As she candidly reveals, artist and nature lover Micat Po, who opens her first solo exhibit, Seeing Beyond: Images from the Unconscious, Oct. 14, 2024 at Archivo, was once a wandering soul still finding her place in our often chaotic world.
“For the majority of my academic career I pursued a mix of marine ecology, environmental science, and fisheries research,” Po reveals. “At one point I was even living in the Himalayas. I was lost for a long time.”
After much searching and self-introspection, Po eventually found her home in Hawaii, where she completed her degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Management. It was there, too, that she met her “soul family” and discovered the healing powers of the mountains and of the ocean, turning to surfing as a means to soothe her growing pains.
“I experienced nature intimately in ways I never had, growing up in ultra-urban Metro Manila,” says Po. “I didn’t paint for seven years and I couldn’t hold it back any longer,”
Thus, it’s inevitable that nature, and the idea that we are mere stewards of the land, informs her art, which Po says “is in the service of Mother Earth.”
With watercolor as medium—a rather unwieldy medium to the uninitiated—she says that it lends itself to a certain vulnerability that she finds really special, where everything feels alive and raw.
“Mistakes and all, everything makes its way to paper. Because I’m trying to convey energy through my paintings, I find watercolor to be very effective in doing so as water itself as an element can hold energy,” says Po.
For her pieces in her forthcoming show, with such titles as Cosmic Womb, Infinite Sun, and Inner World, Po offers her painting as a way to transmit healing energies that she accesses through dreams, meditation, or forms in nature. Using automatic painting—the practice of creating freely, powered only by the subconscious—she does this to cultivate intuition, which she believes is a key pathway to higher consciousness.
“I enjoy the mystery of seeing where it goes. My practice is really about allowing the images to unfold thereby embracing the mystery of creation.”
Channeling a particular energy, Po says that it flows through her body, to her hand, to the brush, to the water on paper, then ultimately to the viewer’s eye.
Listening to Micat explain her art and personal philosophies, one gets the impression that she is wise beyond her years, her beliefs delving on the esoteric and almost mystical.
“I think wisdom and depth can come at any age, young and old,” says Po. “I’m a student of life and I’m always committed to learning and evolving.”
Po is inspired by two books: The Mission of Art by Alex Grey and Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She is also obsessed with Prudencio Lamarozza’s colorful quirky landscapes, sharing in his reverence for rocks and rivers.
“Hilma af Klint helped me realize I wasn’t crazy or alone,” says Po.
Asked how she wishes viewers to receive her work, Po says that she leaves it to the individual to perceive, to ponder, and let things reveal themselves.
“Everyone is on their own path of awakening so I hope for people to open themselves up to receive the energy I’m putting out and allow whatever may arise to come,” says Po.
Seeing Beyond: Images From The Subconscious runs at Archivo 1984, 5th Floor Karrivin Studios, Makati City, Oct. 12 to Nov. 6, 2024.