A note to anyone who plans to go to Heart Evangelista’s exhibit: Look for her big paintings. Chances are, it was while making these large-scale art works that the actress was dealing with a huge problem or concern. “The stronger the emotion, the bigger it should be,” she was quoted as saying on Manila Bulletin. “Like when I’m angry, I feel that the canvas is never big enough.”
The actress picked up painting again when she went through a series of family problems exactly a year ago. Painting is something that’s always been available to her but was put on hold “when I entered show business,” she tells Coconuts Manila over email. “It became my solace after a series of family problems,” she says.
READ: Heart Evangelista will be having an art exhibit!
Fast-forward to today and the 29-year-old actress mounts her first solo exhibit I Am Love Marie, to a select few at the Artist Space of Ayala Museum. It will run through May 22.
On display are 19 of her paintings. A peek into her Instagram account reveals mostly women subjects, some of whom have big and beautiful hair, if we may add. “Women inspire me,” shares Heart. “I look at each painting like a friend.” She says they’re not of anyone in particular.
Art, apparently, has always been one of her many “things.” She started playing with colors at age three, and then took up art lessons at age 12. “I appreciated everything I learned but learning all the techniques stunted my style. Maybe I was a rebel,” she writes. Then she got busy being an artista.
When things got rough for her and her beau Sen. Chiz Escudero, Heart went back to painting. “I found it to be liberating and therapeutic,” she mentions. She painted her troubles away and then she painted some more. “A friend encouraged me to do an exhibit and he mentioned the Artist Space in Ayala Museum, which features mostly new breed and contemporary artists,” the actress reveals. Not letting showbiz get in the way, the actress says she really made time to complete her paintings. With Ivan Roxas as her inspiration (“I love all his paintings,” she declares), Heart started preparing for I Am Love Marie a year ago.
A year since those troubled times, a lot has changed. It seems like Heart is now on the other side of her problems, having learned a lot about herself and her art. She has since painted her troubles away, and she and her family are now on better terms. It’s almost as though I Am Love Marie, is a reintroduction of sorts. She’s is presenting another side of herself to the public.
I Am Love Marie runs from May 9-22 at the Artist Space, Ayala Museum, Makati.
