ARTISTS Edwin Layug and Totek Layug, son of Presidential Merit Awardee for Ecclesiastical Art Willy Layug, will once again host another free clay sculpting event this coming September after the recent successful run of their sculpting workshop at SM City Pampanga in the City of San Fernando recently.
Mayor Dante Torres said there is a clamor among senior high school teachers in Guagua to provide more art workshops for students under the K to 12 program.
“This time it would be Natividad High School and Pulung Masle High School,” Torres said adding that the recent clay sculpting with students from Betis High School and GD Mendoza High School showed students with potential for the arts.
The event was held in cooperation with SM City Pampanga and the Municipal Government of Guagua headed by Mayor Dante Torres.
The training brought together the expertise of the two Layugs in the field of sculpture.
Totek, who has recently come home from his studies in Barcelona, Spain, is dubbed as the “heir” to the Layug legacy in the field of the arts. He is currently among the top students of his class and is in a year-long vacation before going back to Spain.
His equally able uncle, Edwin, is among the awardees of the Gintong Pulilenyo Art Awards.
Willy, a Guagua-born artist who now resides in Pulilan town in Bulacan, is one of the most renowned artists in Bulacan and the region, having made a mark in the field of ecclesiastical art.
Layug is now one of the most popular names in the local wood sculpture industry. Willy is famous for his use of traditional polychrome style mixed with an obvious Spanish influence in polychrome technique, something which he has acquired from a recent training in Spain.
He is already considered a master in his art. Facebook pages devoted to religious art collectors refer to him as among the “young masters” of the craft.
Willy is the first Filipino to install a full altar in Singapore. He made the Pope Pius X Priory retablo along Upper Thompson Road in Singapore. The priory is under the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which is an international traditionalist Catholic organization founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The SSPX has presence in various countries in Europe and Asia.
Willy said he was honored to have been given the trust to craft and install the new altar, which was a fusion of baroque and classical art.
Both Totek and Edwin said the event aims to inspire students to pursue the arts.