Julian Paguiligan was barely three years old when President Corazon Aquino, with multitudes of supporters rallying behind her, succeeded in toppling a dictator’s regime in 1986 through the historic People Power Revolution.
Julian, as he admitted himself, grew up learning all of Mrs. Aquino’s deeds from history books.
Yet when he was asked to portray the late democracy icon and her legacy on canvass for a nationwide poster-making contest late last year, Julian, 27, knew precisely what details to include and what emotions to evoke.
The purely-Filipino-inspired image in Julian's painting shows a smiling Mrs. Aquino, with her arms outstretched, ripping open a traditional rattan bird cage and setting free not a dove, the usual symbol of peace and freedom, but a Philippine maya.
So captivating was the image conjured on Julian's canvass that it eventually went on to win first prize last February, besting almost 70 entries and landing on the cover of a telephone directory for Metro Manila.
"Hindi ko siya talaga ganoon kakilala, pero nung nakita ko iyong pagmamahal ng tao sa kanya nung nilibing siya last year, doon ko siya nakilala talaga (I am not that familiar about her. But when I see the outpouring of love when she died, that's when I realized how great she was)," Julian tells GMANews.TV.
Superhero
Julian says from that moment, his respect for Mrs. Aquino was elevated to new heights. "I now consider her my superhero," adds the fourth year Fine Arts student from the Bulacan State University.
Julian says making Mrs. Aquino’s portrait "was my way of giving her my 'thank you.'"
On the eve of Mrs. Aquino’s first death anniversary, he somehow got a feel of how it would have been like to rub elbows with her when the budding painter met with her son, President Benigno Aquino III, to present the telephone directory bearing his artwork.
President Aquino and Julian were at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila for an early commemoration of Mrs. Aquino’s death anniversary, which was highlighted by the unfurling of a 250-by-200-foot photo mosaic of the democracy icon.
See more from here: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/197551/artists-commemorate-cory-through-masterpieces
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