Tuesday, July 03, 2007 Figuring figurines By Ritchie Landis Doner Quijano
THE most skilled and creative artist can’t be boxed. Of course, it is very boring to spend a lifetime doing one thing. Art can be like the condition of hedonism. The insatiable need to do more pushes the artist to expound his horizons. Thus, painting is not enough for Bobby Gonzales.
A mid-career artist and member of the Cebu Art Association, Bobby Gonzales divides his creative time by pursuing the other visual craft of sculpture. From two-dimensional imagery he transforms them into a 3D form.
The miniature figurines he make are made of wood. He carves a variety of species like mahogany, nangka and santol wood turning them into ethnographic folk figures and dolls donning traditional period costumes.
But apart from the miniatures the show during exhibits, Gonzales is also capable of macromizing these figures into life-size proportions. Many of his commissioned works in the past have found it’s way abroad.
The native American sculptures he made were exported to the U.S. and are sold in specialty shops in the west. Molding pieces of wood or clay is quite a challenge because they require patience and physical strength unlike pure painting that can just be accomplished without a drop of sweat.
