Unique Artistry: Julian Jumalon and the Butterflies

“………. A few years ago I wrote an article ‘I remember my teachers’. The exhibit, in the same spirit may I convey the same thing

…..’I remember my students’…………..”

-Julian N. Jumalon

August 21, 2013 - Ninoy Aquino Day. This was the day when we had our Biology I fieldtrip. However, I woke up late, around 7:00 am. What’s worse was that the bus leaves the school at 7:30 am. So if I go to our school which is about 6.5 kilometers far from our residence, it would take me 40 minutes to travel to the school- I would be left behind. What I did was googled the first place of our destination instead. I was shocked to see that it was the Jumalon Butterfly Sanctuary, which was just four blocks away from my residence. I immediately texted my teacher that I would just go directly to the destination instead of going to school, which was supposed to be our meet-up area. When I arrived at Jumalon street (where the Sanctuary can be found), I got lost. I was unceasingly searching for the sanctuary only to find out that it was found inside an ancestral house. My first impression of the place was dull and ordinary. However, when the trip inside the sanctuary started, I saw the contrary- butterflies flying around in the gardens, colorful winged butterflies flying inside the cages, and a room filled with paintings made using watercolor and mosaics made from colorful winged butterflies and moths. The sanctuary was just as colorful as the wings of the butterflies present there. After having visited the next destinations, I went home with the trip in the sanctuary stuck in my head. I wrongly judged the beautiful place.

Time passed by and it was already our finals weeks. For our finals in Communications-I, we were tasked to find a local artist and write something about him/her. The first artist who abruptly came out from my head was Julian Jumalon, the artist in the butterfly sanctuary.

It was October 3 when I went back to the Sanctuary. Luckily, no tourists or students were there to visit the sanctuary so I was lucky enough to have a one-on-one, point-by-point interview of the artist’s children, Mr. Renato Jumalon and Ms. Humaida Jumalon, who were the solely managing, entertaining the guests, and taking care of the sanctuary. I asked them about the life of Julian Jumalon - his love for butterflies, the persons who greatly influenced his art, and his signature art. 

It must be kind of weird in our generation for a man to like butterflies. Due to the color of the butterflies, people often misjudge them to be gays. But it is completely different for Prof. Julian Jumalon. Instead, his love for butterflies and arts prompted him to innovate his signature artworks called lepido mosaics. It is a mosaic made from damaged wings of butterflies and moths. The reason for this unique kind of artwork can be traced back during his childhood years. While residing at Zamboanga when he was eight years old, he saw and was amazed by a bunch of colorful-winged butterflies migrating from one place to the other. After some time, while he was a second year high school student at Abellana National School, he found a book entitled “The Limber Lost Girl” - a love story of a rich man who fell in love with an underprivileged girl who cultures and sells butterflies to earn money. This inspired him to collect different species of butterflies. Consequently, collecting butterflies became his lifetime hobby. To get new species of butterflies with unique colors in its wings, He engaged trading of his butterflies to Europe. Surprisingly, he found 20 unique species of butterfly even though he never had a biology course while studying in college. He did study the parts of the butterfly all by himself, and wrote series of drafts about his findings to scientists in Europe.

Warmed by the sun, thousands of monarch butterflies spontaneously take flight.Photograph by Annie Griffiths Belthttp://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/mexico-butterflies-traveler/

His artistry may be dated back during his college days. He studied Bachelor of Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines Manila under, the tutelage of famous Filipino artists such as Fernando Amorsolo, Fabian de la Rosa, and Guillermo Tolentino. Due to these artists, Prof. Jumalon’s artistic style in painting was in the realist realm. Moreover, his artworks were inspired by our culture, history, nature and folklore. Great examples of these are the Sa Kabukiran and Ako’y Pobreng Alindahaw, where he painted his interpretations of the folk songs of the same title.   He first used oil paint in painting his works. However, materials for oil paintings were very expensive, he switched to watercolor as his medium for painting. But during a cold Christmas evening, as his kids were playing with the damaged butterfly wings in creating Christmas cards, he found out that he can make a never-seen-before mosaic by using the colorful wings of the butterflies. Thus, he named this technique “lepido mosaics”, which then became his signature artwork. These lepido mosaics of Prof. Jumalon were made from damaged wings of moths and butterflies. Unlike other butterfly mosaics like in Taiwan which are composed of big chunks of butterfly wings combined together, Jumalon’s mosaics were mainly made with very tiny cuts (about half a centimeter each) of butterfly wings. Thus, his artworks are product of great patience, where one artwork is finished at least four months. This unique technique made his artworks famous during his time due to its beauty and level of difficulty.

Although Prof. Jumalon died at age 90 in the year 2000, his artworks can still be seen in his Butterfly sanctuary. Indeed, Prof. Julian Jumalon proved that each and every Cebuano possesses the heart of an artist.

Unique artistry: Julian Jumalon and the Butterflies

Prof. Julian Jumalon's love for butterflies and arts prompted him to innovate his signature artworks called lepido mosaics. It is a mosaic made from damaged wings of butterflies and moths. The reason for this unique kind of artwork can be traced back during his childhood years. While residing at Zamboanga when he was eight years old, he saw and was amazed by a bunch of colorful-winged butterflies migrating from one place to the other. After some time, while he was a second year high school student at Abellana National School, he found a book entitled “The Limber Lost Girl” - a love story of a rich man who fell in love with an underprivileged girl who cultures and sells butterflies to earn money. This inspired him to collect different species of butterflies. Consequently, collecting butterflies became his lifetime hobby. To get new species of butterflies with unique colors in its wings, He engaged trading of his butterflies to Europe. Surprisingly, he found 20 unique species of butterfly even though he never had a biology course while studying in college. He did study the parts of the butterfly all by himself, and wrote series of drafts about his findings to scientists in Europe.

His artistry may be dated back during his college days. He studied Bachelor of Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines Manila under the tutelage of famous Filipino artists such as Fernando Amorsolo, Fabian de la Rosa, and Guillermo Tolentino. Due to these artists, Prof. Jumalon’s artistic style in painting was in the realist realm. Moreover, his artworks were inspired by our culture, history, nature and folklore. Great examples of these are the Sa Kabukiran and Akoy Pobreng Alindahaw, where he painted his interpretations of the folk songs of the same title.   He first used oil paint in painting his works. However, materials for oil paintings were very expensive, he switched to watercolor as his medium for painting. But during a cold Christmas evening, as his kids were playing with the damaged butterfly wings in creating Christmas cards, he found out that he can make a never-seen-before mosaic by using the colorful wings of the butterflies. Thus, he named this technique “lepido mosaics”, which then became his signature artwork. These lepido mosaics of Prof. Jumalon were made from damaged wings of moths and butterflies. Unlike other butterfly mosaics like in Taiwan which are composed of big chunks of butterfly wings combined together, Jumalon’s mosaics were mainly made with very tiny cuts (about half a centimeter each) of butterfly wings. Thus, his artworks are product of great patience, where one artwork is finished at least four months. This unique technique made his artworks famous during his time due to its beauty and level of difficulty.

Although Prof. Jumalon died at age 90 in the year 2000, his artworks can still be seen in his Butterfly sanctuary, which is located inside their home. Indeed, Prof. Julian Jumalon proved that Cebuanos possesses the heart of an artist.

Unique artistry: Julian Jumalon and the Butterflies

Topic Sentence: Julian Jumalon’s love for butterflies and the arts prompted him to innovate his signature artworks called “lepido mosaics”, a mosaic made of damaged wings of butterflies and moths.

I.                    Julian Jumalon and the butterflies

A.      Butterflies as his first love

a.       When he was 8 years old he saw and was amazed as a bunch of colorful winged butterflies in Zamboanga migrating to the other side of the place.

b.      When he was a 2^nd year high school student at Abellana National School, he found a book called “The Limber Lost Girl”- a love story of a rich man who fell in love with an underprivileged girl who cultures and sells butterflies to earn money. This inspired him to continue collecting more and more butterflies of different species.

B.      Butterfly then became his lifetime hobby

a.       He engages trading of his butterflies to Europe to get new species of butterflies.

b.      Did not have a single biology subject when he studied in college yet he found 20 unique species of butterfly.

II.                  Artist

A.      He studied fine arts in University of the Philippines Manila under the tutelage of famous Filipino artists Fernando Amorsolo, Fabian de la Rosa, Guillermo Tolentino.

a.       Due to these artists his artistic style in painting was in the realistic approach.

b.      His artworks were inspired by our culture, history, nature and folklore. Examples are the Sa Kabukiran, Akoy Pobreng Alindahaw.

B.      Painting

a.       He was at first an oil painter.

b.      Since materials for oil painting was very expensive he switched to watercolor painting

c.       During Christmas, as his kids were playing with the damaged butterfly wings in creating Christmas cards, he found out that he can make a never seen before mosaic by using colorful wings of the butterflies—this then became his signature artwork.

C.      Signature Artwork

a.       His signature artworks are his “Lepido Mosaics”-mosaics made from damaged wings of moths and butterflies.

b.      Unlike other butterfly mosaics like in Taiwan which are composed of big chunks of butterfly wings combined together, Jumalon’s mosaics were mainly made with very tiny cuts (about .5 cm each) of butterfly wings. Thus, his artworks are product of great patience, where 1 artwork is finished at least four months.

c.       This unique technique made his artworks famous during his time due to its beauty and level of difficulty.