Images Justin Louise Soriano

There is a vulnerability about Heart Evangelista that is exquisite and captivating. Never does she stride or strut into a room; often she saunters, sometimes hesitates, even as in her role as a fashion icon, she is expected to walk tall, make big steps, execute a grand entrance, and turn heads.
And yet Heart Evangelista rules the world. Without having to raise her voice or her fist, without having to stamp her feet or beat her chest, she has got the world attention, which she sometimes uses for the benefit of her pet causes, such as animal rights, the welfare of children with chronic diseases, or—during the height of the pandemic—providing underprivileged students with smart reusable notebooks.
Heart’s journey is no more, no less challenging than that of every other woman, but above every challenge, she has risen—and with such grace—whether it is concerning her parents or her husband, Sen. Chiz Escudero, or her personal relationships, whether it is about the demands on women to bear a child and her adventures playing her role in the life of her husband’s twins from a previous marriage, or her sometimes desperate struggle to find a home for every stray puppy or kitten she sees on the streets, or every stumbling block in her chosen career, which has required her to live out her life in the public eye since she was 17 years old.

It’s not easy to be Heart. Though life for anyone is never easy, she has the extra challenge of always balancing things out on precariously high heels and to look the best she can. While going through a dark patch in her life, she found refuge in painting. It was I who brought her out of her shell, when I convinced her to come out publicly as a painter, as Love Marie Ongpauco, her birth name, not as the show business figure, but as a visual artist. It wasn’t so much that she turned into a painter. It wasn’t a new hat she wanted to wear. As she told me, “I’ve always been painting, so I really just went back to who I really was.”
Even as a painter, with that aspect of herself revealed for the very first time by Manila Bulletin in 2014, life for Heart had been a challenge. At her first international exhibition, I watched her fidget in her sky-high Louboutins outside the Chan Hampe Galleries at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. It was a full house, packed with art critics and art collectors, wine glasses in hand, peering into her collection of oil-on-canvas paintings, all of which, except for two, had been sold before opening day. But in that corner where I found her, she cowered, looking less tall and less sure. “I feel like they’re picking me apart, like they’re scrutinizing my soul,” she whispered to my ear.

Despite her reluctance and her fear that she was unwelcome in the art community, Heart as Love Marie Ongpauco, the painter, did make her mark. In February 2019, the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, then led by National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario, named her arts ambassador for the year. She considers the recognition “a high point in my life.” When asked what she wished to accomplish in this role, she said, “…to inspire our people to recognize the beauty in themselves, in our country, our history, and our future. My story as an artist began with self-acceptance. We need to know that we don’t have to be like any other country. We can give so much to the world just by being who we are.”

'My story as an artist began with self-acceptance. We can give so much to the world just by being who we are.'

It has only been a few years since her Singapore debut, but Heart is now a world figure. She has evolved into a global fashion icon, a welcome sight in all the fashion capitals across the world, from New York to Milan, especially in Paris, and one worthy subject in the top fashion magazines, including Vogue, the first to notice what she had to offer to the world. After a few Paris Fashion Week excursions, the high priestess of fashion Anna Wintour herself invited Heart into the Vogue 100, a curated list of new, distinct, dynamic, and innovative talents around the world who are, to paraphrase the magazine statement, reshaping the landscape of fashion and culture.

Once, while deep into completing an art collection, Heart confessed to me that painting was a sort of escape. “I think I draw better when I’m sad. When I’m sad, I don’t want to see anybody, I want to hide. It’s a good thing because I’m not a writer, I can’t write, I like to sing, but I’m not a singer, but I can paint. I have these strong feelings coming out of me in the form of images. These are things you can’t say,” she said. “But when I’m happy, I don’t want to be still. I want to be out there. I want to see the world.”
Now, Heart is not only seeing the world—she is at home in it. She’s come a long way. I suppose this is the reason her painting has taken a backseat. But art was the key that unchained Love Marie Ongpauco, who is no longer hiding behind the more public persona Heart Evangelista. She knows now that there is Love Marie to turn to when she is in need of what she described to me before as “so liberating… therapeutic. If only life were like this. In painting, when you make a mistake, you can just cover it up, paint it over.”
Meanwhile, she’s out in the world, where she has made her mark, a world that can't seem to get enough of her.
It does take a strong, strong woman to make it big in this world, but strong is the last word you would associate with Heart Evangelista.