Art of a Child

Dear Art lover,

     Part of the problem of my living out of a suitcase is that I do not have access to many of my backup drives or my older images that I rarely use.  I am working to launch a campaign on Kickstarter in March.  I want some of my wax sculptures cast into bronze so they may find new homes.

     For this reason, I have been searching all over for images of me casting bronze back at the Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory in Austin, Texas, many years ago.  Sadly, I lost what images I had online when I transferred my Web site to a new host company back in June (my fault).

     I got a giggle last night when I found a folder that contained a few of my childhood artworks.  These are dated around 1974 and 1975.  The horse is 1974, so I would have been ten years old (if the art fair was in the fall as it is these days).  My mother taught me how to paint in acrylics and all but the last shown here were in acrylic paint on canvas or canvas board.  My mother probably helped me make that orange frame around the horse in the wild, wild west.

     I did not do so well the next year with the mouse. Haha.. All I remember about that artwork was that I copied a card I found in a store and I painted it for the first boy I ever fell in love with.  I was eight years old and my family had just moved to Florida from Germany.  I doubt he was impressed, but I think he never knew.  [I had to force the crush to stop before I entered high school.  I was such a geek.]

    

     I am amused by the frog.  Was I thinking that the shapes of my initials painted LARGE and in bright yellow balanced out the big round sun?  oy yoy.  And the final fish painting:  I was experimenting with texture even then.  That is a crumpled up brown paper bag used as a canvas.  It looks like some cheap school-grade paint in traditional bright kid colors.  I am still hoping to find some picture of my very first mural shortly after these little works were made, but have little chance of that.  

     In any event, these are not bronze casting images.  However, today is “Throw-back Thursday” on Facebook and thus, I thought I would contribute some OLDIES.. have fun.

Like nature images?  Check out Tantalizing Tasmania:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/2015_02_ArtNews-TasmaniaLandscapePainting.htm

Please share this with anyone you think might bust a gut over it-ha!  Thank you.

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

Gallery of Naïve Art Kovačica Serbia

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Northeast of Belgrade about 50 kilometers is the city of Kovačica, Serbia. It is home to the Galerija naivne umetnosti or the Gallery of Naïve Art, a place visited by many famous people, including apparently, The Rolling Stones. Dragana’s parents, Srecko and Smiglia, treated us both to this experience one afternoon. Here is a photo of me with them inside the gallery.

There are currently over 20 member artists of the gallery, working with lots of color and depicting the daily life in Serbia in a manner that is full of heart, sentiment, and a sometimes not-so-simple charm. Their work is a joyous celebration of their lives, childlike in its enthusiasm. These artists are said to have had no formal art education and yet one can see that their art is born of observation and passion.

One thing I found surprisingly consistent is that their compositions had a peaceful kind of balance, often using symmetry and repetition. In some ways, their art seemed to be the kind an engineer’s brain might make. But then, I was married to a mechanical engineer who could see all the lack of straight lines and symmetry in my own work or something that just did not feel right to him for some reason (and he was therefore one of my favorite critics while I had works-in-progress). I did not always agree with his opinion, but I was grateful to have the balance of it.

The Gallery of Naïve Art opened in its original location on May 15, 1955. It moved to this pretty blue building in September 1989. I thought the lighting was pretty cool and smiled to myself as I remembered the first time that Srecko and I had our first real communication without his daughter Dragana translating for us. As I sat outside one evening working on my art in their courtyard where we ate most of our meals, he asked me if I wanted some more light. He communicated this by pointing to the light and saying, “Tesla?” It was a wonderfully clear and happy exchange for both of us, as I accepted his offer.

My favorite artist on exhibit inside these walls was Martin Jonaš (1924-1996). He was a co-founder of the gallery. My favorite painting that day is this one of the woman in the blue dress pulling a load. One can just FEEL how hard she works.

Martin Jonaš thinks like an artist. While looking at his works I was remembering a conversation that I had with my friend and mentor Vasily Fedorouk so many years ago. He said, “When you are learning to play the piano, you learn how to play each note. But when you actually play the piano, you do not play all of those notes at the same time. That is not music, it is noise.”

The discussion evolved into why artists will play down some parts of the anatomy or landscape even, and play up, or make larger even, the parts that contain the emotional idea in a work of art. Jonaš has taken this concept and run with it. I hope you enjoy the art of the farmers in Serbia.

While Smiglia, Dragana, and I were visiting Pančevo, Serbia, I was interviewed for their local newspaper. Dragana just sent me this link to the article that appeared yesterday. It is a funny translation via Google; not horribly far off, just at times nonsensical. For example, near the end of the interview when I spoke about the old buildings. I actually said that I loved the crumbling parts in the architecture. That while some people might think it was horrible, I found it beautiful. Enjoy…
Pančevac Press