No wood or material is ever thrown away once it gets into Engr. Reynaldo Araos’s hands. The imaginative engineer and entrepreneur, a BS Electrical Engineering graduate (1983) of Adamson University, and his equally creative family and friends recently premiered an exhibit at the Adamson University Art Gallery showcasing their exquisite handiwork.
From Scrap to Life: Restoring, Rebuilding, and Making Life Anew showcased wooden sculptures and furniture along with various photographs and paintings, all framed with reused wood. The furniture and frames were built together without using metal nails and finished not with varnish but only finishing oil, thus allowing people to feel the wood as naturally as it can get.
Joining Engr. Araos’s own works were the creations of his uncle Jerry Araos, Clifford Espinosa, Julian Araos, Babeth Lolarga, Jeffrey Araos, and Jemil Araos, which now belong to the engineer’s personal collection.
The creativity and functionality that Araos and other artists placed into their works extended to the pieces’ names. There is Under the Tables by Clifford Espinosa which at first glance looks like an intricate single table but which is actually composed of several pieces that can be removed to serve as low benches to surround the center table. The piece is majestic in its design and the use of wooden pegs as nails will make sure that Tables will last for generations.
Then there is Bantana, made by Engr. Araos himself – a chest made out of an old window and named so after the Tagalog words for chest (baul) and window (bintana). Another creation was the Kamamesha (from the Filipino words kama, mesa, and hapag), a long table created from an old-fashioned window and fitted with rollers under the legs so it can be pushed over a queen-size bed to let the family have breakfast, read, or write while in bed.
The unusually shaped Luklukan by Jerry Araos is a chair that is not so much a chair but acts more as a perch answering the various sitting habits of Filipinos. Coffee tables and stools feature prominently in this exhibit as well, including Kaperaso, which is a coffee table made of small pieces of hardwood scraps adorned with a matching blue flower vase. Kaperaso is a contraction of the words kape (coffee) and kapiraso (small piece).
Engr. Araos’s penchant for making something new out of what others will throw away springs back from his life experience as a child. He came from an impoverished background and was once a scavenger on the city’s streets; this experience imprinted on his mind that trash could be made into something that will be both useful and beautiful. Blessed as he is with capable mind and hands, Engr. Araos has now built himself a collection of unique, wonderful artworks, showing excellent craftsmanship and versatility – with the Adamson a witness to the talent of one of its own.
