Just when the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at the Davao City Jail Female Dormitory thought that painting on canvas was the ultimate learning in visual arts, they were introduced to clay, or terra cotta.
On the second day of art workshop by Lawig-Diwa Inc., the organizer of Mindanao’s biggest art fair, The Mindanao Art, Lawig-Diwa president Rey Mudjahid “Kublai” Ponce Millan unloaded sacks full of terra cotta – heavy, moist soil that the women were taught how to roll and shape.
That was last November 1, 2025.
Assisting him were Tagum City artist’s Elvis Goloran and Jushua Rotante, with this writer Stella Estremera.
To make it easy as a first-time experience, each of the 71 PDLs who signed up for the training were asked to make claypots in the shape of the faces of their workshop partners.
The women started forming the faces of the one in front of them, but soon were creating faces as they want to. One even making hers to look like her partner in real life. Whether it did look like her boyfriend, we won’t know.
Todate, their products are drying naturally before these will be retrieved for kiln-drying. How the products will turn out will be known after they are kiln-dried. Will they retain their forms? Will they crack? Will the noses hold or be chipped off? These are the experiences they will undergo after the whole process.
In the meantime, all participants found making terra cotta figures exhilirating. Indeed, there’s more to visual arts than paints.
There to monitor the PDLs were JO1 Katherine Balderas, JO1 Eden Mae Alboruto, JSINSP
Leilah R. Academia, and JO1 Venice Carbanquil.
Kublai, Elvis, and Jushua manned the painting workshop with 20 PDLs last October 30, 2025 as part of Lawig-Diwa’s continuing service at the Davao City Jail.