Choose What Moves You: Art and the Hyundai Custin

No-judgment question: when was the last time you engaged in a slow dopamine activity, not because you had no choice, but because you wanted to?

Activities like reading (a book, not a digital copy), writing (with a pen and a paper), and conversing with a friend (with smartphones nowhere in sight, not even on the table) are all a rarity nowadays but nonetheless, good for the soul.

We live in crazy times when urgency is the currency. Where AI has become the default source for quick fixes and answering inquiries, where we continuously choose to preempt and control the future. Where we want results–fast.

Buzzkill to human nature, if you ask me.

I read somewhere that human beings are naturally wired to create; that is why most of us have felt that tinge of loneliness when we doom scroll. We were never meant to be relegated to mere consumers.

Safe to say, that is how I found art–or rather, how art found me. It has made me and those around me, happier.

Last June 10, 2025, I had the privilege of showing some of my recent pieces at Leon Gallery International in Legazpi Village, Makati, along with six other women who come from diverse backgrounds, but have found our second home in art.

When friends from the Hyundai Philippines marketing team heard of this milestone in my year-old art journey, they gladly lent me the Custin. I was excited, even if it was the second time for me to test-drive the said nameplate.

Now, what you are reading is not a paid article. But, I am here to tell you that the Hyundai Custin is arguably the most memorable car I have had the pleasure of test-driving in my years in the motoring beat. 

It’s no sportscar, yes, but that’s exactly why it counts all the more as to why it’s so unforgettable for me and my family.

It’s a mini van–and then some.

Perhaps it’s the familiarity, the friendliness that an Asian automotive brand brings to a Filipino motorist such as myself. It could also be the lifestage I am in–a mother of two young rambunctious boys, a wife to a loving husband who wouldn’t be caught dead driving a family van (haha), and a daughter to aging parents. 

It’s a challenging and demanding time in life that my choice of a daily ride should be happily simple and enjoyable enough. And the answer lies in the attentive and purposeful details found in it.

All my pieces for the Leon Gallery International show were reinforced with heavy wooden back panels and frames. All the more I needed a vehicle that enabled me to not only safely transport them, but to comfortably load and unload them. And with a ground clearance of 174 mm, the Hyundai Custin did the job 110%.

This manageable height is actually one of the most underrated features of the Custin, in my opinion. Apart from the generous cabin size and above-standard creature comforts, the friendly ground clearance makes the Custin very agreeable to both the senior crowd and the young crowd–a lot less huffing and puffing. Indeed, the enjoyment of the ride starts with that first step.

You reach a point in your life when you choose to be quiet: quiet productivity, quiet luxury, quiet style and substance. You bask in this golden silence because there is no need for external validity, perhaps apart from immediate family. Your inner circle is small and quality, just how it’s meant to be.

You have arrived on your own terms. 

For me, this is where subtly elegant vehicles such as the Custin comes in. It’s a people carrier, that’s for sure, but it’s the people carrier you actually want parked in your garage. It does not scream attention from the outside, and the moment you step in, it simply hugs you in comfort and assures you that it will be a safe and pleasant ride. 

You shut the door and it immediately feels like home.

Being a part-time artist with a full-time corporate job and a family of four to care for, means my brain has a hundred tabs open simultaneously at any given time of the day (and night). You can never really fully tune-out one of your many roles, especially the personal ones. 

It took me a few months to prepare for the Leon show, squeezing in painting usually at night after work and on weekends. What I learned (and still learning) is that a huge part of the creative process is matching not just the energy required for the physical part of creation, but making and reserving the sacred mental space for ideation and execution. Ask any artist and I can bet my favorite set of Golden paints that they will agree that this is the hardest part of the process.

Just as a vehicle bridges the gap in distance, I was so happy that my group show became an instant reunion with industry and media friends, with most of them being witnesses and avid supporters of my art journey from the very beginning.

Indeed, I am able to confidently say that the automotive world is a haven for artists–those who create it and those who genuinely appreciate it. Art, in all its expressions, is such a wonderful common ground. 

There is something inexplicable about discovering your own plot twist in your 40s. It’s an amazing feeling at the same time, grounding. It makes you realize that the cliché is true: all it takes is to make one decision to turn your life around. 

More than a year ago, I picked up a brush and some paint I had in storage for more than a decade and made that first stroke that pretty much put more color in my life moving forward. 

It’s one of the best decisions I have ever made for myself.

In the same light, buying a vehicle is no small decision. It takes resources and commitment. You will have to put in the hours that no one sees to make it all possible, and when it happens, you will make memories in your choice of vehicle. 

You have to choose well.

My unsolicited advice? Choose what moves you. 

Art is in the details. It is seeing something that moves you. Let the Hyundai Custin move you in ways that other vehicles in its class simply can’t.