Social Realism With A Touch Of Hope

CEBU, Philippines -  His works are dark, and almost always, invoke a feeling of desperation, a sense of pity. It brings out an emotion so strong that shedding a tear or two is but an offering that will serve as a complement to the painter. It is not a surprise because, after all, his works all depict the sad reality that hounds Philippine society today. These are realities, which most, especially the affluent public servants, refuse to recognize as they satiate themselves in the opulence of a US$20,000 dinner.

Despite these sad realities, artist, or heartist, as he would like to be known, Joey Velasco is sending a message to his audience, and that is hope; that with the seeming hopelessness of our life, there will always be a lifeline if we put the Supreme in the middle.

At the age of 21, Velasco was already a successful entrepreneur. He was juggling different businesses – real estate, manufacturing, trading – and was blessed with financial success. He is also blessed with a loving wife, Marie Queeny Puno Sunga, and four children – Marco, Chiara, Clarisse, and Marti.

But his life was centered on his wealth, until finally, the Supreme called on him in a most unusual way. In 2005 he was struck with a life-threatening disease. His life crumbled, and he locked himself in his children’s room. For him, he was dead.

“I felt suffocated. I started blaming God,” he confessed.

One day he looked up and said: “Lord, give me a rope, and even if that rope has thorns or glass, I will grab it.”

Instead He dangled a paintbrush, and that was when his mission and passion was awakened. “I was born again at that moment,” he said in an interview with The FREEMAN at the Casa Gorordo Museum (35 Lopez Jaena St., Cebu City).

The gripping reality of Velasco’s works serves as our mirror to societal problems. It allows us to once again search inside us, to realize our role, and to revisit our relationship with the Supreme.

A self-taught painter, Velasco had already mounted 48 one-man shows and two group shows, all in the span of three years. His works had made the rounds of galleries, universities, churches, and government offices. He aspires to also reach public school students, and for this he reveals that a visual center will soon be erected where everyone could view his works anytime.

Velasco’s works are grouped into four series, each containing up to 14 paintings. Each series is displayed in different places in order for him to reach a wider audience. He reveals that the series grows as he would paint something new based on the strength of his experience and interactions with people.

The first series of Velasco’s works composed of 12 paintings was recently brought to Cebu courtesy of the Salesians of Don Bosco-Social Communications Office. The exhibit is called Jesus: Ang Ginoo Uban Nato (Jesus: God with Us).

One of the paintings on display is Hapag ng Pag-asa (Table of Hope, oil on canvas), which came with the following story:

Ten year old Emong is the boy drinking juice and sitting next to Jesus. I showed             him a Hapag reproduction. Excitedly, he pointed at the man breaking bread and said, “Uy si Jesus. Nakita namin sa kalsada yan, pagod at gutom kaya niyaya naming kumain… minasahe at pinatulog” (We saw Jesus in the street. He was     tired and hungry, so we invited him to eat… and (we even) massaged him and         made him rest). Such a cunningly powerful message from a boy. This is a banquet of poor kids who invited Jesus to dine with them.

Velasco said that the painting describes him in more ways than one. “These children are broken. They gathered on this table kasi gusto nila maging buo with Christ (They gathered on this table because they want to be whole with Christ). This made me realize my role in life,” he said.

Velasco’s paintings are Christ-centered, literally.

“My firm belief is that something divine is around us despite the darkness,” he said. “We can’t deny that we as Filipinos are crawling in the dark because of so many things like corruption and extreme poverty. But despite (all these) there is hope, that is why there is Jesus,” he added.

Velasco pointed out that his paintings depict Christ in a very Filipino and familiar setting. “This works are a fresh look on Jesus, together with Filipinos,” he said. “No matter how people brand us, I want Him to be with us always, which is the reality.”

And so we see in these exhibit Jesus in all faces of the country’s social reality: Jesus raising a torn flag, symbolizing the 400 years of exploitation, poverty and strife; a child looking and actually holding the hand of Jesus as he was being nailed on the cross; Jesus with a young man in prison; Jesus dining with farmers, two of which, the story goes, were killed while cultivating their land; Jesus being lulled to sleep by three children with down syndrome; or children carrying the dead body of Jesus and looking heavenwards thanking God for the gift of Christ.

 Velasco’s gift is his ability to see Christ in every dark situation that our society is in, and his gift to us is the message of hope, the chance for us to see our sad reality so that we can something about it.

Velasco’s works was displayed at the Casa Gorordo Museum until August 14; it will be in Ayala Center Cebu until August 21.