Jikka’s commitment to creating art as an expressive passion was intensely amplified by a personal health crisis. In March 2025, she received a diagnosis of end-stage renal disease (kidney failure). While physically preparing for a transplant, she sought profound emotional and mental refuge through her art. Undeterred, Jikka continued to work with galleries, and by July of the same year, she had successfully showcased her art in New York and received invitations from curators to exhibit in Rome.
 
In July 2025, Jikka was accepted into the fifth batch of Art Show Philippines’ Mentoring Program. This period of focused training prompted her to revisit her art process, experimenting intensively with forms, landscapes, and color palettes until she found a theme that most resonated with her intensified search for stability: home. This has since become the defining motif of her celebrated impasto work.

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