Beyond a color palette in which shades of yellow, green and red shine, Jaimer Galindo’s work table is dominated by ocher tones. They come from wood and shells that anyone could consider waste, but that Galindo seeks to transform into something more.
In his left hand, this artisan holds a circle that he built from some wood that he rescues from some cabinet shops in the area, which usually throw them away or burn them. What could have been trash is now a polished medallion that Galindo is adorning with the figure of a turtle.
“When I am giving artistic workshops to my students I show them how this can be transformed into works of art”says Galindo, who created a business called Aboriginal Art and is also a teacher of crafts and crafts at the El Totumo Encantado foundation in Necoclí.
On the table where Galindo is parked on Pescador Street in this Antioquia municipality, some wooden crafts stand out, such as a keychain with the face of a macaw, that bird that usually adorns the skies of Necoclí, and a small raft that in its sail has a sea bathed by the sunset drawn.
In addition to these pieces, for Galindo a fundamental element in his work are the totumos, traditional from the area. Already since the pre-Columbian period, indigenous communities used to make artisanal containers with these fruits.
In the case of the artisan, that spirit of working with crafts comes from a very young age, since his grandfather, belonging to the Sinuan ethnic group, was also an artisan.
Galindo works with natural shells and fibers that are 100% natural and environmentally friendly.
Added to the above is his refusal to use plastics and other types of artificial materials. That is why she likes to work with natural shells and fibers that are 100% natural and environmentally friendly.
The pedagogical aspect was recently added to this artisanal work, thanks to the Totumo Encantado foundation, whose director, Flor Cortés, invited Galindo eight years ago to join her team.
“My intention with the students is to instill in them the idea of rescuing all that ancestry that we had and avoiding eating in plastic containers. For this reason, I focus a lot on totumo and coconut and, in addition, we rescue the wood that reaches the beach to work on all kinds of crafts.”he assures.
According to Galindo, when a totumo is removed from one of the trees it does not harm them because, when this fruit reaches maturity, it falls and is usually lost at the foot of the tree’s pole. “In fact, it rots many times and nothing happens because it is very difficult for the seed to reproduce in that part”he adds.
For the artisan, this work is similar to that carried out by pollinating bees, because when he grabs a totumo, in addition to working the shell, he removes the pulp and always tries to spread it in a place where trees can grow again.
Scattered across the table in Galindo’s business are various shapes and sizes of totumos, which serve as containers for drinks or food or even as bowls to clean the brushes with which he gives shape and color to his works.
“A friend who came from France asked me to make her something that she could carry so she wouldn’t be using plastic, hence the idea of starting to work with totumo and coconut.”recalls Galindo about the beginning of this venture.
The artisan assures that this material gives him the possibility of producing a wide variety of elements, such as fruit bowls, spoons and vessels to carry water. Its capacity for transformation and adaptation is such that Galindo is convinced that all the elements of a kitchen can be made from totumos.
“The only thing you can’t do is cook in them, but you can store them hot and cold… We turn what many people considered trash into works of art”concludes the craftsman.
