Gail Travels to Camiguin Island Featuring the Camiguin Island Museum

I hope you are excited for today's entry. I, on the other hand is so giddy to share this to all of you. Few days ago, I introduced you all the island on where my ancestors resided on this blog post.

For today, I am going to feature one of the island's most loved place, the Camiguin Island Museum. It has exhibited a portion of the island's diverse and solid culture. This museum is a two-storey building which is covered in lavender paint. The design of this building features the Spanish Colonial Era (structures made up of wood with huge doors and windows that allow the sea breeze to fan the locals all day long.)

You would really feel at home in this place as you would be welcomed by their friendly staff. Aside from that, the museum is free of admission. There are also a lot of numerous things that you can find on their first floor, most of these are made up of collected shards that locals gathered from the sea.

Now, too much has been said, let us have a quick tour of this art museum!

Just take a look on this tray and behind it is a bowl which is furnished with colorful shards. There is also this wind chime with shards has also been used to give a homey feeling to everyone. They actually sell this one as well. Oh! Before I forget, they also sell lovely jewelries with shards as its stones.

Aside from the items with shards, they also sell these colorful shards as well. If I had a load of money with me on that day, I would have bought a lot of these shards and used them for my future artworks.

Samples of shards from other countries were also featured together with the other products.

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Meanwhile the second floor houses different artworks including this Art Exhibit featuring different artworks made from shards.

What is this art exhibit by the way?

Shards or sea pottery are the broken remains of domestic and international ceramics which have ended up in the ocean and over many years are tumbled and smoothed by the action of the sand and waves and one day wash up on the shores on the Island Born of Fire, Camiguin. These shards come from plates, vases, bowlsm and all other types of ceramic objects from all corners of the globe and each shard tells a story of where it came from and who has used it.

A part of the livelihood project of Komunidad sa Baibai, a Camiguin-based foundation, women and children collect the shardsm as well as sea glass and other found obhects and these are then re-purposed into jewelry and other products which are sold and provide a source of supplemental income to the families of Camiguin.

But what of the stories of the shards? Where have they come from? What purpose did they fill? Were they parts of plates that fine families dined from or prized vases that showcased someone's favorite flowers? We may never know, we can only imagine.

Shards exhibition explores this theme by providing Camiguinon and Kagay-anon artistis with random shards which they then incorporated into 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.
By: Elden Chamberlain

Below, we can find an array or watercolor paintings with different shards that were served also a medium on these pieces. I just hope, as an artist, you can find inspiration on these works.

There are also paintings that were displayed and sold for specific prices. These features some of the beliefs and spectacular culture of the Camiguinons (locals in Camiguin).

The artwork below is created by Ramchand Sagrado. Its price is Php47,000. According to him, the artwork is a reflection on his fascination of the multi-faceted layers of a woman. It represents his ideas of goddesses, nymphs and other images which examines the constant evolution of women's role in the society.

On the other hand, the painting below showed students who were running happily under the rain. This is actually a normal scenario is the Philippines where kids would have fun running under the rain even though they just came from school.

The last featured painting was made by Riford Baldivino Abbu for the price of Php13,000. It is an artwork that signifies Lanzones, a fruit which grows abundantly in the island.

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Lastly, here are the wonderful crafts that were handmade by the locals of Camiguin Island. I have no idea who made these wonderful plushies since it was not indicated. Or I was just too oblivious not to check on the tags that were placed near these crafts.

Anyway, feel free to love these wonderful creations!

Did you enjoy this blog entry? How about all the arts and crafts? If you do, do not forget to upvote, share, and even comment on today's blog entry.

Have a great day!

Love,
Johanna Gail