JONAHMAR SALVOSA’S SCULPTURAL ‘DOODLES’
April 27, 2010Jonahmar Salvosa’s sculptural ‘doodles’
By Amadís Ma. Guerrero
Philippine Daily Inquirer
DateFirst Posted 22:05:00 04/26/2010
Gallery
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WHEN HE TURNED 50 EIGHT years ago, painter Jonahmar Salvosa, with 25 solo shows behind him, decided to become a sculptor, sculpture being his first love. After all, in his hometown of Calabanga, Camarines Sur, he had a grandfather who was a good carver of santó.
So for the past eight years, he has been fashioning out these works, mostly abstract, wrought-iron bars. The results may be viewed at the Seven Suites Hotel gallery (47 Sumulong Highway, opposite Valley Golf Club, Antipolo City) until May 15.
The recent opening was well-attended, for gallery-owner Annie Guerrero (who named the gallery after the artist) brought in samba dancers.
It started with doodles. Salvosa kept doodling and doodling, drawing and drawing, turning out complicated, free-flowing lines “like somebody was guiding me.” And then voíla: “Aba, I can make this into sculpture.”
Some of the metal came from junk shops, his old house and his old car. “These had an old existing design which was abnormal,” the artist noted. “And it was nice to play around with it. It was easier to bend.”
Because of his Zen orientation, Salvosa strove for simplification: “There were many wires, complicated, so I simplified. Gusto ko malinis [I wanted clean works]. I wanted to remove the cobwebs from my brain. When you meditate, there are many cobwebs.”
For Salvosa is both religious and spiritual. He meditates with incense, and there was a time when he did so he would feel unseen entities around him. But the entities were not bothered by the incense, so he concluded they were good spirits. He also carries with him a powerful prayer to St. Benedict.
Complementing the abstract, wrought-iron works are the religious pieces like the highly textured crucifixes.
“I cannot get away from the crucifix,” the artist observes, because the parish church in Calabanga was near the family home, and he would hear Mass by the side of the church near the sacristy.
The lone figurative sculpture in the exhibit is a 7-ft Mother and Child, meant to be a belen (Nativity scene).
“It’s supposed to be the Holy Family but I left the St. Joseph at home,” Salvosa laughs.
Another ingenious piece is a candelabra (candle-holder), made up of small, wheel-like circles retrieved from the inside of the engine of his old car.
Salvosa’s dream as a reinvented artist (a sculptor) is to create a sculptural Way of the Cross on Butawanan Island off Camarines, a small island without electricity which he inherited from his parents.
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