MANILA -- Navy reservist Kristine Ann Lim recently collaborated with award-winning songwriter, Jonathan Manalo, in the Awit Award finalist, “Kwento ng Alon,” as best alternative recording.

She contributed her artwork that was featured in the music video of “Kwento ng Alon.”

Lim, who is also a missionary visual artist, was recently at the Galerie Joaquin at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) for the prologue of the naval cultural exchanges through arts, a project of the Philippine Navy and the City of Manila.

The exhibit will run until October 16. The official international launch was held at the Metropolitan Theater.

The art pieces are intended to be gifted to different ambassadors, diplomats and dignitaries from different countries around the globe.

“We want them to have a tangible reminder of who we are as Filipino people,” Lim told ABS-CBN News. “What better pay to strengthen our relationship with them than to give them a part of who we are and show them that we trust them as Filipinos and our allies.

“The representation with colors is that it should echo the colors or the navy and our flag that boasts of the colors of the Philippines.”

More than a year ago, Lim joined the Philippine Navy as a reservist and she is now part of the Naval Reserve Public Affairs Unit (NRPAU), where she’s one of the Navy's goodwill ambassadors focusing on culture and arts.

“We now have ‘Bridging Horizons,’ a five-year-long project that will take us around the Philippines, visiting embassies, to meet dignitaries and heads of state in the Philippines, with the goal of strengthening diplomatic relations, as well as multi-lateral and bilateral relationships,” Lim shared.

Lim is a graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Fine Arts major in Visual Communications. She graduated cum laude.

She has been painting for as long as she can remember. “I started to learn how to paint before I learned how to write,” Lim said. “This is easy for me as breathing. I’ve been an artist since way back. I believe God created me to be an artist.”

She’s proud of the United Kingdom-based artist in her family, Chris Soguilon, from her father’s side. Soguilon is also a painter.

“We are all artists and soldiers of the Lord,” Lim said. “Everyone deserves that certain respect, that certain credit. Everyone has his particular style.”

Lim’s “Bridging Horizons” is for the Philippine Navy. Her “Amak” signature set she conceptualized since 2021 and all her works were created during the pandemic.

“The material is used by our indigenous people [IP] as their clothing from way, way back,” said Lim. “It’s the most primitive piece of clothing that we know as bahag. Binabalatan ang puno, pinupukpok, pinapatuyo, hinuhugasan, then flattened.

“Those are the clothes of our ancestors from way back even before they were influenced by other cultures how to weave or maghabi.”

Lim has been engaged with different IP communities and she believes it’s her social responsibility to uphold their culture in whatever way she can.

“One way to do that, like the bahag, which we think is no longer relevant, is to bring back those clothing and give it a relevant use in our modern world,” said Lim.

“I also would like to give them that certain respect because I believe that our identity and culture are embedded in who they are.”

With Councilor Uno Lim and the Philippine Navy, Lim thought of introducing that series for “Bridging Horizons.”

“What better way to share who we are and gift them a part of who we are,” Lim maintained. “Nasa ugat talaga natin as artist to present to different dignitaries and important persons all over the globe.”

Councilor Lim is part of the “Bridging Horizons” project, a collaboration with the international relations committee of the City of Manila. He is presently the International Relations chairman in Manila and also a Philippine Navy reservist.

“At present, the Lord led me to doing ‘Bridging Horizons’,” Lim said. “But as the Lord leads, He will give something else. Whatever it is, whatever the need is, right now, this is the need that I saw.

“I don’t just do art for art’s sake. I do art because there’s a certain need that needs to be addressed. I have to use my talent and skills to address that.

“I believe that when God shows us a challenge or a problem, it’s because He knows the solution and he will teach us that solution to that problem.

“Wherever this ‘Bridging Horizons’ brings me, I hope we will be able to contribute not just to the Philippine Navy but to our country as a whole.”