WE FREQUENTLY see broken pieces of glass or pottery when we go strolling in the shore and refer to them as trash since what can these shards do apart from, perhaps, causing injury to those who are walking barefoot and accidentally stepping on them?
However, in Camiguin, these shards are a source of livelihood to some artists, by transforming them, and other beach finds, into salable jewelries and other products.
Recently, the artists of Camiguin ventured into a new means of creating artworks: incorporating shards or sea pottery in paintings.
Thus, the Department of Tourism (DOT)-Northern Mindanao, together with the Komunidad sa Baibai, a Camiguin-based foundation, opened an art exhibit last Saturday, December 8, that features the paintings of the local artists of Camiguin and Cagayan de Oro.
Shards: Sea to Shore Treasures is an art collaboration between the artists of Camiguin and Cagayan de Oro City, wherein they are provided with random shards to incorporate in their artworks to tell the story of the past or to create a new story for the future from these otherwise discarded objects from the sea.
"All the paintings have certain pottery that have a certain design. So the artist will have to use his imagination in making it into a painting," Rene Bajuyo, the director of Komunidad sa Baibai, said.
"We make this to promote our local artists and at the same time their livelihood program," he added.
Bajuyo also mentioned how this exhibit will create an impact to their artists in Camiguin, saying that since Camiguin is an island, therefore more or less the artists and their works are confined within the area and will have difficulty in promoting their works to the other provinces or regions.
"This time they were able to showcase their work outside of the island. More or less Camiguinons are like confined, especially the artists, their works and everything. Now is the perfect time to expose their art, not only to the region but to the world," Bajuyo said.
Twelve artists, four from Cagayan de Oro City and eight from Camiguin, joined the art exhibit and showcased their paintings of different concepts and telling different stories.
"When I was doing this, I was thinking about my friend who was doing fashion illustration. I wanted it to be like more relaxed than the rest so I put more white spot to my work. So parang pa-cute-cute lang," Melissa Abuga-a, an artists from Cagayan de Oro who participated in the art exhibit, said.
"I think one of the things that influence me when I was doing it was always watching cartoons a lot. So I was just trying to make something simple," she added.
Michael Bacol, another artist from Cagayan de Oro City who's also one of the winners of the Philippine Art Awards, on the other hand, said that since he plant vegetables, his paintings are more on plants.
"I created the design of the shards like based on what I see around me. I made an idea na how to do it to have the connection with plants," Bacol said.
DOT-Northern Mindanao Regional Director Marie Elaine Unchuan, for her part, was impressed by the artworks of the artists and the initiative of the Komunidad sa Baibai.
"They have a story to tell. That piece of glass or pottery, wherever it came from, has a story. But when you see it, it’s just a piece, its trash di ba? But then an artist put it in that canvas and uses his imagination to make it whole again, it’s something amazing," Unchuan said.
The art exhibit, Shards, will run from December 8 until January 3, 2019. It is located in the office of the DOT-Northern Mindanao in Limketkai, Cagayan de Oro City.