The Poetic Art of Yel Cast
by Noel Sales Barcelona
Loriel Castillo, or Yelcast to the art scene, is a licensed electrical engineer left his successful engineering career for his first love—the arts—painting and poetry. But what makes his works outstanding is his ability to forge into just one piece, literally, his poetry and the images he wanted to paint.
In an interview, Yel says that he started doing art in elementary school. It continued in high school, competing in poster-making contests just like in his elementary days.
“During elementary and high school, my schools often send me to compete for poster-making contests. However, I never won in those contests,” Yel told this writer, in Filipino, in an email interview. “Which turns out to be beautiful, because the experience of loss, it taught me many things about my art,” he said.
His love for literature, specifically, poetry came earlier; although, he has no exact memory of it. It just flowed in him, like the rivers emptying themselves to the sea.
“As far as I can remember, I loved literature, especially poetry. I began writing poems when I was very young,” Yel narrated.
A voracious reader, he read so many works of poets of the past, whose names he can no longer remember. However, he often talks to Victor Emmanuel Carmelo Nadera, the “Father of Performance Poetry of the Philippines,” and Airene Perez, another poet and prose writer.
The Birth of Yelcast Visual Poetry
The great Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) once said, “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is a painting that is felt rather than seen.” In his works, Yel has been able to do both on his canvas–paint and write poetry.
“At first, I used to write my artist’s statement as a poem. However, beginning 2018, I have begun putting the words into the images, which I paint,” Yel says.
Examining his works, he developed a form of calligraphy, as the words to fit the images themselves. A painstaking task, but the result is simply marvelous. This method or style of painting has made Yel’s works unique and different from others. Because of his painting style, online lifestyle, and culture magazine When in Manila listed Yel to its 40 People under 40 Worth Taking Notice for his contribution to the arts.
Meanwhile, he says that he draws inspiration from the works of other visual artists. He mentioned Philippine-based Spanish master artist Juvenal Sansó, National Artist for Visual Arts, former UP College of Fine Arts Dean, Jose Joya, and HR Ocampo, as his influences. He also considers Lino Acasio, Virgilio Cuizon , Bill Perez, Frederick Epistola , Popoy Cusi, and National Artist candidate Rene Robles as his mentors.
“They have a deep impact on me as an artist,” he said.
Visual Poetry as Cultural Advocacy
While he “invented” this painting style, he wants this visual poetry to be popular. Last year, he launched the Yelcast Visual Poetry National Art Competition with the theme “Kalayaan Mula sa Epidemya” (Freedom from the Epidemic).
Despite having it organized singlehandedly, it became successful. This July, he will launch its second run, now with some help from friends.
Ye said, two of his biggest dreams are to establish a self-sustaining Visual Poetry Art Foundation and to create visual poetry of 91 provinces of the Philippines.
To the aspiring artists, Yel says:
“We need to be passionate about what we do. As visual artists, we need to transform this passion into purpose, and that is to share positivity and the beauty of life with the general public. We need to create meaningful works. You don’t need to become great, but create something unique or unusual. To become skillful, you need to start creating; skills develop along the way. Dream high, love to the fullest.”
