint of hope in the eyes of a dying child, the physical decline of an old man that shows us what it means to be on the edge of a grave and the hand of Jesus that makes us realize He is omnipresent in our lives.
The interplay of themes of redemption, hope, suffering, light, sorrow, joy, death and life in his new paintings are all raised to the scale of epic.
In Velasco’s hand, the suffering of a sick child becomes a reality, so that when he paints the face of a weary, despondent child stricken with cancer, we know what it means to hang on a thread of hope.
In his masterful strokes, we come across Jesus as a savior who will lift man in his deepest penury.
In his newest works, we see how Velasco anchors his faith in God now more than ever.
His new paintings are currently on exhibit at the SM North Edsa ground floor under curator Grace Pascual.
His exhibit titled Kenosis was organized by Jack Marohom of Creatif Foire, Inc.
Velasco is best known for Hapag ng Pag-asa, a modern retake of the Last Supper of Jesus with hungry street children. The children he used as models are real-life street urchins and scavengers.
But Velasco has done more — beyond painting a scathing social reality, he reached out to his poor models and gave them hope and life through Gawad Kalinga (GK).
He has since come a long way in his journey with the poor after painting Hapag ng Pag-asa.
In his newest works, Velasco aims again to be the conscience that serve both as mirror and window.
“As mirror, viewers are surprised to see themselves in the obras; as window, they widen the viewers’ vista, inviting them to soul-search in the place they are being led to,” Velasco said.
The important facet of Velasco’s paintings has always been the presence of the Divine God.
His paintings put God at the heart of everyday life — Jesus deeply engaged with humanity.
His paintings inevitably draw in a quiet, deep kind of participation like for instance Lingkod where a physically challenged child washes the feet of an exhausted Christ.
“Viewers cannot help but plunge themselves into the mysterious world of physical disability and then comprehend that in this other-reality is a place of innocent and unsullied compassion,” he said.
He said his exhibit titled Kenosis, a Greek word which means self-emptying has been an invitation to him as a visual artist “ to be like an empty blank canvas, flat and seemingly insignificant; in total surrender to whatever He really wants him to paint.
One of the underlying themes in Velasco’s exhibit is on the art of living and dying, the dramatic play between darkness and light.
“It is in my lowest moments that God is always in control. My struggles as a painter, trials as a person just lead me to nothingness, so much so that all strokes come from His hand,” Velasco said.
He said it is in this spirit that he wishes to share this new collection.
Velasco’s 12 new collections speak so clearly of these dimensions of man.
“The subject of my works is about this dreaded word called death.”
He tackled the subject of death in his painting titled Bravehearts on kids dying of cancer.
“This obra is meant to honor the brave children in the cancer ward. They cannot play under the rain like other children do. A single IV tube could wrack their frail bodies with unimaginable pains. But when someone journeys with them, they shed that lambent glow. Jesus undergoes chemo with them, I’m sure. They may cry together but they can laugh together too with their Friend reassuring them: We’ll get through this together.”
There’s also a painting about an old wheel-chair bound man who is in the terminal of his life but “is filled with so much life. The painting is titled Alay kay Berns.
Velasco admitted that he has been reflecting on the certainty of death since the time he painted these canvases.
“A big lesson I get from this is learning how to breathe deeply, sucking the marrow out of life. Ah, the breath of life. The free gift we take for granted,” he said.
Velasco also cited a painting about a man slowly losing his sight and the unspeakable fear of that realization.
“A lot of things come to mind after doing the last strokes: That I may See is a painting about Mang Crispin gradually becoming blind with all his fears given his limited amount of time to experience light. My own realization of the freedom and courage that time gives to one whose time is clicking away, to do the things I want without fearing what other people would say, realizing that there is nothing left to lose but regret after all.” he said.
He said painting has been life-affirming to him since the time that he started it in 2005 when he got sick and had an epiphany. And it’s not just an artistic journey now but spiritual as well.
He said he feels connected to the canvas and his creativity now than before.
His relationship with God, not just his illness has sparked that creativity and it became a vehicle to reach out to the downtrodden.
“Nagkaroon ako ng chance in faith to see Him in every person. Kaya that’s the subject and theme of my paintings. So nung nangyari yun, masyado ako na-overwhelm dahil many things have been happening in my life, nagkaroon ng meaning yung buhay ko,” said Velasco.
“That’s why yun tuloy-tuloy ngayon, there’s a consolation in me still going back to the darkness, to that damp well, but not to remain in that darkness but to feel again the consolation of one hand holding on to the paintbrush and on the other hand, reaching out to the other people who might still be in darkness, for us to see light together,” Velasco said.
“It’s an ongoing journey, dito ako nabubuhay, it’s been light-giving for me the past couple of years. That’s why I’m painting people who are apparently in darkness but then there’s always the element of hope in them, kids with cancer, disabled, self-giving despite being incomplete, tuloy, tuloy ito, to keep on sharing with people,” Velasco said.
In the end, Velasco said he remains just a paintbrush being used by the Divine Master who reveals Himself and His perfect will.
One of the most important lessons Velasco learned in the arts is “to paint as though it were your last.”
“Life is short. Live with passion. Live a purposeful life. Leave a legacy. Unless we accept this truth, we can never really truly live because we will have the tendency to take time for granted as if our days are without limit. I am equally guilty of squandering time, as I am always destructed on non essential things, that I miss on wonderful awakenings,” he said.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important realization I’ve ever had to help trigger God’s gifts. Because all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — all these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. There is no reason anymore not to follow your heart.”
Velasco advised people to make up the most out of their life.
“Time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become,” he said.
He lives by the adage that “there is no mountain big enough to climb or heights to scale and that anything is possible in life.”
“It’s really up to us if we want to create a masterpiece out of our lives. Today, I choose to breathe in more deeply, more passionately and start living life,” he said.