THEIR love for children and the arts brought this Thomasian couple to hold fundraising art exhibits for underprivileged youth.
Lawrence and Milch Aliwalas, who both took up advertising arts in UST, displayed their art pieces in an exhibit titled “Talento” at Gateway Gallery in Quezon City to generate funds for QC Performing Arts Scholars.
Using fiberglass and resin, the couple molded sculptures that depict different symbols for performing arts, such as ballerina shoes and guitars.
“We chose to help these children because, just like us, they are artists in their own way [and] we admire their discipline and dedication to make themselves better by doing what they love,” the couple said in an online interview with the Varsitarian.
This is not the couple’s first exhibit for a cause. In January 2017, the couple debuted their first show “Total Meltdown” which featured sculptures tackling effects of global warming.
Their interest to help in advocacies for children began when they became members of the 501st Legion of Philippine Garrison, an all-volunteer international organization that builds and wears Star Wars costumes and volunteers for charity.
They started making sculptures of comic book characters and participated in toy conventions. Soon they got involved into collaborating with different artists for advocacies.
“Art is such a powerful form of media and we think it is our responsibility to create artworks that contain substance, [so] the idea of doing exhibits [for] a cause has always been important to us,” they said in a joint response via email.
The couple also does request appearances in hospitals with the help of Make a Wish Foundation PH.
“When we go to hospitals, we visit sick kids while in costume and we try to cheer them up so they can forget their sickness even just for a while,” Lawrence said.
Their pieces were featured in different group exhibits like “You are Here” at Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery in 2015 and “Metamorphosis” at Metro Gallery in 2017.
“We always try to come up with projects that could merge both our craft and our charity work [and we hope to have] more collaborations with artists and continue to have shows for a noble cause,” they said.
Aside from organizing fundraising exhibits and collaborative shows, the couple also manages Imagine Nation Design Studios, a group composed of different professional artists who creates sculptures and 3D art. LOUISE CLAIRE H. CRUZ
