Portrait of a Calabangueño as an Artist

Salvosa's Artpiece.

During his elementary days, one would see him at their home front sari-sari store sketching komiks (yes, komiks was so popular that time) characters like the famous “Palos” and many more, honing his skills.

At an early age he has shown the propensity and inclination for the visual arts, just like some of his siblings, then. But his passion was far more intense he pursued his dream with vigor and optimism.

After four decades and a half the Calabanga Central Division Pilot School’s 1966 Outstanding Artist of the Year during its Commencement (graduation) Exercises has already come a long way in pursuit of his dream. The native boy of barrio San Pablo is now an accomplished artist with stature and fame of his own.

Jonahmar Aguilar Salvosa now has a long list of accomplishments, awards and honors received through the years. He has had 25 solo exhibits not putting into count those where he shared the limelight with others, majority of which mounted in Metro Manila and Rizal province. He calls Antipolo city home.

It has been eight years now that he has branched out into sculpture. He admitted sculpting being his first love all along.

Memories of his childhood on his hometown are still deep rooted even though he has been away for that long already. He can engage one in recalling that distant past of his age with so vivid memory.

Salvosa is both religious and spiritual. Following the true zen orientation, he meditates with incense. He strives for simplification.

Talking about his work on his recent metal sculpture exhibit: “There were many wires, complicated, so I simplified. Gusto ko malinis [I wanted clean works]. I wanted to remove the cobwebs from my brain. When you meditate, there are many cobwebs.”

Allow us to quote a self-description of the artist about him and his works:

Seldom does one encounter art that will rock you to the core, nor is it often that one encounters an artist that draws out the emotions of the viewer as well as Jonahmar Salvosa.

Born into humble beginnings in the sleepy town of Calabanga in Camarines Sur, Jonahmar’s upbringing in an environment full of nature’s bounty must surely have influenced him to explore art in all its splendid color.

Jonahmar’s artworks engulf one’s senses with a harmony of colour and brilliance that not any artist can just convey. His mastery of the paintbrush, his expressive use of colors convey in the most impressive of ways his entire being – a complete oneness of man and his art.

To delve deeper into his art in words is impossible to relay. One must actually see his art to understand that deep within the artist that is Jonahmar is art itself – pure, untainted.

Jonahmar dreams of creating a sculptured Way of the Cross in the island of Butauanan, now a barangay of Siruma town. The island is a property of his parents Conching and Amaro Salvosa.

He has yet to make a homecoming, though.


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