Heart’s artistic bags
Her fans might know her as Happy in GMA Network’s primetime program Juan
Happy Love Story. Others know that she’s a host and an actress but Heart Evangelista is an artist, first and foremost. As a very young girl, she turned the walls of the family home into her canvases, scrawling whatever came to mind. Her parents may not have appreciated the budding artist’s “talents” at such an early age but this did not deter her, and she continued drawing and painting well into her teens and 20s.
Now 31, Heart — or Love Marie as she also likes to be called— is the wife of Sen. Chiz Escudero, and an accomplished painter with four solo exhibits and a handful of artistic collaborations under her belt.
Although she has been painting for 25 years, she was initially wary about exhibiting her work and inviting public scrutiny. “When I painted, I really didn’t think of doing it for anybody else,” Love Marie said. “In fact, I was afraid because I became an artista. I didn’t want people to raise their eyebrows at me and think, ‘O, now she sings, then she paints or whatever like that.’ But I’ve been painting all my life.”
About two years ago, she took the leap and staged her first solo exhibit at the Ayala Museum. I am Love Marie: The Art and Works of Love Marie Ongpauco was a declaration — “I am here and I am an artist.”
Her two succeeding solo exhibits in 2014 and 2015 followed the same vein by including her name in the title: Love Marie and Love Marie: A solo exhibit of a world-class Filipina, Love Ongpauco were held at the Galerie Joaquin in Manila and the Chan Hampe Galleries in Singapore, respectively.
She has also collaborated on a children’s book with Rocio Olbes, evening gowns with designer Mark Bumgarner (LMxMB) and a book of poems with author and lifestyle editor Arnel Patawaran.
Love Marie provided the contemporary style paintings for the two books as well as for the dresses for Bumgarner’s fashion show. “I’ve done sculpture, I’ve done other media but at the moment, it’s just taking a bit more time because as an artist, I’m very serious with my work. Someone told me, you have to come up with an exhibit every year for five years so you can get the message across that you are serious,” Love Marie said.
She still has two more years of that self-imposed schedule but she’s not letting it bother her. Instead she has started painting on the exteriors of luxury bags including a number of Hermes bags, both hers and those of others who entrust their bags to her. The result is truly personalized, one-of-a-kind bags. “My painting on bags started out by my wanting to be different,” she said. “Nowadays, anybody can just have an Hermes bag. I just wanted to be unique.”
She has since painted over 50 bags with almost all of them (46 to 48 according to her count) Hermes. “I have a few more waiting for me,” Love Marie said.
Unlike other artists who have to be inspired to create, she has made painting a part of her routine. “Life is my inspiration. Before, I wouldn’t paint if I wasn’t sad. But now, you know, it’s the highs and the lows, and the normal days that get me painting and in the mood. It’s really also about discipline. I can paint every day.”
She accepts that there will always be naysayers but then again she will have none of that. “I appreciate and I’m super-duper thankful that the people that have their bags painted really appreciate my work. But the bashers, I have no space for them and they don’t exist in my life,” she said.
There seems to be no stopping Love Marie. She said she is intent on “developing my brand and venturing out into other things like perfume, make-up and home. I have so much in store. As a woman, as a wife and eventually as a mother, I have so much that I plan to create and to share with my fans and people that are watching the Love Marie brand.”