‘The artist in me really just started to become alive — again’

In her own words, Love Marie Ongpauco Escudero, better known as Heart Evangelista, shares with us why to her the pandemic is a relaunching of the world and a relaunching of oneself

“The pandemic has affected me and my art a lot. In the beginning, I guess, like everybody else, I was just adjusting to the pause. But I think, in a way, I had been so busy I didn’t know I needed this pause and so I have been painting continuously. The only thing is I’m running out of oil because I’ve been painting a lot. But I’ve been doing a lot of creative things, like redecorating my house, moving things around, trying to make the atmosphere happy and inspiring and just uplifting.

I share a lot of the same fears as other people. What is going to happen next? How is this going to affect my livelihood? But I try not to allow myself to think too much because I’m prone to having major anxiety and it’s just not going to help. You really have to just live in the moment, one day at a time, and, at this point, just cherish whoever is around you, your family. You can’t help thinking about the worst but you should also think about what matters the most.

All that’s happening is an awakening for a lot of people, especially those who are on the go, especially those who are working too hard and maybe not living enough. It’s also about our environment, our eco-system. Everything is on pause and yet the world is busy healing itself.

What’s happening is a rollercoaster of emotions, but I feel there is a reason for everything. While we focus on finding the vaccine or anything to put this to an end, we should also just try getting better, healing ourselves. There's not so much we can do about the virus, except to avoid it, but there are many ways we can do to get better, to heal in every way, to prepare for what’s going to happen next. Eventually, with hope, the scientists will come up with something to end this crisis.

In the meantime, let’s just take a deep breath. I guess this is a relaunching of the world and maybe also a relaunching of yourself. Now is really the time to contemplate and see what the world, what the universe is trying to tell you. It doesn’t help if we panic. Everybody is online, everybody is communicating. Communicating with your family and friends will help you a lot.

As a result of the pandemic, the ‘I try not to allow myself to think too much because I’m prone to having major anxiety and it’s just not going to help. You really have to just live in the moment, one day at a time.’ artist in me really just started to become alive—again. Aside from taking photos on Instagram and creating my own content and editing for my YouTube, I find myself doing a lot of creative things, including costume parties that the kids, Quino and Chesi, just loved, as did my houseguests. Discovering TikTok has also been amazing.

Also, express yourself in art. See how art can move you or distract you from distress or how art can bring the best out of you. I notice that my paintings have been a bit muted these days. I feel it’s a bit because of the drama that’s going on around us. In a weird way, I find beauty in sorrow and the way my colors have been coming out, I like what’s happening. I’ve always been like this anyway. I find something beautiful about my emotions, no matter how dark they are, and I translate all that into art.

I love fashion. Everybody knows that. To me, it’s a creative outlet. Even now, with Covid-19 having changed everything, I still sometimes take refuge in dressing up at home as a creative exercise, just to get things off my mind, just to have some fun.

What I realize about fashion while we are in crisis is that it’s come to a point when it is too much already. Such excess! I hear a lot of designers were also, you know, just tired of season after season after season. With what we have, I think, we can already be happy and content. There’s more fun mixing and matching anyway. It’s more creative. I feel that designers will be creating collections that are all connected to the last season or derived from seasons past, really creating pieces that we could use again and again. I’ve always believed in that anyway. The future is all going to be about sustainability.”