New Years Eve Lascivious Sculpture

Dear Art-loving friend,

     In 2009 I began a tradition for this blog.  With the idea of living closer to the Earth, more Natural, as it were, I decided to celebrate the coming of a new year with an NYE blog post featuring naughty art; art forms not unlike some of the art you might see in Pompeii, Italy.  Many consider Pompeii to be full of erotic art, and fair enough.  Those Italians thought of a male erection as a sign of prosperity and fertility, i.e., a wondrous event to celebrate and enjoy the fruits or gifts the gods have given us.  Their homes often featured at the entrance a mosaic of some incredibly endowed human of the male persuasion.  It was not considered obscene.  It was seen as a welcoming wish for prosperity and abundance.

     I suspect that most figurative artists, at least, create some erotic art at some point in their lives.  I can say that safely since eroticism is quite personal and thus, the boundaries blurred for some people.  I suppose anything goes with just the right audience.

     In any event, I feel that I have been slacking off over the last several years in this particular genre. I had hoped to create at least one piece of intentionally erotic each year.  I have a few pieces in the works, but to be honest, I am trying to make my work at bit more … hmm.. subtle is not the word, GRAND?  but you will just have to wait and see for yourself.

     While I was visiting the Carusi Studios of marble carving in Carrara back in November, I saw a marble sculpture outside from an unknown artist.  Many artists use their studio space (the Carusi no doubt know, but I forgot to ask and today is the sharing day…)  I will admit that for all of the putti or just babies in art that I have seen, these two kinda gave me the creeps.  I think of them as the “lascivious babies” because seriously, have you ever seen such a passionate, sexy kiss between young ones?

    

I know that children enjoy mimicking adults, but these two seem far too young for that.  So, what is up?  However, the work is beautifully executed and also, the large belly of the baby girl made me think of how some artworks tell stories in that they show something of the past, present, and future in the same artwork.  Sometimes that means depicting a couple in the foreground (usually representing the present time) and then repeating them in the background (future and/or past, depending on where they are located in the painting, for example).  The big belly here serves to remind us that “one thing leads to another.”  This is not unlike the common placement in the US of the sexy lingerie shops existing RIGHT NEXT to the maternity stores.

     So. . . um, enjoy (?) these kissing babies.  Maybe even creepy romance is still better than war.  And let us work to make 2015 a year of peace and love and tons of fun!

Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm,

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

Carrara Marble Pietrasanta Sculpture

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Well, what a surprise to learn that this is my 600th blog post! Who knew that I had it in me? So, I am happy that what I wanted to write about was my recent trip to Carrara and Pietrasanta, Italy. Marble is my drug of choice and I miss carving it very much. However, like my dream to have a dog, some things will have to wait until their time comes again.

My friend and fellow sculptor Gilbert Barrera came to Italy from San Antonio, Texas. We met each other MANY years ago when he came to Austin, specifically the Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory, and met our group up there. Like me, Gilbert came to Italy to improve his art skills. This first image is of the two of us standing next to his current project in Carrara, Italy. He wants to carve this marble all with hand tools… good enough for Michelangelo, afterall. I am too impatient for that sort of thing, but respect that we all have different goals in life. At least Gilbert is doing SOMETHING with stone now!

We then headed to Pietrasanta for some lunch and sculpture viewing. “Convenient” is rarely a word one thinks of when Italia comes to mind. With the poorly timed train schedules to these industrial towns, one usually finds oneself here during the long lunch hour and things are mostly closed. However, il Museo dei Bozzetti was open. Housed inside of the library, the museum is where they keep a decent collection of plaster sculptures that were used as the models for artists to copy their works into marble. Direct carving is not as well known as in the States.

My favorite works here are those of Leone Tommasi, sculptor active around 1930s and 1940s. His realism in the human figures is like a caress in his sensitive forms. When Gilbert saw the reclining Jesus sculpture, he remarked that Tommasi understands well the form in gravity. Like Pietro Annigoni, Leoni Tommasi was creating a very different style of work from what was popular in his own time. I am glad his stuck to his guns. The next images you see here are all the works of Leone Tommasi.

After all of this, I had to show Gilbert the piece that completely surprised me during my first visit to Pietrasanta in 2004. Charles Umlauf was a sculptor who lived, worked, and taught in Austin, Texas. He even has his own museum there and the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum is a real gem in the town! Naturally, I have spent time there and am familiar with his work. I was stunned to bump into his “Eve” so many years ago! Later, Nelie Plourde, director of the Umlauf Gardens, told me, as I related to Gilbert yesterday, that Charles Umlauf found it better and cheaper to create the art here in Pietrasanta, cast it into bronze here, and then SHIP it to the USA. Here we are posing (using my self-timer on the camera) with Umlauf’s “Eve.”

Finally, I leave you with a sculpture that amuses and charms me. It was sculpted by Giulio Ciniglia and is titled “L’ora” (The Time) from 1992. Ok, I have got to go. Just look at …

Grove Park Inn North Carolina

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Recently my father and his wife Peggy wanted me to see the stone work and architecture of The Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. I love Asheville, what little I actually know of it. I had chosen (and was accepted) to go to college in that wooded city near the Blue Ridge Mountains. But once I found out that Texas was not all tumbleweeds and had some gorgeous trees and rivers, I changed my mind and chose a university closer to my father’s location in Austin. I did not know what I wanted to be when I grew up, only that I loved mathematics, so instead of a major, I chose trees and the mountains. But that was 1982.

Today, The Grove Park Inn has probably not changed much since it officially opened on Saturday, July 12, 1913. The 150-room hotel was built of stone and concrete. Each five and a half inch thick section of the concrete roof was poured continuously to avoid unnecessary seams. The walls consist of the natural, uncut edges of stone in a way I have never seen before.



Edwin Wiley Grove and Fred Loring Seely kept the economy going by buying “carloads of mules.” The mules pulled sleds of boulders down the mountain to the “automobile trains” waiting in the roads below. The trains were made up of about 14 wagons tied together in a line and towed by one of three Packard trucks. They were able to carry about forty tons of rock per trip.


This reminded me of la lizzatura -- the centuries-old act of carrying the marble out of the mountains of Carrara, Italy, and down to the ships in the ports by way of large wooden logs and oxen.

So you can imagine my delight as my father and I continued to read about the building of The Grove Park Inn and look at the framed enlargements of 100-year-old photographs and discovered that Italian stonemasons were hired. They insured that Seely’s instruction that only the uncut, exposed edges of the stones were visible.

Shortly after the 1912 groundbreaking, 450 men were hired and earned the best wages of the region – “one dollar a day for a ten-hour shift.” Additional workers from the Deep South were brought in and housed in circus tents. They worked around the clock and the construction was completed in eleven months and twenty seven days.

Today the inn now includes a cave-like pampering spa (see my last image in this series), a golf course, and outdoor swimming pool, shops, and more. The day that we were there, we teased Peggy about stalking a wedding as she “oohed and aahed” over the bride and ceremony. It was a lovely setting and a perfect day!

The Grove Park Inn is completely fireproof and open all year long. The only thing I never saw an answer to was my question “Why is Fred Seely’s name not on the inn with Edwin Grove?” You may see more of my photos from this stone resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains on my public page on Facebook

And speaking of family, I would like to say a “Bonjour” to Marie-Madeleine Delmaire, mother of my dear friend Hélène, who tells me that her mom is now one of my blog fans in France.

Mountain Escape Salzburg

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

As my friend and hostess Sylvia and I cruised around Salzburg, we ended up in a large cluster of buildings, churches and the like, with the tombstones that were covered with the colorful live plants. I was beginning to wonder if all of Austria treated their dead in this way, never forgetting. I think the church was St. Peter’s. I know I am a terrible tour guide because I was content to look and not think of labels (names, locations, etc.). It was overcast that day, raining a bit. Sylvia was not happy with the large amount of unusual rain they had there during my visit, but I rather enjoyed it and felt like laughing a lot when we got caught in it.


Along the cliffside in this cemetery, one could view some mausoleums, presumably used by the wealthier families in Salzburg. And then above those one can make out windows embedded in the cliffs. Sylvia told me that these spaces were used to protect people during the war. I did not think there looked like there was much space in which to hide many people, but then I did not go up inside.



I remember that in the Carrara area of Italy, I was told similar stories about the mountains hiding locals from foreign attack. In fact, Lardo di Colonnata is a specialty dish of this Tuscan region, served even today. It is a “food” that is basically pig fat with pepper. It was all that people had to eat when they retreated up into the mountains to escape capture during wars. And it kept them alive. Perhaps that is why they cherish this dish so, but I have never had the desire to eat it.

Pietrasanta, Italy - Italia

Today, I visited Pietrasanta with my friends Hafiza, Dorian, and Ling. Pietrasanta is an art town. From what I have understood,
the town became a home for working sculptors of the nearby famous Carrara marble. Carrara was too expensive for the artists to
live in, so they moved south, but still close to the Alpes mountains. Both Carrara and Pietrasanta are in the Italian region of Tuscany.

I have included here a few of my images from the inside of the San Martino Duomo (cathedral, but more often interpreted as simply "dome").
"Cappella della madonna del sole" (Chapel of the Madonna of the Sun) was constructed in 1823, but the origins are much older.
Enjoy the photos. I am tired from long consecutive days, so I hope the image are enchanting enough.
ciao, ciao, K