Clad in a comfortable V-neck black dress, visual artist Kristine Lim looks like a colegiala who just graduated from an all-girl private Catholic college. She is bubbly, loquacious, with a hearty laughter and that irresistible girl-next-door vibe.

This sugar and spice, all that is nice first impression fades, when you get to see her visual arts creations. The powerful feminine elements are all there – color, choice of materials, texture. Her paintings mesmerize. Her art engulfs. It seduces, and you give in to the seduction with eyes wide open. Your heart races, imagination goes wild as it transports you somewhere. To decipher what this stroke means, why these materials and medium added to its magnificence, and yes, it cannot be denied how your soul is stirred and something inside you screams!

In admiring and being inspired by Lim’s paintings, one gets not only an impression, but a realization that you had just experienced an encounter with the divine. It is because Lim’s art works are inspired by the Divine, speaking in volumes and giving you multi-sensory feels.

“I do mixed media paintings. I use materials that artists don’t really use. I don’t use oil paints. I use different kinds of plasters, different kinds of shimmer stones, resin and cobalt metallic pigments,” she says.

God’s guidance and voice

In an intimate tete-a-tete with Lim, she said: “God showed me na hindi ko kailangan kahit sino. Na Siya lang, crisis and all. Siya ang manager ko, Siya ang curator ko. Siya ang lahat (God showed me that I don’t need anyone else, only Him, crisis and all. He is my manager, He is my curator. He is everything).

“I always knew the inspiration came from Him,” she adds. “I always felt the guidance. And I know that it is His voice telling me to do this and that. And I am certain that is Him that sees me through as I make my creation because everything falls into place. Lahat maayos. Lahat tama. Lahat maganda (Everything is easy. Everything is right. Everything is good).”

It is a gift from the Divine, Lim says. “God gave all our talents and our skills para gamitin natin (so we may use them) for Him and for His glory, not for our own personal gain. As an artist, we have that social responsibility to do something that will change other people and create an impact.”