Joey Velasco's voice and His Art

Art is for the people, I remember someone say that. Must be Mao. Anyway, artists are life's reflectors. Circles may become orbs, squares like crooked ones and faces defaced. But, it is still life.

In Joey Velasco's world, it's super realism at its best. His Hapag ng Pag-asa tells of a world where even at the very point of desperation, God is still there.

I remember one passage in the Bible which says that for you to enter the Kingdom of God, you must be like the children. Velasco's Hapag ng Pag-asa depicts that scene where the Savior is enjoying his time with the children of Israel. Now, he's seen here, sharing bread with the Filipino children.

Suffer the children, some one says. No. Help the children, and that's Velasco's voice speaking.

Now, that voice is no more. Joey Velasco has just succumbed to illness yesterday. His voice maybe gone, but his art remains. And it speaks as loudly as any other Preacher out there.