Catholic Artist Expresses 'Voice Of God' Through His Work

MANILA (UCAN) -- A businessman-turned-artist hopes his art will help people take notice of unfortunate others and be moved to help them.

Joey Velasco, 39, recently launched a book based on the children he used in Hapag ng Pag-asa (the table of hope), a painting he modeled on Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper.

Velasco told UCA News after the Oct. 13 book launching in Metro Manila that as a businessman, he never thought about being an artist or writer. Then, after a major kidney operation in January 2005, he was seized by an urge to paint. "Through openness and careful listening to the prompting of the Spirit, I was swiftly pushed into religious art." he recounted.

After finishing his painting in December, he began to write his book, "They Have Jesus: The Stories of the Children of Hapag," about the children in his painting, which is prominently displayed at the entrance to the major seminary building on the University of Santo Tomas campus.

The Catholic father of four considers his painting and book a legacy to his children that will remind them of the values of charity and compassion. In the past he "failed to show to my children the real situations of life, since we have lived a very comfortable life," the former businessman admitted.

"I hope to hang the Hapag ng Pag-Asa on the wall of my dining room to remind my children to be grateful for what they have to eat, for what they have been served. And mostly, it is to let them remember those who have none," he said.

The 12 children in the painting are real people he discovered in different areas of Quezon City. Velasco offered them food to pose for the painting. The children, aged 4-14, reveal a story of a greater hunger than a plate of rice could satisfy, he said.

"It was they who touched my soul," he continued. "Through them, God spoke to me and moved me to paint their stories and tell others about their lives."

The young girl standing at the extreme left, where Judas appears in the da Vinci painting, is 10-year-old Nene. Velasco met her at the Manila North Cemetery, where she and her family lived as squatters among the graves.

Onse, 9, sits at the table. His plate cleaned to the last crumb, he listens to Jesus to feed his other hungers, the artist said. The child, who scavenges with a push cart, has a father addicted to drugs and a mother who works as a strip dancer.

Itok, another scavenger who at 11 is the family breadwinner, sits at the right hand of Jesus. According to Velasco, Itok spent time in jail after being caught in a number of robberies.

Another child in the painting does not live in Quezon City. Velasco placed a small Sudanese boy under the table eating the fallen scraps with the cats. "The skinny child is not one of the hungry kids who roam our busy streets at night," the artist explains. He is "an imaginary symbolic figure" who in the past "had satisfied himself with unnecessary food, (but) now finds himself under the table seeking spiritual crumbs."

In the foreword to Velasco's book, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of Manila challenges people to "welcome this portrait as your own and make the dining table serving life not just a table of hope, but a hapag ng pag-ibig (table of love)."

An exhibition of Hapag ng Pag-Asa and other paintings by Velasco accompanied the book launching at SM Mega Mall.

Joey Velasco, 39, recently launched a book based on the children he used in Hapag ng Pag-asa (the table of hope), a painting he modeled on Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper.

Velasco told UCA News after the Oct. 13 book launching in Metro Manila that as a businessman, he never thought about being an artist or writer. Then, after a major kidney operation in January 2005, he was seized by an urge to paint. "Through openness and careful listening to the prompting of the Spirit, I was swiftly pushed into religious art." he recounted.

After finishing his painting in December, he began to write his book, "They Have Jesus: The Stories of the Children of Hapag," about the children in his painting, which is prominently displayed at the entrance to the major seminary building on the University of Santo Tomas campus.

The Catholic father of four considers his painting and book a legacy to his children that will remind them of the values of charity and compassion. In the past he "failed to show to my children the real situations of life, since we have lived a very comfortable life," the former businessman admitted.

"I hope to hang the Hapag ng Pag-Asa on the wall of my dining room to remind my children to be grateful for what they have to eat, for what they have been served. And mostly, it is to let them remember those who have none," he said.

The 12 children in the painting are real people he discovered in different areas of Quezon City. Velasco offered them food to pose for the painting. The children, aged 4-14, reveal a story of a greater hunger than a plate of rice could satisfy, he said.

"It was they who touched my soul," he continued. "Through them, God spoke to me and moved me to paint their stories and tell others about their lives."

The young girl standing at the extreme left, where Judas appears in the da Vinci painting, is 10-year-old Nene. Velasco met her at the Manila North Cemetery, where she and her family lived as squatters among the graves.

Onse, 9, sits at the table. His plate cleaned to the last crumb, he listens to Jesus to feed his other hungers, the artist said. The child, who scavenges with a push cart, has a father addicted to drugs and a mother who works as a strip dancer.

Itok, another scavenger who at 11 is the family breadwinner, sits at the right hand of Jesus. According to Velasco, Itok spent time in jail after being caught in a number of robberies.

Another child in the painting does not live in Quezon City. Velasco placed a small Sudanese boy under the table eating the fallen scraps with the cats. "The skinny child is not one of the hungry kids who roam our busy streets at night," the artist explains. He is "an imaginary symbolic figure" who in the past "had satisfied himself with unnecessary food, (but) now finds himself under the table seeking spiritual crumbs."

In the foreword to Velasco's book, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of Manila challenges people to "welcome this portrait as your own and make the dining table serving life not just a table of hope, but a hapag ng pag-ibig (table of love)."

An exhibition of Hapag ng Pag-Asa and other paintings by Velasco accompanied the book launching at SM Mega Mall.

In his opening remarks at the launch, attended by about 200 people, including many nuns, priests, and friends and relatives of Velasco, Salesian Father Francis Gustilo said Velasco's works express "the voice of God to the Church and nation of the Philippines."

While people easily forget God and one another out of carelessness, the author not only listened to God's voice from within but also expressed that voice in his paintings and his book, the priest said. He credited Velasco's work with reminding people to acknowledge the presence of God in the suffering of their neighbors.

Doctor Danilo Lerma from the University of Santo Tomas Hospital, himself an artist, told UCA News that art "has strong power in expressing the Good News of the Gospels." This, he said, explains why the Church has always used art for pastoral and evangelizing works.

Velasco, Lerma said, "has found his real expression of the Gospel in the present time and in the reality of the nation, the problem of poverty. Joey is an instrument of God ... he used his heart in the way that God wants." more >>>