Without a doubt, Merc Tenorio is one of my favorite artists — period. Just one look at her artwork and you will see how her subjects pop into life with an abundance of feeling.
The self-taught artist is an expert at creating textures through her skillful brush strokes.
“Although most viewers kindly say my paintings look realistic, I tried to make them look more honest than photographic, and from there I hope I’ll be able to have some kind of emotional connection with the beholder,” Tenorio said.
Tenorio is multi-talented: The disabled Navy veteran is also a poet, songwriter, amateur photographer and former educator.
Her exhibit opened Nov. 5 at the Lees-Reyes Art Gallery on the second floor of the Tumon Sands Plaza. It will close Nov. 29.
Her exhibit, which Tenorio calls “rock/you” is a compilation of rock paintings. The title could be read as a noun and pronoun tandem or a combination of a transitive verb and its object.
“I used that title for this solo exhibit as a summation of all the emotions I tried to depict and I associated with each painting and each title,” she said.
Tenorio’s paintings have other subjects, but she’s mostly drawn to rocks because rendering texture and giving them character is challenging.
“It’s all painstaking and patient strokes of the brush giving a semblance of realism. I just woke up one day and saw how much of rock-themed paintings I’d accumulated, and felt that I was ready for a solo exhibit featuring these rocks,” she added.
As I walked through her exhibit, I was drawn to four in particular:
- “That Unnamed Feeling” is about the loss of Tenorio’s mother. “I know her absence in my life has doomed me into a deep emptiness that I have to deal with for the rest of my life. I don’t really know how to describe that hollow feeling, like I’m literally severed from my very source of life. That’s that unnamed feeling,” she explained.
- “Into Which Blue” is teemed with duality: action and stillness, green vegetation and brown rocks, smooth and rough. But these opposing elements find themselves in the center, blended as one theme.
“It’s up to the beholder what they want to see, and where they want to be led into — the blue sky or the blue water. I hope they will find their choice of perspective as uplifting as the other one,” she said.
- “Metaphor” relates to how we often judge a person by what we see on the outside. The painting was almost never completed due to Tenorio’s circumstances at that time.
“Halfway through, I tossed it in a corner and intended to just paint over it. I was going through some difficulties then. And in one of those moments, I happened to glance at it and it looked forlorn, just like me. So I perched it on the easel and started working on it again.
“I didn’t know if it was apt that I decided to paint succulents over the small stones, as if they were trying to sprout and look alive despite the absence of nurturing soil. Succulents are known to represent tenacity and endurance,” she explained.
- “You and I” is about a point where Tenorio felt guilty for taking her talent for granted.
“I focused more on my flaws and insecurity, and not on my blessings. Sometimes I still do. Fear, insecurity, the feeling of not being good enough — these hindrances that can lead to feeling like a small insignificant stone in front of this big, magnificent ocean. ‘You And I’ is about that humbling realization,” she said.
Tenorio’s works will not challenge your intellect or art expertise and they will not create confusion, or force you to see what’s not there.
Simply put, they’re both beautiful and meaningful.
“By displaying my painting, I am inviting the beholder to meditate with me, to see the confession that I’m willing to reveal, and to feel an emotion from a certain perspective. We’ll cry together if we must,” she said.
I encourage everyone to experience Tenorio’s works and see for themselves what makes her so special.
Norman Analista, is the founder of Analista & Co., a Guam-based fashion brand specializing in bespoke apparel. He has designed clothing for dozens of celebrities and social media influencers in the US, Asia, and Europe. For unpublished content related to this column, follow @tastemaker671 on Instagram. For story suggestions email
nanalista@yahoo.com
