HEART EVANGELISTA-ESCUDERO

Visual Arts

Something is inimitably different to the art of Heart Evangelista-Escudero. Or, if we’re being pedantic about this medium of her expression, we should be addressing her as Love Marie Ongpauco-Escudero—her given name, as well as her realization as a full-fledged visual artist. The skill and technique that she has honed since her childhood, even when left aside to pursue a career in show business, is still bold yet graceful; the narrative vivid as the colors that splash through the canvas. This time, however, there is a much more palpable self-assurance that jumps from the framed masterpiece. Needless to say, she has blossomed for the world to see and appreciate.

But it was never easy for the actress and artist, as during the early onset of her foray into the visceral world, she has been waylaid as just another celebrity finding something else to do. Make no mistake about it though, because she was in fact searching for a deeper meaning to her life then. And for her, art was the one that brought back the joy and color in her. “It was super hard. And I hated that, because there was always this connotation that ‘Oh, she’s painting now,’” she says of separating herself from the two worlds. “That’s why I decided to use my real name and sign it off as L.M., because in the beginning, I wanted to have an exhibit and not introduce myself as Heart. [That way], there would be less judgments and they would really just see the painting.”

Since then, the world from the Philippines to as far off as Hawaii began to really see her, the woman who was more than just the larger than life persona lording over billboards and making the tills ring in box-office returns. Then and there, we not only fell in love with the art of Love Marie, but her soul as well.

“With my paintings, you’re always going to think, not everyone will agree that they find it pretty the way you look at it,” she says of the inevitable self-doubt that tails her every now and then. But she reassures herself that the art that she does is more for her rather than an audience. It is her diary, so to speak; we just get to get to see it in brush strokes and textured paint. “I’m just going to keep on painting until I’m really old,” she says, smiling. “That’s the goal—and whatever great happens in between, then that’s a blessing.”—ARDC