IN commemoration of two milestones in Philippine history—the birth anniversary of former President Manuel L. Quezon and the death anniversary of Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino—spontaneous realism artist Celeste Lecaroz has releasing the copyright to her paintings of former presidents Manuel Quezon and Corazon Aquino.
Lecaroz, a former anchor of the ABS-CBN News Channel, had her first one-woman exhibit at Gateway Gallery in May.
The works that were painted in broad strokes, splashes of color and almost three-dimensional treatment adhered to the “spur-of-the-moment” style advocated by Austrian contemporary artist Voka. Among the paintings in the show had President Manuel Quezon and President Cory Aquino as subjects.
“I’m waiving my copyrights on these two,” said Lecaroz. “I’d like to do this for the community because I believe that as artists, we have an important role to play in raising consciousness and contributing to public discourse on significant events in our history that uplift humanity.”
She is allowing anyone, Filipinos especially, to make use these works for free also because of recent developments related to the subjects. “President Manuel L. Quezon’s birthday was held on August 19, and his presidential papers are now formally inscribed in the International Registry of the Unesco Memory of the World for the Philippines. Meanwhile, the death anniversary of the husband of President Cory Aquino, Sen. Ninoy Aquino, was on August 21 and the anniversary of President Cory’s historic speech at the Joint Session of the US Congress is in September,” Lecaroz explained.
With the release of the copyright, anyone can use Lecaroz’s painted images of Manuel Quezon and Cory Aquino for personal or commercial purposes, as long as the artist is given credit.
By doing this, Lecaroz is also warning unscrupulous individuals and entities that exploit copyrighted artworks for commercial or personal benefit without getting permission from the creators. She called out an international web site that is selling digital prints on canvas, acrylic, metal, wood, paper and phone cases of a Filipino artists’ works, without the said artist’s consent. “They should at least think twice before doing it,” said Lecaroz. “In the scroll-click-link world we have today, two seconds may be all we need to prevent that from happening.”
Parties who are interested to obtain high-resolution files of the Manuel Quezon and Cory Aquino paintings by Celeste Lecaroz may contact her via Facebook and Instagram.
For information, visit www.celestelecaroz.com.