Remembering Cory with faith & flowers

Corazon Aquino, whose fourth death anniversary the nation marks today, left a legacy etched in stone as an icon of democracy and bequeathed the timeless gift of faith and hope in the soft canvases of the paintings she left behind.

For in the vivid strokes and bright colors of her paintbrush, in the “roses and crosses” depicted in her works, she drew a portrait of a woman of hope, faith and abiding love.

“Mom’s paintings are a very small part of the legacy she left behind,” her only son President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III said at last Monday’s opening of A Gift of Self, an exhibit of Mrs. Aquino’s paintings and other artwork, at the Manila Hotel. He keeps one of her paintings, of flowers with a rosary in the center, in his office at Malacañang, just as he did in his office when he was senator.

“More than ensuring that Mom and Dad are always close by, that painting reminds me what my duties are as President and as a Filipino,” he said. “Our parents were extraordinary people who did extraordinary things, but the lessons they taught us were very simple: live with honor and follow your conscience.”

“And perhaps, the simplest lesson of all: have faith, in both God and the people,” the President said. He quipped that his mother did not give him paintings, she “loaned” to him three of them, with strict provisions. “Kasi pulitiko ka, baka ipamigay mo lang,” he quoted her as admonishing him. Then he turned to Vice President Jojo Binay, who was present during the opening of the exhibit, and asked aloud, “Eh bakit si Jojo, meron?”

The late former President, who started painting in 1996, also gave her prized paintings to Senate President Frank Drilon and Speaker Sonny Belmonte, both close family friends; former President (now Manila Mayor) Joseph Estrada; Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa (Noynoy’s campaign lawyer during his congressional and senatorial bids), former Speaker Joe de Venecia and wife Gina; former Sen. Manny Villar; Metrobank founder George Ty and his wife Mary; PLDT chairman Manny Pangilinan; to members of her family and to her other closest friends.

Cory gave her paintings to “those she cared for, and as gifts to those who already had everything, but who she wanted to show appreciation for,” says PCSO chairman Margie Juico, who was the late President’s Appointments Secretary.

According to Margie, painting in her small studio in her Times St. home was very “therapeutic” for Cory, whose one big dream as an artist was to paint a mural. She used to joke that what was more valuable about her paintings was her signature rather than her artistry.

But Cory’s spiritual adviser Fr. Catalino Arevalo S.J., disagrees. He quotes an art critic who said even while Cory was still alive that “She had developed a visual style and language of her own, recognizable as her own, and that in time, people would find real merit in her paintings — ‘more than just the value of her signature on them’.”

Cory Aquino’s youngest daughter Kris once wrote in the book, The Art and Soul of Cory: “Mom could render flowers so beautifully, maybe because during the martial law years, she found solace in gardening, caring for orchids and bonsais. Now we have a term for this — ‘alone time.’ Then, it was probably her way to feel connected to her Maker, surrender to nature, with the knowledge that her hands and His control of nature could produce something so beautiful.”

President Noynoy Aquino said that what “books and CDs are to me, painting was to Mom.”

***

Kris once told Father Arevalo that the painting she had given him, entitled Roses and Crosses, was the late President’s favorite.

Written on the back of the painting was this haiku Cory composed herself: “Roses and Crosses make my life meaningful. I cannot complain.”

“In a somewhat roundabout way, we might say, that summed up the nitty-gritty of (Cory’s) life; the way she saw her existence and destiny. Roses first, then crosses — perhaps not opposed, but completing only one meaning,” Arevalo said at last Monday’s opening of A Gift of Self.

Arevalo met Mrs. Aquino 30 years ago in Boston, after he had heard that her husband Ninoy had been assassinated and he had knocked on her door to offer his condolences and prayers. He prayed with Cory’s children at her deathbed and said Mass during her funeral.

The paintings on display at the exhibit, which runs until tomorrow, is both a sea of roses and an expression of Cory Aquino’s faith.

“Roses. Her paintings — the multitude of multi-colored flowers in them — reveal predominantly a serene joy, gratitude, hope… Cory Aquino’s vision was ultimately one of hope; that is why her final gift to us was hope,” Father Arevalo shared.

He recalled that Cory embraced her crosses. “She spoke, not rarely, of her ‘quota of suffering’.”

According to the Jesuit priest, Cory “understood that ‘crosses, suffering,’ quite simply formed part of the story, part of the meaning in life, especially of life given.”

“When she found out she was gravely ill, she offered that suffering to God for our people: that was ‘the great love’,” he added.

President Noynoy Aquino said that there is no more appropriate title for the exhibit of his mother’s paintings, than the one it bears: “A Gift of Self.”

“We would not be here if not for Mom’s selflessness,” he said.

A Gift of Self is sponsored by the Manila Hotel and Adamson University, and organized by Deedee Siytangco. Other sponsors include Smart, PLDT, Meralco, Philex Mining Corp., Metro Pacific Tollways, Metro Pacific Investments and the Wine Museum.

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)

Photos by Joanne Rae Ramirez and Joey Viduya