EVE-OLUTION:
The Women of Lydia Velasco
On Dec. 22, 2017, Lydia Velasco celebrated two births: her own, and the many women she brought to life through her skilful manipulation of line and color. Her exhibit “25 years of Velasco: Eve-olution” is more than a retrospective and a 75th birthday celebration—it is a commemoration of the creative life. Beyond paying homage to the instant the artist’s flesh and consciousness came into being, the collection revels in the stories of nameless faces on the canvas. Aptly titled, the collection does indeed follow the evolution of Eve and generations of her daughters, molded by toil and triumph.
“I paint what I know best—a woman of substance,” said Velasco. To this day, the women of Velasco continue to enthrall. Timeless, their allure is not solely drawn from their appearance, but also from the mystery behind their gaze. They are unabashed and at home with their natural surroundings. With expressive eyes, captivating facial features, and limbs that emphasize both the strength and beauty of the female form, Velasco’s brand of femininity is primal, raw, and almost ethereal. The underlying depth in the casual scenes Velasco brings to life reveals her unassuming commentary on women born from a deep understanding of her own experiences.
This comes as no surprise as throughout her own long and illustrious career, Velasco was no stranger to difficulty, which added fuel to her fire. “There are so many challenges,” she recalled. “As a woman. As an artist. As a woman artist. It’s my love of art that pushed me to pursue painting. Breaking through the art world is in itself a difficult task.”
Early on in her career, Velasco was one of the first female art directors. She worked in a number of notable agencies. “Imagine a 4’11 woman in the midst of a male-dominated company,” she said. “I needed to assert myself to be heard by these people. I needed to prove my worth to these talented people. Advertising was a venue in which I learned competitiveness and discipline.” This greatly led to her decision to focus on women as a subject matter in her creative endeavors. “I am very lucky to have learned from our greats, Cesar Legaspi , Nanding Ocampo, and the like. It is through these experiences that I molded my thoughts.”
These thoughts imbibed the women on her canvas with further depth represented in their unique aesthetic features that continuously evolved in an organic manner under Velasco’s skillful technique. This is evident in the body of work in her upcoming retrospective: “If there’s a common denominator, they have always been strong and vulnerable at the same time,” she said.
In view of her many accomplishments, Velasco’s humility and gratitude in being able to simply indulge her creativity is admirable. “Many people can paint but only a few were given a chance to showcase their work,” she said. “Thousands of hours in painting. Maybe hundreds of artworks. Only a few would be recognized. It is my love for my family, giving honor to my parents, and with hope, leaving a good legacy to my children that made me persist in spite of the difficultly.”
When asked about her creative philosophy, Velasco shared the approach she had always cultivated throughout her artistic life: “Pray for guidance. Do what you know best. Research. Paint. Pray to give thanks.”
To this day, Velasco still maintains a thirst for knowledge, driving her organic development both aesthetically, in terms of technique, and conceptually, in terms of subject matter. “I still learn every day,” she said, “I look at other people’s work and I make a mental note of those things I like about the painting.”
She is also not above paying homage to the many influences that fed into her own approach: “I may have my own style but it’s always a mixture of my own thoughts and other people’s work,” she said. “So when you see my artwork. You cannot say that it’s solely a Velasco. It’s a Velasco and those people who influenced her.”
Aside from sharing her gratitude, Velasco is not shackling herself to her past as she is already looking towards future projects and subject matters that she would like to tackle. Though her artworks have always exemplified the strength and sensuality of women amid a colorful background, she is inspired to further challenge herself to create intelligent works of art that could portray a darker side to the women she has introduced, inviting people to look beyond the choice of color and instead penetrate the gaze of the woman to ask: ‘What is she thinking?’
“25 years of Velasco: Eve-olution” will run until Jan. 1, 2018 at Art Center Megamall
Published December 25, 2017
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