Sculptor / Painter Kelly Borsheim's Blog: 22 January 2017

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Pietrasanta Dali Viareggio

Dear Art Lover,

This past Thursday, my wonderful neighbor drove me back to the foundry in Pietrasanta where I recently completed a new bronze garden sculpture, “Rock Towers and Frogs.”

Real estate is costly and even most of the foundries that I worked with in the US are not great about storing the molds of their clients. Here, they made the molds of silicon and plaster, reinforced and with handles made from embedded metal. John Borsheim and I made the mother (outer/supporting) molds for my sculptures from fiberglass, which I see as a huge improvement. Anyway, I do not like to see these materials, the only thing that exists now of my original sculpture and therefore necessary for me to keep in good condition, outside and open. I do not like the exposure to the elements and I do not like the idea that anyone can walk in during the lunch break and take a souvenir, for example, of part of a sculptor’s mold. Call me paranoid, but people also collect street signs!

So, it took all of fifteen minutes to load up the car with fourteen separate molds. This bronze may be ordered if you are interested. See some of the images of the final piece here: http://www.borsheimarts.com/sculpture/2016/RockTowersFrogGardenSculpture.htm

Loading up Sculpture Molds from foundry in Pietrasanta Italy

Since my friend had never been to Pietrasanta [Italy] before, we took a little “giro” [walk] around the center of town. Luckily, there is an exhibition going on now for the sculptures of the surrealist artist Salvador Dali. Because I am in the middle of my knee rehab, we did not go into many buildings and did not stay very long. Mostly, during the winter time or off-season for tourists, the beaches are closed. So are almost all of the restaurants. We had really wanted to eat some seafood along the water, but we did not find an obviously safe place to park for a walk on the beach.

I include some snapshots of our “giro” and also of our wonderful seafood lunch at Tito del Molo (‘molo’ means ‘pier’ in Italian) in nearby Viareggio. Viareggio is a city, larger than the working town of Pietrasanta, but even there, many of the eateries were closed. Viareggio is also famous for its big Carnevale parade, which includes very political floats and is quite spectacular from what I have seen online and heard from friends [I really make a lousy tourist in crowded places]. Still, we were happy with our meal and I even bought my friend a bottle of the house wine there as a thank you for helping me with this errand. We got home before dark and our landlord met us there. The two guys (and Gregory, my landlord’s dog) helped me unload the sculpture molds and put them in a safe place in hopes that I may sell another bronze!

Knee Update: On 2 December, I received a diagnosis of a torn ACL and was told that I needed to wait until mid-January before the surgeon would know WHEN he could operate. The surgery requires a six-month minimum rehabilitation. However, recently, I saw another specialist and also got feedback from a doctor friend of my landlord. Their verdicts are that the MRI does NOT show a torn ACL. Instead, I was prescribed an electro-magnetic therapy to help the blood-saturated, spongy bones in my tibia (mostly) and an electric stimulation therapy to jumpstart my atrophied quadriceps muscles. I was finally given instructions on how to ride my in-home bicycle (how often and other details), as well as a series of exercises (balance and relearning to walk). I am almost half-way through that therapy, and the glucosamine supplements will continue for many more weeks. Naturally, I hope this works. Thank you for all of your questions and kind remarks.

Now, please enjoy these images.

If you like, please have a look at some more of my sculpture online here:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/sculpture.htm

and again, welcome to 2017.

Peace,

Kelly

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