There’s silent courage in the eyes of Kristine Lim. In her voice is a calm surrender. In her soul resides peace. All these and more are found in her art — and her mission.
Kristine is an artist on a mission. She is the founder of the Artists on a Mission, an advocacy project that deals with art workshops. The project is also dedicated to creating art centers in partnership with local communities and churches in the country.
“Artists on a Mission (deals with) two things. First, it is what I consider myself to be. I’m not only a visual artist but I’m also a missionary,” she begins, adding that she uses her skills and talents not just to create art but for the greater glory of God.
“Second, it’s a project that I founded. I have always been an artist but it was during my high school days, while doing charity work at Payatas, that I decided to follow my calling to be a missionary as well. Even before being a Christian, I would always conduct free Bible studies and art workshops for children and even for other artists,” says Kristine, who finished Fine Arts, major in Visual Communications, cum laude, at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. She also attended the Galvez Atelier Art Workshop and Fernando Sena Art Workshop.
She says her works can be found at the lobby of the national agencies such as the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Public Works and Highways. Some of her works are also part of the National Archives of the Philippines and the Presidential Museum and Library at Malacañang.
What makes Kristine a soulful artist is that she is “wounded.” But she chose to heal with her art.
For 10 years, she went on a hiatus from the art scene. When she recently decided to pick up her paint brushes again, Kristine came back renewed and transformed. Surpassing her failures, battles with her mental health issues — “I’m clinically diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder” — and the death of her three-month-old son, John, in 2020, Kristine is now a full-time missionary visual artist. She is armed with a mission to evangelize through her works and all her projects and programs, as well as to “champion sustainable living, Edenic living (a support group for people who are into plant-based lifestyle), mental health, and patriotism.” Missionary and charity work is her armament to combat life’s challenges. And with Artists on a Mission, Kristine has found solace and fulfilment teaching art workshops to orphans and marginalized sectors of the community.
“I have been doing charity works for LGUs and NGOs for more than a decade. My heart goes to the children, especially those deprived of opportunities… I pray that the efforts of everyone who is part of Artists on a Mission, for the next years, will provide a new batch of artists, who will also use their God-given talent for the bigger purpose to serve others,” she says.
In “Soar,” her exhibit last year, one eye-catching painting is entitled “Surrender.” It’s an eagle at full rest looking upward with eyes replaced by a mirror. “That eagle was me during the last few hours that I had with my son John. I knew he was about the leave. I just held his hand, prayed and told God, ‘I surrender John to you and I will always praise and magnify You.’ As a mother, that was my biggest turning point. God showed me how to really walk by faith and not by sight. He showed me how it felt like to really accept the line, ‘Let Your will be done.’ God taught me to just put my trust in Him no matter how terrifying and painful it was. It was the moment when I realized John and everything that I have in this world were and are never mine,” she says.
On Sept. 27, Kristine, together with composer Jonathan Manalo, will launch “Kwento ng Alon” or “As Told by the Waves,” an art exhibit with the launch of the coffee table book of the same title at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The exhibit and coffee table book will also be launched in several venues in the Philippines. There are also plans to launch the project abroad. In this endeavor, Kristine interpreted select OPM songs composed by Jonathan through her artworks, like the songs Patuloy ang Pangarap sung by Angeline Quinto and Gusto Ko nang Bumitaw sung by Sherin Regis and Morisette Amon.
Aside from spearheading the Artists on a Mission workshop that teaches new generations of artists by sharing the gospel through art workshops, Kristine also founded NGOs like Christian + Collective, JKL Foundation, Operation Mobilization Philippines, and Sustainable PH.
Currently, Artists on a Mission workshop is using art in trauma-debriefing seminars to children and families who are affected by the recent typhoons, and those who are experiencing challenges brought by the pandemic.
“This is just one of the many examples of how God can use talents and skills beyond what the industry has been used to in terms of what art is about,” she says.
Beyond her art, who is Kristine Lim as a person?
“As a person, I’m a sinner who falls short every day. As a daughter, I used to be a rebel but I always try to be better and to show my parents that I love them. As a wife, I’m not a typical kind of wife but I’m a loving wife. As a mother, I can be anything or anyone for my two kids, Justine and Judah. I can be many things depending on who you talk to… But all that things that people or even myself can say about me doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters about who I am is what God thinks of me. Only my Creator holds my identity and it is found in Christ,” she says.
She says her faith is not connected to any religion but “definitely I have a relationship with Christ.” She doesn’t have much to say about her faith “because words are not enough to explain something that’s beyond our understanding.”
“That’s what faith is all about. It goes beyond our words, the things that we know and see. My faith is my confidence not because of who I am but because of who God is,” she ends.
Kristine Lim embraces her art the way she embraces her mission in life.