I Ketut Negara
Old Painter of Northern Bali

I Ketut Negara started his career as puppet leather maker in his village, Nagasepaha village, Buleleng regency, Northern Bali. His was renowned for his capability in making leather puppet. It proved from numerous orders of the puppeteer’s request. The making skill in puppet is also as the reflection of his great talent in playing the puppet itself, so people often call him ‘Jero Dalang’. At present, he is famed with the name Jero Dalang Diah, while less of people recognize him with the name I Ketut Negara.

Jero Dalang Diah is also known as the puppet motive painter on the pane. It started in 1927, when a guest named I Wayan Nita visits his house by carrying a pane painting of one of the Japanese painter. The painting object is describing a Japanese lady with kimono. I Wayan Nita ask Jero Dalang Diah to make the same painting but using puppet as the object. Even though it looks weird and difficult, he could make it. After the guest left, he turns confusing. He has no idea how to paint on the slippery glass.
Jero Dalang Diah did give up easily. With pen and jelaga that liquidize by coconut oil, he begins to make the first sketch on the glass. But, unfortunately, he always failed in each of his scratch. His scratches won’t stick up on the slippery glass.
His failure did not make him desperate. Then, he made ink from Chinese ink bar that rubbed and liquidized with water. Actualy, his efforts succeeded, where the scratches spotted the strong trace on the glass.
For his perfect skills in puppet painting, he was able to finish the order in a short time. When he proceeded to the second step, he found another difficulties. This time, he was unable to color the sketch. The traditional dyestuff can stick up on the glass. In perplexity, finally Jero Dalang Diah dredged the paint from the example painting with knife. While dredging the paint layer by layer, he keep thinking and thinking. Perhaps, this is similar to Archimedes, the gravity discover, who yelled hysterically: “Eureka! ……. Eureka!” repeatedly. “I found it! ….. I found it!”
The zest of Jero Dalang Diah who never gave up, finally bore a result. For dredging the paint on that painting, he was able to know the types of paint used. He continued to the second process after gets several wood paint of factory made. He worked easily, but did not produce a perfect work, because the puppet picture character is not as his longing for.
He was confused, but after particularly observing the weakness, finally he found that the glass painting was a painting that was made the reverse way round. It means, the pane painting was made from the front side, and enjoyed from the backside. If the puppet is paint look out to the right side, the result will the opposite way. For his persistence, finally he could master the pane painting technique. Was it over yet? Surely not! Now, he collided with the coloring technique.
That is the beginning process of puppet pane painting art at Nagasepaha village, a small village located in the hinterland of the Buleleng regency. And that art still develop at present. Children, grandchildren, and few neighbor hood of Jero Dalang Diah are still actively occupying for that profession.
If it separated periodically, there are 3 periods in a puppet pane painting art of Nagasepaha village. The first period (1927-1950), marked by unsetting puppet painting. Second period (1950-1990), marked by naturalistic scene setting as the influence from Sukaraja (Central Java) and Jelekong (Western Java). Third period (1992-2002), marked by decorative setting on the front and back of the puppet as the touching result of the lecturing staff of Fine Arts Department of IKIP Negeri Singaraja. (Gung Man)

Ida Bagus Anom, Mask Maker and Dancer

Ida Bagus Anom was born in 1953 in Mas Village, Bali, in the same compound in which he and his family live today, where his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and their ancestors have lived for 700 years. Anom inherited his artistic talents from his father, the noted mask maker Ida Bagus Ketut Gelodog, who taught him carving, dancing and puppetry. Although he began making masks when he was eleven years old, Anom first planned a career in the tourism industry. After finishing high school, he attended the Academy of Hotel and Tourism in Denpasar, Bali, trained for three months in the Bali Beach Hotel.
However, Anom soon realized, however, that he preferred the life of an artist. Today, he is as accomplished mask maker and mask dancer who performs in ceremonies, festivals, and especially arranged performances for visitors from outside Bali. Anom makes traditional and masks based on Greek, Noh, and Commedia design. He created many original designs, such as the yawning mask, and the happy/sad masks. He also creates large decorative wall hangings.
Anom has made masks on commission for drama director Peter Brooke, drama director and actor Terence Stark, Danish drama teacher Peere Brahee and other international performers and directors. He has designed masks for the Women’s Art Festival (North Carolina, USA in November 1991), and for Mythos, Terence Stark’s Yogyakarta-based company.
His mask works have been exhibited in Gianyar in 1985, at Gedung Pola in Jakarta in 1977, and the Art Center Denpasar in 1970. photographs of his work have appeared in magazines, including Brutus (Japanese, January 1990), Tribune Des Uns and Des Autres (French, April 26, 1989) and Travel and Leisure (American, July 1987). He also appeared in the 1989 National Geographic special television program about Bali, aired on Public Broadcasting Systems in the Unite States and Canada, and in films produced in Canada, Germany, and Boston, Mass, USA. In 1984, he had a tour of England as penasar (story teller or loyal servant in Arja dance-drama) with Art World Wide.
Anom has earned a reputation as a fine art teacher of mask making and mask dancing. He teaches western and Balinese students. He regularly supervises participants in the Experiment in International Living Program, an American program that brings students to Bali twice a year for several months, and instructs several Balinese apprentices. He has worked with his community’s youth association to teach its members dance.
(Suteja Neka) Direktur of Dharma Seni Art Foundation which manages the Neka Art Museum, Ubud-Bali