ALMOST from the start, her life was redefined by color. Consider the prodigious geography of her eventful life: Regina Maria Victoria ?Marivic? Rufino studied in a cartographically challenging quiz of countries. There was high school in Barcelona before finishing at the top of her class in Rome. Her liberal arts degree is from a New York college, Marymount Manhattan. The world map, with its huge swatches of blue representing water and beige for land, swirls in the aftermath.

To this daughter of businessman Rafael R. Rufino Sr. and Julieta Abad, it was literally a world of opportunity. ?I love challenges, especially academic challenges. I was a nerd, and I used to be shy except when I was in school,? she says. ?Going to different schools and in different countries expanded my horizons. I took Spanish and French at the same time, in addition to the required curriculum, and excelled all the way. Studying was always fun!?

But there was another passion Marivic had discovered even earlier than school. ?I loved to doodle and draw as a child, and I took summer lessons in oil painting at the Swiss Club with Serna and Galvez at 11, and joined a group exhibit,? she says. It was during her junior year in Barcelona that she took art more seriously. ?Painting was always part of my life, but it was not encouraged aside from that one summer. Later on, I took private painting lessons during my junior year in Spain using my meager allowance,? she recalls.

Painting was an anchor as Marivic?s life began to acquire a rainbow of hues, each one signifying a varied pursuit. After college, she plunged headlong into a whirlwind of work, first at her family?s real estate firm, Mercedes Realty Corporation, then at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Intercontinental Manila, Alliance Francaise de Manille, the Philippine National Red Cross, the PLDT Smart Foundation and as BusinessWorld columnist.

All through this time, she was photographed endlessly - but in many ways, she preferred to be the one crafting the images and keying into her personal reality. Painting, started so early and constrained frequently, endured. ?Painting is my form of meditation and prayer. No matter how busy my external life is, there is the inner world that is serene and quiet,? she explains. ?The paintings show my growth as an artist.?

Her training under Chinese painter Hau Chiok for a decade shifted into watercolor with Jonah Salvosa in the 1980s. ?My style is a blend of both the East and West.? After her first solo exhibit in 1987, she exhibited her works in Paris and San Francisco.

Her heart found another passion in the intervening years when Marivic met former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas chair Rafael ?Paeng? Buenaventura in 1983, while she was working in New York.

?He told me that he had first met me when I was a toddler and learning how to walk in our garden in Baguio,? she remembers. ?I was one year old.? The 14-year gap did nothing to deter the two and they eventually fell in love. ?We eloped twice in 2000 ? to Paris for a Catholic blessing and Jakarta for the civil rites.?

It was a very happy time for Marivic. ?He was my best friend and confidante for many years. He was so accomplished and intelligent yet he valued my ideas. I was his sounding board and I learned the language of banking because of him. Despite his busy schedule, he was always so supportive of my decisions and wanted me to excel as a painter. Best of all, he was compassionate and generous, with a big heart for the less fortunate.?

His death in 2006, after a long battle with cancer, was crushing. ?I stopped painting to care for him full time when he was stricken with his second primary cancer in 2004.? That had come after Marivic?s 14th solo show. ?He returned to the Church after an absence of 40 years, shortly before he passed away. It was a profound experience.? But she says Buenaventura always told her to seek her bliss.

?Despite his illness, he encouraged me to paint,? she says, ?And I did, whenever he was in remission. He even primed a canvass for me in 2006. I completed the paintings in Jan 2009 as a tribute to him.?

It would then make abundant sense that her 15th solo exhibit was going to be something different, something brave. Last February, Marivic unveiled two years of canvasses at the Peninsula Manila, as well as a project that, like her own life, married several passions. It was called ?Romanza? ? and it had good company.

Published by Tahanan Books, the book ?Romanza? featured Marivic?s paintings side-by-side with poems from National Artist Virgilio Almario with English translations by the award-winning Marne Kilates. Marivic and Almario had been regular members of Carmen Guerrero Nakpil?s writers group, and in 2007, Marivic suggested to Almario that they collaborate in a book that matched her art with his short verse in Filipino. Nakpil, she says, loved the idea.

For over a year, they labored. ?It was an awesome learning experience working on ?Romanza,? with Rio and Marne working on all the details ? the book, paintings and selection of artworks, setting up and celebrating the twin events. In a sense, this has been a healing process, picking up my brushes and being creative again after a long hiatus. It was my renaissance.?

Her paintings, dubbed by friends as ?visual poems? also held surprises of their own. Aside from the expected parallelograms of canvass, there were painted lampshades, bags, even furniture. Among the familiar dreamscapes is ?Grand Passion,? the painting that Buenaventura had primed two years ago.

After the delightful rush of the Romanza days, she has settled back into her patent productivity; she paints whenever she can. ?I have to be inspired, and when the spirit moves me, I can paint two or three artworks at a time. Then I?m quiet for weeks or months. There was a time when I painted outdoor large-scale murals on 15 walls for Paeng. It took me almost three years to complete.?

Marivic remains committed to helping others through her art. Proceeds from her exhibits and events go to the St. Mary?s House for Girls and Serra?s Center for Girls. ?Both are homes run by the Oblate Sisters for the abused girls and victims of incest. I?ve been helping them since 1993.? Other future projects lie squarely in her sights. ?I would like to continue growing as a visual artist and maybe try other techniques,? Marivic says. ?I?d love to write another book or an anthology of my essays from my BusinessWorld column, Beyond Brushstrokes. I?m open to what the universe will offer.?

How much can you cram into one life?

If you are anything like Marivic the answer is simple: As much as you can. She savors the time she spends with her only child from a previous relationship, 35-year-old entrepreneur BR Rufino Lim, his wife Michelle and four beloved grandchildren.

The palette of her life has seen various colors, shades indicating the roles of artist, executive, activist, wife, mother, and teacher, among many others. ?The most challenging role has been that of an artist,? she says. ?I have been a struggling artist since my teens and it?s been very difficult balancing my two careers in business and the arts. The psychic rewards are tremendous and so fulfilling in a spiritual sense.?

At this point in her life, Marivic Rufino knows: When you swirl all those colors long enough, you come up with a color all your own. ?