MISCHA: “RESINDIPITY”
By Cid Reyes

“Resindipity” is the catchy and memorable title of the first solo show of Batangas-born, single monicker artist “Mischa.” The word is a conflation of two words that may not instantly be familiar to a larger public: resin, of course, and serendipity. Resin is defined as “a thick, sticky substance that is produced by some trees…or any of various similar substances produced by a chemical process for use in industry.” Serendipity is “good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries.”

To start with, Mischa can thank his lucky stars for the good luck of having enterprising parents whose business is the production and sale of religious statuary…and when the saints come marching in, guess what material they’re made of? Resin, of course. Helping out in the family business, Mischa of course has lived with resin as part of his daily life since his youth. Resin, too, will lead Mischa to find a new direction: his decision to pursue his own artistic activities. “Resindipity” is the happy outcome of Mischa’s serendipitous find.

​In his hands, resin has become Mischa’s equivalent for the canvas or pictorial surface. He turned the material into a pliant undulating plane, resembling a cascade of drapery, by turns alluding to crests of waves or a valley of hillocks. Each of his artworks is a unique, one-of-a-kind fabrication, and not the issue of a pre-fab mold. Next, each is then subjected to a painterly allover approach, reminiscent of the technique of the Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock, but with Mischa’s own “take” on the famous “drips” of the master.



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With Mischa’s works, the state of tension is generated by the contrast between the sculptural surface and the engulfing dribbles and splatters of pigment which must find and wend their way across the surface, which, however, is in relief, meaning, protruded into the third dimension. For all the works, the dominant pigment is black, but each work is individually distinguished by a specific color, such as red, blue, green, orange, yellow, brown, and purple. It is the particular hue that tames the turbulence of the surface, imposing its own characteristic emotional tone with their chromatic equivalence.

         One hastens to add here that the paint Mischa uses is neither oils nor acrylic, but rather fiberglass, with their fine filaments of glass fibers embedded in a resin matrix, which accounts for the painting’s lacey plastic sheen.
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Each of Mischa’s artworks can be regarded by a viewer as his own emotional serendipitous find. Painting, after all, is a subjective experience, and no two viewers will have the same feelings for the same work, whether it’s “Arcadia,” “Shangri-La,” or “Wild Blue Yonder.” Indeed, Mischa proffers enough leeway for varying interpretations of his works. It should be recalled that, prior to its hardening, resin, whence these works came, is a thick, sticky substance, and as such, like Mischa’s works, is a material to which meanings and significations easily attach.

​Among the emerging artists nurtured in Batangas, centered in the art gallery situated in the Orlinas’ ancestral home in Taal, Misha extends his gratitude to the country’s premier glass sculptor Ramon Orlina, who has deemed that the time is right for a solo show at the museum. Misha, after all, is Mr. Orlina’s serendipitous “find.”

​Misha’s “Resindipity” runs until November 13 at the Reflections Gallery of Museo Orlina.