Visual artist Julie Gil unveils her profound perception of life through her inaugural solo exhibition

Some of the flowers featured in the exhibition were inspired by those that grow in her garden, while some were gifts from friends. Using photos as references, she rearranged the flowers she wanted to highlight and made each painting a conversational piece with other natural elements like birds, bees, insects, cats, and nostalgic objects, like a worn-out bicycle, among others.

Laden with symbolism that refers to various chapters in her life, the exhibition captures highlights of Gil’s career, spiritual journey, realisations in life, discoveries in her personality, the things she values the most in her life, and more. Each painting had a corresponding Biblical verse that added contextual meaning to its poetic title.

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Among her paintings in the exhibition, Handiwork is the one that struck her the most. In making it, she realised that we are all God’s handiworks, where every petal of the flower or trajectory of a dragonfly was intentionally put and intricately designed to affect each other. “We have a special gift, purpose, skill, contribution to life. We are not just a drop of water in a bucket; we have something to offer on the table. And in the middle of our gifts and passion, that’s where God uses us and makes the most of us.”

The exhibition was indeed teeming with allegories. Firm Foundation illustrates a family and its home. Iron Sharpens Iron discusses friendship. Trust the Process highlights the patience required in nurturing and growth. Faith illustrates Gil’s philosophy of the power of manifestation or how she defines faith. Transformation is Beautiful shows a chemically engineered blue rose with a peculiar tradition in Ateneo. This painting reinforces Gil’s understanding of metamorphosis—how an ordinary white rose can have a new meaning and purpose.

Clearly, Gil’s spirituality informs her practice, which can be traced to how she met her husband in a church after a breakup. Since then, she has ensured that her children, including celebrity singer Nikki Gil, grow up with strong and continuously nurtured faith in God.

But like everybody else, Gil also experienced spiritual dryness at one point in her life, feeling useless and rusted. She illustrated this chapter in the painting Repurposed, in which a rusty old bicycle is left on the side to become a basket of fresh tulips. 

“In my spiritual journey, I found that God gives second chances and can reuse me and repurpose my existence in this world. Put a very delicate peach tulips in a rusted bicycle, and it has its new purpose,” Gil shares.

In Mosaic, Gil tries to convey to her audience that God picks up each broken piece of our life and shines a light on it.

Gil’s feat in returning to the visual arts later in her life shows that each of us has our own timelines. Grace is given to those who do not give up, and all our detours in life were necessary learning curves that brought us to where we are today.

“Maybe it’s really the call of God. I painted again, started posting about it. And by God’s divine arrangements, I was able to join a group exhibit,” Gil recalls. Now, as a full-fledged artist, she finds fulfilment in expressing her own vision and not being bound by a client’s demands.

“What’s vibrating for me in this exhibition is the message of trusting the process in everything, like how a flower blooms or a bird survives the storm. God opened the door for me to step in, and I allowed myself to get through many processes... There’s a dance in life where the process is apparent, and you cannot break it. You cannot not dance when the wind is blowing. You cannot not bend. You cannot swim against the water. So when you dance, you dance.”

Gil’s debut show ran from November 19 to December 3 at Art Lounge Manila, Molito branch in Alabang. Her works were previously featured in other group exhibitions such as Plantitos y Plantitas, Her Wild Garden, Fete des Fleurs, Hues of Hope, the Balesin Art Fair, Art in Aura, and more.

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