Unvanquished

This was how Lydia Velasco’s solo art exhibit was billed. How apt.

The doyenne of Filipino contemporary art, Lyds (a former colleague in the ad industry and a beloved friend), was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. She’s been in and out of hospitals for surgery, treatments, and chemotherapy since.

It was blow when she first heard the prognosis; she worried about her art. Is this the dead end?

No, Lyds decided to take a different route—fight. She continued to paint . . . and paint . . . and paint, even if she was feeling faint. I visited her one day and she was resolute: “Despite my condition, I am working on my next solo exhibit. It will be about my battle with this dreaded disease.”

Unvanquished she is.

Through her series of stunning works displayed for the public, she shows a different Lydia—a relentless pilgrim through several stages: despair, denial, anger, fear, and struggle. These are vividly portrayed on huge canvasses.

But more than those, she depicts hope, beautifully, stemming from her faith in our Maker’s grace. These magnum opuses are offered as healing gifts to those who might likewise be suffering from cancer or any life-threatening illness.

She is likened to Frida Kahlo (a famous Mexican painter) by Cid Reyes, art critic. In Lyds Unvanquished brochure, penned by Cid, he quotes Kahlo, “I am broken, but I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.”

At the well-attended opening of her solo exhibit, where I re-connected with old friends, Lyd’s defiant paintings prove that her art remains unvanquished.
  

 

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(Note: I handed CSM’s gift, in native bayong, above, to Lyds for generously sharing one of her painting’s faces for the cover of The Other Cheek. She cheerfully signed my copy, also above.)