I can’t help but admire people who inspire amid their suffering—people who not only see a silver lining but paint the rest of their dark …
I can’t help but admire people who inspire amid their suffering—people who not only see a silver lining but paint the rest of their dark cloud with this silver that the cloud turns into a bright shining star. I wrote about one such person a little over a decade ago in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine: Jetro Rafael. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder but instead of wallowing in self-pity or becoming dependent on shrink-prescribed drugs, he turned to food to fix his mental health, designed recipes to boost the neurotransmitters in the brain and eventually came up with the restaurant Van Gogh is Bipolar, a must-visit along Maginhawa for its artistic, quirky ambiance but especially for its “happy food.” He turned what would simply be frustrations into an attraction and soon his story was picked up even by the international press, with features in BBC and Wall Street Journal, among other major media outlets. Another inspiring person is Robert Alejandro. You might know Robert as the artist behind the arts and crafts inspirational brand Papemelroti. Or you might recognize him from The Probe Team and Art is Kool. If you’re an art collector or enthusiast, you might be familiar with his illustrations and books. In quarantine, he even made the 2020 Art in the Park come alive virtually through his live portrait sessions online. He was quite the quarantine star with his live online art lessons and later his series of portraits of quirky personalities from international celebrities to local fashion icons such as the late great Gilda Cordero Fernando, Myrza Sison and Pia “Garovs” Garovillo-Vergara.
