A furniture-maker’s son turned sculptor

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BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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THE FURNITURE maker’s son gathers the unused timber scattered around his father’s small workshop – the discarded remains of the day’s work.

These heavy planks of kamagong stained rich auburn, bright and vivid chips of narra, and countless other slatsof wood in deep earthy shades and tones, otherwise would have been left on the cutting room floor to rot or be used for kindling, are collected and kept by the furniture maker’s son to be arranged in a pile in one corner.

You see, he feels a certain kinship to retaso and broken things: these scarred pieces of wood with their grains like heart lines and veins, because he sees in them glimpses of beauty and potential most people may fail to notice.

The furniture maker’s son holds up the cut up fragments, seeingwings and roses hidden just beneath their surface, just waiting for someone passionate enough to set them free.

“I wantviewers to reflect when they see my artworks and hopefully find snatches of themselves in it,” shares the 30-year-old Jeanrol lEjar of his first solo show, Retazo.

A devoted sculptor, Ejar has been immersed in the craft since he was in high school, when he had to work shifts as a furniture maker at the age of 13 to support himself through night classes.

Ejar shares he learned the skills at an early age from his father and mother who ran a struggling furniture businesses in Negros which they brought along with them when they moved to Iloilo.

He had really wanted to apply to the Iloilo National High School (INHS) School for the Arts, but his family didn’t have the means. Ejar graduated from the INHS night class in 2002, but coming up with money for college was another struggle.

“Usually kung mamangkot sila kung ano imo na-graduate kag wala ka masabat, tulukon ka lang nila babaw dalum,” relates Ejar, who had to drop out of college, lacking the finances to finish his degree. “May ara man kami i-offer, di nila dapat kami pagi-look down, hindi nga kay wala kami sing privileges nga ila na-enjoy, amo lang kami ni, asta dira lang kami.”

And indeed Ejar has proven himself strong against adversity, coming out on top of numerous art competitions despite being deprived of the education that should have been his right.

It was in 2005 when Ejar started experimenting, not just using wood for furniture, but as a medium for art. Ejar shares that he would cobble together the scraps and retaso timber around his father’s small workshop, so he could use them for his own projects.

In fact, all of the wood used for this first solo show of his were discarded pieces and planks, repurposed and carved into intricate sculptures by the steady hand of a passionate artist.

Most striking in the exhibit are “Hit Me Love” and “Hit Me Wisdom” – anatomical carvings of a heart and a brain, recurring symbols in the show, tied down to dart boards by kalat strings, rose-tipped arrows piercing them in every direction.

Also fascinating is Ejar’s affinity to flight, “Set Free” features several figures behind locked cages and a lone winged heart that has managed to mount an escape, “Soar High You and I” with brains doubling as balloons carrying heavy hearts, and “Sow Love, Reap Love” depicting birds in the air dropping heart-shaped seed to a crimson field of roses.

But the main piece, Ejar shares, is his favourite entitled “Fix Yourself” and its zigsaw puzzle man trying to stitch himself back together with a red thread.

Daw ginakay-o mo imo kaugalingon,” explains Ejar. “Tanan man kita may mga personal nga bagay nga ginaagyan, kung may mga problema ka nga hindi ka ka-move on, hindi ka dapat malugmok, hindi ka dapat mag-stay dira, dapat magbakas ka man para mag-bag-o, para madula ang burden nga imo ginadala.

Ejar shares that with his father’s advance age, the man who taught him his craft, now finds it difficult to carve.

Gusto ko makabulig sa mga parents ko. Through sa akun art nakita ko nga masadya sila, hopefully ang gina-obra ko makabulig man sa ila.”

Retazo explores the bittersweet aspects of life, delving on melancholic yet hopeful memories of love and family, playing on the dynamics of the mind and the heart.

Dapat buhaton mo kung ano gid ang love mo,” shares Ejar, who went through so much in his life, yet remains radiant and optimistic. “Obrahon mo kung ano gid ara sa imo taguipusuon.” (maverhick.blogspot.com/PN)
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