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Joel Galdino de Freitas is the son of Master Galdino and was always close to his father. “Since I was 9 years old I worked alongside with him. My life then was very good. Every thing he did was full of poetry, there was always a story”, he says. He lost his father, mother and two brothers. Now he works alone at the Master Galdino Memorial, in Caruaru, built by the local government. There, he is surrounded by figurines and images he learned how to make with his father. “The names of the pieces come to me once they are ready. For the more intricate work I make a cylinder and cover it with things. I make all the things my father used to, but some have become different. I make the main character he created, Manuel (or Mané) Pãozeiro, and the same sort of imaginary castles, just like my dad.”
Joel spent 10 years in Vitória (ES) and after his father’s death, in 1996, he decided to go back to his hometown. Since 1999 he’s been looking after the memorial and working on his pieces. “Here in Alto do Moura almost everyone lives off clay. My father suffered a lot, but he always knew he would be a ceramist. It always struck me how he used to ask us not to let his art die. So that’s what I’m here for.” Among the many verses written by Master Galdino, one stands out: “Galdino is a doll maker/and also a poet/there are dolls in my house/that doll makers don’t have/my art I owe to God/lessons I owe to nobody.” |
