CONRADO Balubayan at work. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
MONCADA, Tarlac—All his life, sculptor Conrado Balubayan never had an art exhibit to showcase his work. He never owned a gallery, where his creations can be displayed for people to see and appreciate.
For more than 50 years now, he has been shaping images of saints and prominent people of various sizes out of cement in makeshift workshops in places where he had been asked to work.
Despite the absence of a show window, Balubayan, 70, is one of the most sought-after sculptors of religious images in the country because of the quality of his work.
“I’m happy because the places where I have projects virtually become my own galleries,” Balubayan said.
Some of his works are the life-size images of saints mounted on the posts of fences surrounding churches in the cities of Dagupan and San Carlos in Pangasinan province, in the city of Balanga and towns of Orani and Mariveles in Bataan province, and in Cabanatuan City and Talavera town in Nueva Ecija province. They are also displayed on the façade of churches in Pampanga province.
Among his most admired works are the 2.4-meter (8-feet) images in the Way of the Cross and The Last Supper at Kawa-Kawa Hill in Barangay Tuburan in Ligao City, Albay province. The place has become a pilgrimage site.
He has also created the life-size statues of the late Cardinals Jaime Sin and Rufino Santos, which are displayed at Manila Cathedral.
Balubayan has ongoing projects in Cagayan de Oro City and Pangasinan.
“I’m now doing a life-size ‘Pieta’ for a mausoleum in Rosales town and images for The Last Supper in Bugallon town in Pangasinan. In Cagayan de Oro, I’m doing the Transfiguration and Immaculate Conception images for a memorial park,” he said.
“I’ve actually lost track of the number of statues I have made. I don’t even remember all the places where they are now,” Balubayan said.
By accident
Balubayan began sculpting by accident at 16, just after graduating from a high school in Laguna province.
“In my father’s shop in Santa Cruz [town in Laguna], my brother was sculpting a small image of the [Our Lady of] Fatima. But he did not finish it. I continued his work and finished it,” he said.
When his father saw the image he had completed, he was so pleased and Balubayan’s career as a sculptor began.
His father Modesto was a sculptor and built mausoleums, designed altars and Spanish-style mansions.
“My father was very strict and had high standards. We could not afford to commit mistakes then because we did not want to see him angry,” Balubayan said.
First sculpture
“The first sculpture I did was that of a prominent couple from Laguna. Their images were to be mounted on their graves,” Balubayan said.
He helped his father create images in between his college studies. He had enrolled at Union College at that time to study political science and history.
But Balubayan said he did not finish college because he had to take over as the car driver of their funeral service business when his older brother left for the Bicol region to start his own business.
“I had to drop out of college. And when I did that, I got married. So I was not able to return to college anymore,” Balubayan said.
From 1960 to 1980, sculpting was not a profitable livelihood. Their clients ordered only small images, with the tallest at only 1.2 m (4 ft).
“The orders were even few and far between. How could you live if these were the only ones people wanted you to do?” Balubayan said.
When his father died in 1977, he took over all of his businesses, including the funeral service business and building mausoleums.
In 1980, Balubayan said, orders for statues 1.8 m (6 ft) and taller began.
“I think people finally saw my work and appreciated it. So, at that time, I began to research and read. I knew then that there were a lot more I could learn from the works of others,” Balubayan said.
He said working on statues using concrete instead of wood, marble, bronze or fiberglass was not his choice but his clients’.
“So, how will I sculpt on wood when no one orders? Besides, at that time, there were no other sculptors using concrete,” he said.
Concrete sculptures, he said, are displayed outdoors while wooden statues are usually kept, especially the expensive ones.
“In a way, my work gives me fulfillment. Even after I die, my work will still be there for people to see. And if your work is good, they will not be destroyed in the future,” Balubayan said.
Today, Balubayan said two of his children, who are also sculptors, were helping him. “I also have my son-in-law and two grandchildren in my shop,” Balubayan said.
Aside from his workshop here and in Santa Cruz, Laguna, he also has a shop in Talavera, Nueva Ecija, and he plans to put up another in Tuguegarao City in Cagayan province.