[CATALOG] OAAW Scintilla

The signature style of Marivic Rufino conveys sensations of mistiness, vaporous
exhalations, and gentle brushstrokes of muted colors suspended in the air, all done in
one seemingly effortless gesture. Confronting the white, blank surface of the paper,
the space becomes a waiting canvas for the formation of memories and reveries,
dissolving before her eyes, hushed to the last tremor of their existence.
It is therefore not surprising that many of Rufino’s works are allusions to music, where
a note vanishes at the nanosecond beat upon execution. Within the deep space of her
visual silence, a minuet, a valse, a rhapsody, a nocturne, and an etude calmly whisper
their melody, rendered at the periphery of sight and sound.
The work is done on a small scale, compactly, and distilled. Compared to most
contemporary works, Rufino's works will be regarded as miniatures, and the artist is a
miniaturist. This brings to mind the case of Swiss artist Paul Klee, denounced by some
quarters with that label, to which the British critic Herbert Read remarks in defense:
"Greatness is not measured in inches."
Lyrical, intimate, poetic, and contained, Rufino's watercolors do not invade a viewer's
retinal space; instead, they insinuate themselves through nuances, suggestions, and
evocations, evoking a detached reality immersed in its dreamlike state. At the outset
of the composition, the clutter of all extraneous details is denied since the artist's
innate compulsion is towards restraint and subtlety, simplicity, and economy. An
offering to the spirit needs no fancied-up ornamentation or colorful tinsel.
The art of Marivic Rufino is the elegance of minimalism, where a flicker, a spark of
light, and a faint trace of motion settling down to stillness are all the scintilla of joy
that the artist needs to keep on dreaming, even as she draws, again and again, from
the inexhaustible well of her sacred space.
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