Malya's Art Pieces: Stick Figure Wood Carving

This set of wood whittled
stickfigures was given to
me by a woman woodcarver from Ifugao way back 1998.
I affectionately called her
Malya.

Well, I actually bought
them in a way.

I was working for the
Women's Program then and
she was one of our clients.
She came seeking me out in my
office one weekend at dusk. I
called her in for coffee but she
said that she just needed to
leave her bag of curio wares
for safekeeping.














I asked that she give me a list of
her inventory. I sat with her as
she brought out 15 pieces of
woodcarvings.

I inspected the figures as two
pieces of the set had broken
arms. Malya sighed. She said
that her son would surely get
mad of her carelessness in
handling her wares.

She continued to say that both
of them had worked all night
finishing this set so she would
have something to sell the next
morning. She needed to go see
her ailing mother in the Province
and she was hopeful that she could
have cash that day. She went to
Mine's View Park but the vendors
there would accept her goods only
in consignment basis.









But she needed
the cash,
so she
decided to
market them
elsewhere.



























I commented that her work was
really nice. She described the
process on how they do
home-based woodcarving.

She went on to tell me that the stick
figures were very fragile to work
on. She showed the stick figures' ears
with the earrings carved in, not as
separate pieces but as one whole piece.
Her son did the carving and she made
the finishing. She laid out her arms for
me to feel the calluses on her palms and
fingers from the constant rubbing with
sandpaper, stained with chemical polish
and tar. Unlike the other woodcarvings,
these stick figures needed to be done by
meticulous, gentle hands.













I asked where they got their ideas
for the design and she laughed that
it was the way they looked at life at
home. They represented men and
women doing the rituals.

These stick figures also proliferate handicraft stores in town that the craftsmen actually copy from each other. She, however said that this set looked different. I agreed that they must have their own uniqueness as these pieces were all handmade and they were done with no mass production specifications.

















Wood carving, according to Malya
would be her livelihood until she
would grow old. They, however
usually end up burdened with so
much inventory.  Sometimes, they had to  give them away at a very low price which would not commensurate with the labor of love they gave for each item.























She direly needed the money. So
she begged that she be given an
amount and she would soon return
it when she comes back to get the
items she was leaving with me.





I gave the
money and
she never
came back.
As a last
resort, she
actually
disposed off
her items
with me.


So, I have
these stick
figures in
my possession.
















 This 15-piece set is now
only 10, with two items having broken
arms. I gave the other items out as gifts
to our partners.

Some actually love my caricature
woodcarvings. I considered them
Malya's Art Pieces. Some non-generic-
cordilleran-Cleopatra-alien-look-alike
stick figures.

Unfortunately, they had been lining up
my bookshelf for so long, collecting dust.
So, I took them down, polished them,
wrapped them in paper to be kept for
good.














 One by one,
I gave them
away.