ART IN COVERT
(written by JA Regodon)
When he hears, he sees. When he listens, he catches glimpses.
And then he starts painting them. In coded secrets.
Born in San Pablo City, Laguna, Doel Salvador Recepcion Mercado made the eldest of four children of Elvira Recepcion and Domingo Mercado. He finished elementary school and graduated with honors at the University of Saint Anthony. Subsequently, as part of the providential passers, he continued his studies and acquired his secondary diploma at the Philippine Science High School – Bicol Region Campus. Doel, still massed with the crème of the crop, then entered the University of the Philippines – Los Baños (UPLB) Campus and took Civil Engineering courses. It was during his college years that he started finding himself being really drawn to visual arts and decided to focus his interests in such field. Doel joined the only art organization in UPLB, the UP Painters’ Club. Being immersed into such colorful industry, he started participating to different competitions and began showcasing his masterpieces at different exhibitions. Doel involved himself into Cryptographism, a visual arts style that highly incorporates mathematical codes and ciphers. He calls his pieces Coded Art and signs them DSRMercado. In 2011, together with a colleague, he pillared the creation of MakiSining, a social art group of fine artists practicing in Laguna. In 2012, Doel Mercado served as Makisining’s President.
It was during grade school when Doel learned how to play musical instruments (banduria, octavina and laud). While learning, he experienced an unusual observation. Amazingly, he started seeing glimpses of different colors at the back of his eyes every time he heard distinctive sounds. He saw astonishing colors, different hues and different shades, as he listened to different sounds. Colors of dark brown shades would spontaneously appear behind his eyes upon hearing the lowest notes whenever he tried to tune a banduria. These brown shades would, in turn, gradually change to silver while he tried reaching and tuning to the highest notes. Though the observation did not occur with all kinds of sounds he heard, he noted that every time he heard a tricycle coming, he would see colorful flashes of gray and blue, but would notice a different shade of green when his school service was approaching near. This gave Doel the capability of distinguishing things just by simply listening to their sounds, without the need to look at them. This amazing color-sound relationship condition, Doel just discovered after some time thru reading a novel by Dean Koontz entitled Sole Survivor, is called Synesthesia, a psychological condition where a person experiences a mix on two different sensory skills.
Being a color-sound synesthete and having the ability to see colors while hearing sound, Doel integrated Synesthesia into visual arts --- with an exciting twist.
He began creating works of art with a tonic musical approach, using musical notes as his primary cipher for Cryptographism. With an extra twist of mathematics in his art pieces, his work displays a stylish world of playful musical codes, colorful brush strokes, and ciphers in a stirring mathematical methodology.
One of the most popular of Doel Mercado’s Coded Art is the Synesthesia One (acrylic on canvas, 48” x 36”, 2009). This is the painting which awarded Doel Mercado the Juror’s Choice at the GSIS Art Competition in 2009. Doel Mercado integrated music with visual arts by submerging the Canon D musical composition by Johann Pachelbel into a painting, hiding the musical elements thru mathematical codes. Still possessing the great interests in Cryptographism, he coded the duration of each note with the space between the brush strokes, and ciphered the music‘s octave with the different shades of his brush colors. Hidden behind the bars of colors and hues is the song’s complete set of musical notes, all packaged in an exciting maze of music and visual arts. In the end, Doel Mercado has created a powerful combination of stylistic art, with a wonderfully concealed music, ciphered by clever mathematics.
To name a few of Doel Mercado’s art exhibitions, he has participated with great passion and interests at: ARTifice (Cultural Center of the Philippines Pasay City, 2012), Amorsolo’s Makiling: A Satellite Exhibit of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (Sining Makiling Gallery UPLB, 2009), Rebelasyon (Sining Makiling Gallery UPLB, 2012), Intervention (SSS Gallery Quezon City, 2014), Hedonism: An Art Exhibit (SM City Calamba, 2011), Tara’t Makisining (SM City Calamba, 2012), Robinsons Art Exhibit (Robinson’s Town Mall Los Baños, 2007), TalenTADOng Tibak (NCAS Auditorium UPLB, 2008), Art Avenue (Calamba Medical Center Calamba City, 2014), and EVIA Well-Fair (Evia Daang Hari Las Piñas City, 2014).
He also has his work of arts regularly showcased at the annual Labing-Isang Daliri Art Exhibition of the UP Painters’ Club from 2006 to 2012 (Sining Makiling Gallery UPLB, SU Bldg. UPLB, and Nineveh Gallery Sta. Cruz, Laguna). His pieces were also seen at Opus Elbi: A UPLB Centennial Art Exhibition (SU Bldg. UPLB, 2008 and 2009), Rizal@150 Art Exhibition (SU Bldg., UPLB, 2010), Rizal ng Los Baños (General Paciano Rizal Shrine Los Baños, 2011), and UPPC@20 (SU Bldg. UPLB, 2012).
Doel Mercado has also been honored various awards from both local and national art competitions. He bagged the Juror’s Choice Award at the GSIS Art Competition (GSIS Museum Pasay City, 2009), ranked Semifinalist at the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (Manila Tytana Colleges Pasay City, 2011), brought home the Top Prize at Likhang Luntian Art Exhibit (Office of the Alumna Affairs UPLB, 2011), and placed Weekly Finalist at UPiktyuran (The Philippine Star, September 7, 2008). He also was privileged to participate with the Philippines’ grand world breaking attempt for the Guinness World Record of Longest Painting on a Continuous Canvas in 2006.
To date, Doel Mercado still paints with acrylic, oil, and mixed media. He also engages himself with sports like running and had his own place converted into a gallery he fondly calls Art Ville.
