Ti Voglio Bene

Dear Art Lover,

     The Italians have two ways (at least) to say, “I love you.”   The one with which most foreigners might be familiar is, “Ti amo.”  Literally, “You, I love.”  This phrase is usually reserved for romantic or passionate love.  The other way to say “I love you” is, “Ti voglio bene.”   Literally, “You, I want well.”  You will hear this spoken between friends and family. 

     In my salt and pepper experiences in amore, I must say that passion fades.  Not always, and it may change without disappearing, but it seems only a relatively lucky few figure out how to keep the flames from burning out.  Another observation is that passionate or romantic love is often about the lover more than the beloved.  It can be a bit selfish in its urgency.  However, “I want you well” is actually a generous desire.  Is that not more about the beloved; perhaps even without much thought to the needs of the one who expresses the love? This form of love strikes me as true, dependable, and longer lasting.

     I tend to think that English is a more precise language.  We have so many similar words with slightly different meanings.  We can be quite specific in what we communicate.  However, I think the Italian way of distinguishing the kind of love is actually helpful.  Imagine the chaos of miscommunication:  the stuff of movies, or of drama queens!  [By the way, Italians also have two words for “gift.”  Il regalo is generally used for presents one gives on occasions, such as birthdays, anniversaries, job-related events, etc.  Il dono is the kind of gift one gives from the heart.  It has more emotional meaning.  This could mean a donation to a charity, a gift of an organ to a loved one in surgery, or even a simple stone given “just because.”   Charming, isn’t it?]

     Perhaps you will remember the post I made on 15 December, in which I presented a marvelous painting by Niccolò Barabino (1831–1891).  Her home is in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence, Italy. 

http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.it/2015/12/niccolo-barabino-painter-florence-italy.html

     There is another painting that I believe is by the same author.  I had to ask one of the docents how to get up on the next floor to see it.  By elevator only, she said.  When I arrived, the whole floor seemed closed off.  However, I had only come to see more of what was visible on the floor beneath me.  I really love this painter’s use of dark and light to emphasize his subject.  And perhaps you will recognize one of these saints.  Hmmm?  Allora, Merry Christmas.

Ti voglio bene,

Kelly

~  Kelly Borsheim, artist

http://BorsheimArts.com

Love and Courage

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

"For a relationship to stay alive, love alone is not enough. Without imagination, love stales into sentiment, duty, boredom. Relationships fail not because we have stopped loving but because we first stopped imagining."
- psychologist James Hillman

"Love is the most difficult and dangerous form of courage. Courage is the most desperate, admirable, and noble kind of love."
- Delmore Schwartz

Happy birthday, Cayla!

Mermaid Bronze Sculpture

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I always loved the Grimm fairy tale of “The Little Mermaid.” Here was depicted a creature who had no soul (but wanted one), but knew what love really was. As a young girl, and even now I suppose, I am touched by the story of her figure falling in love with a human prince, saving his life when his ship capsized, and allowing another girl to take the credit and the joy.

As luck – and the nature of a good story – would have it, the Prince fell in love with the girl he thought saved his life. However, our heroine went through great personal costs (her lovely singing voice traded for a pair of legs to replace her tail, but sharp pains were felt whenever she walked or moved with those legs) and finally met her prince after she transformed on his beach. While he became enchanted by the youngest daughter of the Sea King and loved her in his way, she never gained his romantic love.

As his closest companion, she had to endure watching him marry another. On top of that, she loved him too much to refuse his asking her to dance for them all at the wedding, despite the physical pain the movements gave her. She had no voice with which to complain. The rules of her world dictated that as the sun came up the morning after her beloved had chosen another, her life would end and she would become sea foam, returning to the ocean, her natural life cycle cut way short.

During the night of the wedding, the little mermaid’s older sisters swam to the boat where the festivities were taking place. They, too, had been to see the Sea Witch. They traded their graces for a special knife. If the little mermaid were to use that knife during the night and kill her beloved and his new wife and let their blood run over her legs, she would have her natural life as a mermaid back and could return to her royal family.

The Little Mermaid stood in the dark bedroom of the slumbering newlyweds that night. Love completely overwhelmed her as she gazed down upon them. She could not harm them. She left them there and went to meet the sun. Her body became lighter and lighter. The sea was before her. But she felt herself lifting higher and higher. . . until she began to see small figures in the air beside her.

Because of the pure and unselfish love she had shown, she was being given a second chance to gain a soul. She had become a “Daughter of the Air.” Depending on the joys and sorrows of the children she was to witness, there was a faint possibility that over much time, she could gain a soul. It was not love, but a soul is something, isn’t it? And it is interesting that gaining a soul depended on the behaviours and whims (or love?) of others. Well, Grimm IS the name of the author, after all! Ha.

Sadly, from my point of view, the prince and his bride never understood what happened. They were oblivious to her pain. They never appreciated that in the hands of another, they could have died. They never knew how much she loved them. They never knew what happened to her. And worse, perhaps, they never knew that they could help her in her new search for a soul.

What I always liked about the ending is that idea that we do not know how our choices, our smiles, our groans, affect others. So, should we not do all we can to lighten the load instead of possibly denying one a soul or at least a chance at happiness? I have never seen the downside of a genuine smile.

Art Anniversary Promotion: Get more art for your buck. Hurry, this one-time offer expires on 15 February 2013.

Hate, Fear and Love

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

It is funny that knowing my process in making art does not give me much comfort when I am in the “suffering stage” of it. I know that there will be a light at the end of that tunnel, I just cannot seem to see it until I turn that mystical corner.

I started about five good-sized charcoal and pastel drawings some time ago, in preparation for my Open Studio in early February. Along with my efforts in marble, I knew that I could not get that many works finished in the time that I had, so I set my goal to develop each of the works to the point that others could have a pretty good idea of where I was headed.

The cold and rain have returned (so I carve less now) and I am able to get back to those Italian-inspired pastels. The basic idea is there for each of them, and now I work on creating the details that put a certain level of quality in my art that appeals to me (and I hope to you).


It is at this stage, when I see the work finished in my mind, but I have still the work to do, that I begin to hate the work. This is when I start dusting. Or working on taxes. Or writing my blog (ha). Or eating more than I should. Anything to procrastinate on my approach to the easel or the stone.

I know, I know, most artists want to speak of the joy in their efforts. Sure that is there, or it would be madness to continue. But there is a time during each creative effort in which the vision is mentally done, but the work is not. For a relatively short amount of time that feels like forever, I get bored with the doing. And I hate it. And I hate the work for making me feel that.

The hatred comes from fear. The fear is that I cannot create that which I envision; that I cannot live up to my hopes. Should I want to lose that kind of fear? Absolutely not! That fear is my strength. It keeps me learning. However, I must learn to face this fear, again and again. My faith that I can turn the hatred into love now comes from experience. I know that each time that I approach the easel when I feel this hatred for the task and work through it, I am one step closer to my goal.

Today, I plodded along and then … finally . . . , I got lost in the shapes and colors I was applying on a small section of the drawing. And later, it dawned on me that I was turning that corner: that glorious and familiar corner. And now, I am once again in the infatuation stage that will grow and grow until I realize that love has entirely replaced the hatred. Love has replaced fear.

Change the World

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I do not think I fully understood that I wanted to change the world (and in what way) until about eight years ago. Like most transitions perhaps, mine was a long, slow process, a series of events more than one life-altering one. I was thinking about this recently because someone sent me a quote (and true to my nature, I remember the concept, not the details) that said something to the effect that when a creative person is told “No,” it only motives her to work harder.

Does a person start out by thinking, “I will change the world”? I suspect we each just do what we feel passionately about until the path of past action leads to a clearly focused and more aware future. In my case, I loved creating art of the human form. Years ago, I could not put words to why I was doing what I was doing. But almost every composition I designed involved anatomy – truly the Grand Design and so worthy of respect and admiration.

However, my work has been barred from being exhibited in many places. I often heard the rule “No nudes!” Period. No argument. Although the public seemed enthusiastic about the “classiness” of my nudes when they were seen, many times I was not even given the opportunity to show my work to try to make it an exception to the rule.

Normally the person telling me this would say, “I personally do not have any problems with nudes, but my boss . . . (or the public - some faceless entity I could never speak with) made the decision in fear of a complaint . . .” In 2002, after hanging my exhibit, I was told, “It is against the law for us to censure your work, but we would like you to consider that 1, 2, and 3 (3 specific artworks named, all male nudes) might offend children who enter.” In other words, please censure yourself on the artworks that we are concerned about.

So, now, I know. I want to change the world. Corny but true: love can do this. Art is one of the ways in which we should be safe to explore our humanity. Shame and embarrassment are often misused. I am not depicting violence or hateful ideas. And I need to use the nude human form to remind us of the better qualities in ourselves. Here is my bronze titled “Infinite Love,” a composition of two human figures embedded inside of the mathematical symbol for Infinity. Enjoy.

I Do Not FALL in Love

It was a fantastically beautiful day today as I loaded up my car and prepared for tomorrow’s exhibit in Austin, Texas. This evening while printing out new price labels, my printer jammed. As I waited for the reboot, I re-read all of my years’ old posted newsprint and decided to share with you one of my favorite poems of all:

i do not fall in love.
i magnetize to its demands,
attach to its clinging magic,
and sing its living charms.
i stand, i rise, i fly
towards love,
but never fall at all.

-- Thom the World Poet
“Loyalty to the Star System”
(an excerpt from his Secular Prayers)

Tomorrow night will mark the debut of my newest stone carving, “Encounter” (finished in September just before I left for Italy). Inspired by manta rays, I now see the connection to this poem that is rarely far from my thoughts: “i stand, i rise, i fly . . .” Will you not join me at:

Host: Keith Hogan
Location: 4207 Shoalwood Avenue, Austin, Texas 78756 US
When: Wednesday, December 19, 6:00 p.m.
Hours: 6 p.m. to ??
Phone: 512.280.5402
Please join us as we celebrate an evening of holiday cheer and beautiful art in the setting of two beautiful condominium units that I (Keith) have totally and completely renovated at 4207 Shoalwood Avenue in the Rosedale neighborhood. [They are for sale.]

Locks of Love – Florence, Italy

The Italians are quite the passionate bunch. It shows in many ways – from the care that is put into the preparing a meal to the pure enjoyment of every passeggiata, the evening walk throughout the city’s streets, usually arm in arm. One can see lovers, friends, siblings, and parent and child couples of all ages walking linked and involved in familiar conversations as they people-watch.

Of course, the passion extends to areas of romance. Pictured here are some of the proclamations of a lasting devotion – the locks of love. One can see them in various, sometimes random, places around Italia. Sometimes so many locks are placed in a spot that they are eventually cut off and the process may begin again. This image was taken at the end of the arched walkway that is near the famous Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy, along the Arno River.