Art Reception Sei Divino

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I recently finished hanging another solo exhibit at Sei Divino’s here in Florence, Italy. I am off to Spain tomorrow to visit one of my models (and friend) there. But I am really looking forward to coming back to Italy for the art reception on the 19th, especially since my cousin Heather will be here. She has been invited to play volleyball in a tournament and it will be the first time we have met outside of the US.

Here is the info. The exhibit is open now, with a tentative closing date on the 26th of June. The reception is 6 p.m. on June 19, a Saturday.

Sei Divino Wine & Cocktail Gallery
Borgo Ognissanti 42r, Firenze, Italia [Florence, Tuscany, Italy]
Tel. (011 39) 055.217791 [ or call Kelly +39 334.245.0129 ]

Inaugurazione / Art Reception: 19 Giugno 2010 alle 18:00 +

Artist Kelly Borsheim

Kelly Borsheim è una scultrice americana che ama disegnare e dipingere. Michelangelo ha portata in Italia nel 2004 ed è stato qui a Firenze nel 2007 che divenne una madonnara. E 'stato in via Calimala, che ha imparato ad amare la pittura con i pastelli. Nel suo corpo attuale di lavoro 2-dimensionale, si combina la sua formazione classica presso l'Angel Academy of Art (Firenze) con i suoi disegni in strada, combinando luminosi, pastelli colorati (pigmento puro) con le sottigliezze si può esprimere con il carboncino.

Kelly attualmente divide il suo tempo tra il suo studio nel centro di Texas e in Firenze, Italia. Lei è rappresentata dalla Barry Franklin Gallery di Indianapolis, Il Curiouseum a Austin, Texas; La Galleria Crucible, Norman, Oklahoma (tutti in USA), e al Museo Gilardi, Forte dei Marmi, Lucca, Italia. Borsheim opere d'arte sono in collezioni private negli Stati Uniti e in Australia, Canada, Italia, Francia, Paesi Bassi, Regno Unito e Nuova Zelanda.

*****
Kelly Borsheim is an American sculptor who likes to draw and paint. Michelangelo brought her to Italy in 2004 and it was here in Florence in 2007 that she became a streetpainter. It was on Via Calimala that she learned to love painting with pastels. In her current body of 2-dimensional work, she combines her classical training from the Angel Academy of Art (Florence) with her streetpainting, combining bright, colorful pastels (pure pigment) with the subtleties one can express with charcoal.

Kelly currently splits her time between her studio in central Texas and in Florence, Italy. She is represented by The Franklin Barry Gallery in Indianapolis; The Curiouseum in Austin, Texas; The Crucible Gallery, Norman, Oklahoma (all in USA); and at the Museo Gilardi, in Forte dei Marmi, Lucca, Italy. Borsheim art works are in private collections throughout the United States and in Australia, Canada, Italy, France, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

Kelly Borsheim – Borsheim Arts Studio
www.BorsheimArts.com
Tel. +39 334.245 01 29
sculptor@borsheimarts.com


****
Artwork pictured here:
"Le Scale dell'Eros" (The Stairs of Love)
pastelli con carboncino [pastel with charcoal]
68 x 49 cm
copyright 2010 Kelly Borsheim

Please join the artist with her visiting cousin Heather at the art reception on 19th June.
ci vediamo li'! grazie mille.

Festa della Repubblica Italiana

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

The second day of June is a national holiday in Italy. They celebrate their unification as one country. The day here is called Festa della Repubblica Italiana. I was walking around the neighborhood of Piazza Santo Spirito in Florence where I currently live, wondering if I would find something to eat for breakfast. And I was delighted to peak into a church that I have only had brief glimpses into before.




It is actually the Ex-Church of San Carlo dei Barnabiti.. There was an exhibit going on of old photos during the war, soldiers lost, and atrocities faced in desolate places. Here is the text that I could read on the sign outside, although it has been disrespectfully covered with graffiti.

“The building was restructured in 1636 by the architect Gherardo Silvani for the Barnabites, who already had a small oratory on the site. The importance attained by the Order in the early 18th century is reflected by the decoration inside the church: the ceiling frescoed by Sigismondo Betti (“Glory of the Virgin with St. Paul and St. Carlo Borromeo”) in 1721, the architecture by Bernardino Ciurini (1743), the perspective views by Domenico Stagi (1757-58), and other paintings by Giuseppe Zocchi (dome and pennacchi, 1747). With the Leopoldine suppression of 1783, the building passed into private hands until 1838, when it was acquired by the Scolop[r..de?] Fathers, who kept it until 1866. Since then it has been used as a school and as a gymnasium, and is now a center for cultural activities.”




I have to say that this is the first example I have seen of someone created the illusion of a terrazzo (balcony) in a ceiling with columns the way that Domenico Stagi has done here. And the faux marble is some of the better work I have seen in that genre of art as well. It is a peccato (sin) that this building has come to such disrepair and the Florentines simply do not have the funds to restore it.

You will note the netting beneath the ceiling, but well above my head. It is there to catch parts of the plaster as it falls and protect anyone from being hurt. I am happy that people are at least using the space and hope that the constant visual will someday earn a restoration patron. In Italy, one finds treasures in every direction.

Streetpainting Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Last week I visited Vatican City and so this Thursday chose to recreate in the streets of Florence one of the Sybils on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. I hope you like my self-portrait in this “work-in-progress” shot. I did not realize I did that until I saw the images later.

I was delighted later that afternoon as a class of Italian children came to watch me work. I offered one a pastel stick, but she shied away. Instead, her classmate asked if she could try and next thing I knew, I was passing out various orange colors and pointing to the sections of the Sybil’s skirt in which each child should color.

The kids and I had a blast together. I wanted a photo of all of our orange hands and one of the teachers offered to take it for us. I asked the kids if they wanted to be on my blog and the idea seemed to be fun to them. I handed out the last of my wet baby wipes to clean their hands a bit and then they were off to catch a train. What a delightful day and great experience for us all.





Later that evening, the capo of our group of madonnari (street painters), Claudio, arrived to see my colleague Johnny and me. [Johnny is not in most of these images because he had another job and joined me for only parts of the day.] Since he had another commission to work on with our colleague Tomo, he offered to let Johnny and me draw that next day (their normal day).

So, around midnight that first night, I wrote on the street in Italian, “Please do not clean” and we set cardboard boxes around our drawing in hopes that the street cleaning truck would pass us by the next morning. It worked this time, although when I arrived on Friday, an older Italian woman complained to me that it was bruttissima that I left such ugly boxes in the street overnight. And while protected from cars, I noticed that someone rode a bike and/or stroller through the drawing and there were lots of footprints in different directions, implying that at least one person was dancing on our work overnight!

Also, the next morning I arrived to see a man erecting scaffolding close to my work area. I am starting to wonder if the city really does own the scaffolding company as one friend told me. Florence has an abundance of this and I have yet to see the famous Duomo without it!

He was breaking off some of the metal “T”s that were used to adjust the height of each leg, telling me that it was for public safety. I photographed this one young boy who was fascinated by the process and kept telling his father to wait a moment more since he did not want to leave. He was quite cute. We finished up around 5:30 pm. People were out and complimentary, but I had dinner plans and needed to get home to wash up. Enjoy these images.

And if you are interested in learning pastels in a fun and beautiful environment that allows you to focus on art and nature, please check out my pastel workshop in Hawaii in September. http://borsheimarts.com/art-workshops/hawaii-pastels.htm

Sbandieratori Villa Bardini Florence Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Here are some more images from the art reception for “Annigoni’s Legacy – Angel Academy Student/Faculty Exhibition” at the Villa Bardini in Florence, Italy.


The Sbandieratori performed that night as they have since Angel Academy instructor Martinho Isidro Correia joined their ranks.

The group is officially called ”Sbandieratori dei Borghi e Sestieri Fiorentini” and is the team of Florentine flag wavers, drummers, and trumpeters. They are available for events in various size groups, normally a smaller group at Angel’s previous exhibits on Via San Niccolò (also in Florence). However, the Villa Bardini had such a lovely and larger space that we were able to enjoy a more full experience.

The Sbandieratori combines a type of martial art with the military disciplines of the Middle Ages. Today the Sbandieratori bring a festive feel to any event in Florence, as well as an “elegant, noble and strong, sturdy and vibrant” youthful vigor. I hope you enjoy these snapshots of their performances as the sun went down over Florence and the Villa Bardini.

Angel Art Exhibit Villa Bardini Florence Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Hello again. I wanted to share with you some of my snapshots during the art exhibit “Annigoni’s Legacy – Angel Academy of Art Exhibit.” The reception was on 12 of May, but the show continues in the beautiful Villa Bardini here in Florence, Italy, until 30 May.

The exhibit was hung salon style, which means the artworks filled all the available wall spaces, one on top of another. I include a few images here for your enjoyment and also to introduce two lovely young painters that you are likely to enjoy for many years to come. They are my friends and both are charming people. Ti presento Dana Nechmad and Terra Chapman.

I will be going back again for another look at the art, as well as the fabulous garden that overlooks Florence. Exhibit openings are fun, but sometimes the only way to really look at the artworks is to go back when the place has fewer people in it.

Annigoni's Legacy - Annual Student & Staff Exhibition of the Angel Academy of Art
Villa Bardini, Via Costa San Giorgio 2
Florence, Italy [Firenze, Italia]
Tel. 055 246 6737

Street Painting Festival Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I recently returned from the annual street painting competition in southern Italy. Nocera Superiore is a small city up the mountain from Salerno and the Amalfi Coast. I wrote about some of my experiences last year at this concorso dei madonnari (madonnari = street painters in Italian). This year was a bit different.

There was still the long train ride down, meaning that although I was up until 2 am, as is my usual, I rose (but I am pretty sure that I did not shine) around 5 am to finish packing and get to the stazione. Dozing off occasionally on the train was not enough and so I took a little nap shortly after arriving in Nocera Superiore. This year, there were over 100 artists - street painters from Mexico, Holland, Italy, and more.

The streets of this Italian town have glass embedded in them. Pastels and chalk do not stick to glass and thus, we must prepare the street to “give it some tooth.” This is not unlike a fine art painter preparing the surface of a canvas or board. Some of the real pros get quite elaborate with this, even coloring their surfaces like a campitura. Like many others, I used Coca-Cola: the kind with sugar. I cannot think of a better use of this soda water than pouring it out on the street!

The weather had cleared up and most of us, with the exception of my eager colleague Wilson, got started after the dinner provided by the festival organizers. In order, the images I include here are of madonnari: Toto, a famous streetpainter of over 50 years with a very Dante- or Leonardo da Vinci-style profile; Tomo, a Japanese streetpainter who resides in Florence; Wilson from Columbia; yours truly; and Taka, another Japanese madonnaro. There were many more artists in my group from Florence, Italy, but these were the artists who worked in spaces closest to mine.









Taka’s shoes made funny noises as they ripped away from a very tacky surface and we had some laughs in the middle of the night about that. I was so tired that I called it a night around 3 am, thinking that I might be more efficient after about 3 more hours of sleep. On my way to my provided bed, I photographed this bronze figurative sculpture of a priest holding glow-in-the-dark rosaries and sporting a neon halo. Fresh lilies were put at his feet daily, at least while I was in Nocera.


When my alarm went off around 6 am, it was pouring rain outside. Quite frankly, I was happy to have a reason to stay in bed. However, it had stopped by about 7:30 am and many of my colleagues had gotten up to see what was the situation. Not so good: many artists lost their protective plastic sheets in the strong winds. And on the other hand, those who had thoroughly taped all edges of their plastic to the street still had water underneath the plastic. Many drawings were ruined and some became beautifully ghostlike. As with the case of the black and white design of an image of Christ, I actually felt that the crinkles of air in the plastic resembled cracks and were an interesting addition to the artwork underneath.







The weather alternated between short bouts of dumping rain and wee bits of sunshine, but ultimately once our deadline of noon passed, it was apparent that even if we waited to finish on Sunday, it would all be in vain. I took another snapshot of part of the church as we all checked out, then asked a friend to take this image of fellow street painters Giovanna and Angela with me where we hung out for breakfast.



After another nap and a wonderfully warm lunch of ravioli with gnocchi followed by slices of meat, peas (which I left on the plate as I have done since babyhood), and French fries, it was time to head to Rome. On the way to the stazione, I took this image of some high school kids using their plastic as a “fort” and under it they were drawing, socializing, and talking on their cell phones in the drizzly weather. Pretty cool, these budding artists!


I wanted to see the Caravaggio exhibit in Roma, but having changed my plans at the last minute after Nocera’s event and having no reservations (and arriving in Roma just before midnight), I could not find ANY available beds. It was a Saturday night, which turned out to be Rome’s “Notte Bianca” and packed with tourists. The wet weather made a “park visit” (homeless-style sleeping) impossible. So, I amused myself in some bar with dancing and a bizarre movie until I could get on the 5:57 a.m. train back to Florence. What a weekend! It was sad that the rain destroyed this year’s streetpainting festival, but that is the way it goes sometimes.

Museo Stefano Bardini

Dear Art Lover,

The latest Borsheim Art Newsletter about the Museo Stefano Bardini and other cool art happenings and places has been published online on my site. I hope you enjoy the many images.

Thank you for your interest!