In a world where the art of artificial intelligence or AI prevails, there is a man with a magical hand who tries his best to use his skills and mind to create art—a piece with a story to tell, and an art that he makes for a living. 

Tatay Randy, a 70-year-old artist, wields his brushes along the streets, creating jeepney signs to sell to drivers in need of them. While working on the signs, he also roams around the city, hoping to sell his own artwork to anyone willing to buy. Selling his art is his only source of income. However, sales are rare.

The artist believes he channels a kind of magic with every stroke of his brush. He is full of imagination, and sometimes, he dreams and fights demons in his sleep.

But one night, his dreams came true.

In the dark alleys of the city, he stands his ground—wielding his paintbrush as a sword, his canvas as a shield, and his faith as his magic.

“Shhhk!”

Each stroke of his brush slices through the air like a blade, striking the towering demon in front of him—a monstrous figure standing twenty feet tall. A monster made of screens, cables, and tangled wires.

But Tatay Randy does not back down.

He slashes the demon’s neck harder than before—“SHHHHK!”—unfazed by the wounds he receives in return. He bleeds not blood, but paint, and the splatters of his blood form a mesmerizing abstract on his shield. One masterpiece born from pain. A creation no AI, and not even a man, could ever replicate.

The demon stumbles and dies.

The demon couldn’t understand the human mind—how it dreams, how it remembers, and how it works. The demon had no soul, no imagination, no spark to create something revolutionary. It only knew destruction.

But Tatay Randy? He knew creation. Undecoded talent.

He catches his breath and cries with pride and joy. Before him lies an abstract—a beauty born from war. An abstract that shows the passion of his soul— a warrior’s paint. 

Tatay Randy was no ordinary man. He was an artist. A storyteller of walls and alleyways. And in this war, he fought not with bullets but with vision. He uses his gleaming art to weave illusions that dazzle, disempower and  vanquish the demon.

- Gerielle Anne Afos
(Illustration by Chynna Mae Santos /FEU Advocate)