MISA, the single-named Chicago artist (pronounced ‘mee-sa’) has a profound understanding of art, pain, and abuse. Her challenging life is a testimony to perseverance and the spirit of women’s empowerment -- an exemplary study in functional capitalism and survival.
An innovative rebel from the Czech Republic, the fiery young artist originally known as Michaela Cermanova found her way first across the cities of Europe and finally to New York where she created a thriving art business -- only to be betrayed by her partner and would-be soul-mate. A brief liaison with another man resulted in the destruction of all that was left of her studio, her canvases slashed; her easels and tools destroyed. In deep despair, Michaela descended into vortex of emotional darkness, feeling unworthy of all goodness, undeserving of any redemption. In an impulse of epic destruction, she broke up hundreds of pinewood planks with hammer and chisel. Sitting among the vast wreckage of wood, and her life, it seemed there was no hole deep enough. But as Cermanova began to restore order to the room, stacking and layering the broken pieces of pinewood planking, she experienced a life-changing catharsis. Like the Phoenix bird of ancient mythology, she rose from the proverbial ashes of her former life and started to paint. Spiritual momentum gave birth to a new original medium of acrylic-on-broken-wood and the artist, MISA, was reborn.
From Gallery O's 'Goddess Night' Art Exhibition, press release, March 1st, 2011:
Misa’s awe-inspiring work involves the study of color and its emotional impact on our humanistic well-being. Using a multidimensional approach to transmute feelings and inspiration, her technique provides a simultaneously realistic and abstract observation of both surface and texture, a bold and harmonious signature style transcending social strata and international boundaries.
When MISA speaks of ‘the pain’there is a cherished familiarity to the term -- a referral to her old adversary and friend, to be embraced and treasured. Her pain is rendered in brilliant colors of burnt sienna, liquid reds and golds, or muted tones of dusky beige and soft teal. Misa is a painter of ‘goddesses,’ the faces of women evincing a complexity of diverse expressions ranging from loneliness, fragmentation, subservience, and hopelessness, to serenity, strength, compassion, and enduring wisdom. Misa’s passion and courage teach us that it’s never too late to take a chance on ourselves, to persevere, overcome -- not only to survive, but to thrive.
For more information on MISA’s art, contact Vanessa Ouimette at www.thegalleryo.com ph. 239-776-7056, or visit www.misa-artwork.com and reference this NK Examiner article.
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