JACK OF ALL STYLES

By Arnel Mirasol

Oca Magos and his painting Gitarista

Oca Magos astounds. He is what I'll call a jack of all styles who can nimbly shift from one painting technique to another seemingly without any prodigious effort. He can turn out an Amorsolesque pastoral as easily as cubistic figuration. True, hints of Ang Kiukok's style including his trademark angst are discernible in Oca's new works, but the bottled-up violence latent in Ang's style is not. Unlike Ang's figures who seem to be in perpetual revolt, Oca's mostly male figures displayed stoicism and acceptance of their lot. Art historians may classify Oca's work within the ambit of rural genre, but I propose a narrower category- Rural Pop- because of his usage of imagery ubiquitous in rural settings and the color schemes peculiar to pop art which are strident, garish, and loud.

Gitarista, oil on canvas, 18 X 24 inches, 2011

Deboto, oil on canvas, 24 X 30 inchea, 2013

 Neck to Neck, oil on canvas, 12 X 12 inches, 2013

Gintong Ani, oil on canvas, 30 X 30 inches, 2011

Oca was one classmate who even then showed signs already of being an accomplished draftsman. While many classmates were still struggling in getting their human figures drawn right, Oca was one of the few who can do that with ease. Thus, I'm not totally surprised when news reached me that he won second place in the 2007 GSIS Painting Competition.

A friend told me that Oca's new Ang Kiukok-inspired paintings are very easy to sell, a statement proven true when Oca revealed that he'd already sold two versions of the painting above.. But the same friend also told me that if Oca wants to make his mark in the art scene, he should varied his technique and forms gradually, until he came out with a style that he can truly call his own. He is right.

While Oca visibly oozes with artistic talent, it is not for that that we'll always remember him by: it is for his laughter which never fails in turn to also elicit laughter from us. That's why whenever our group go out of town for our summer snorkeling trips (below), our company seems incomplete if we can't take Oca along with us.