Nanette Medved-Po keeps her promise to her artist-mom Yueh Faye Lai

A daughter's promise fulfilled: Yueh Faye Lai's solo exhibit "A Daughter's Promise" runs until Nov. 30 at Manila House, Bonifacio Global City.

- CHING M. ALANO

Former movie actress-turned-businesswoman/philanthropist Nanette Medved-Po and her 81-year-old artist mom Yueh Faye Lai have always been each other's biggest fan/supporter. You can say it's a mutual fan club. Mama Faye was always behind Nanette in her memorable movie career. How can we forget the Chinese-Russian beauty Nanette in the 1990s iconic film Darna, where she played the Pinoy superheroine? Nanette, on the other hand, has always been proud of her mom's art – Faye's artworks prominently hang in Nanette's home and office. When it comes to her mom, Nanette is always happy to play a supporting role.

Tonight, in this flower-bedecked dining room at Manila House, love is on the menu as Nanette entertains guests who have come to celebrate her mom's 81st birthday exhibit.

"Like my first show, my second 'A Daughter's Promise' is about what I call silent emotion, unspoken emotion," Faye begins to share the story of her art straight from her heart, her voice softly wafting through the air.

There's a calmness about her, like a serene sea or a cloudless blue sky, that belies the storms and hardships she's weathered, growing up in war-torn Taiwan in the 1920s, then migrating to the US. Back then, she didn't paint because she had to work to survive.

But 25 years ago, she had a dream, a vivid dream. "One night, I dreamt of the Lord Jesus wearing a white robe amid the beautiful blue skies," she relates. "Around Him were two angels holding a scroll. I was standing under His feet, holding a ladder. When I looked at the scroll, I said, 'Oh, that's my painting!' The scroll was very huge. And then I woke up."

ROMANCING NATURE