10-Year Anniversary of September 11

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty." ~ John F. Kennedy

Yin and Yang

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote to you. On my end, I drove over 18 hours to a suburb of Chicago to visit Dilbara Arapova, the wife of my dear (and late) friend Vasily Fedorouk. Our visit was barely 24 hours, but we packed a lot in. I took this shot from their living room, enchanted by the morning light and shadows. Three of Vasily’s sculptures can be seen in part here.

Then I drove another four hours to get to Indianapolis to see my good friend and gallerist Don Elliott. He owns the Franklin Barry Gallery and was featuring my work for the art event. The First Friday Gallery Walk was a lot of fun. Fewer partiers and more people really interested in original art. Labor Day weekend turned out to be a better turnout than I expected! I was really happy getting to visit with kids as well as grown-ups; reconnecting with familiar faces and making some new acquaintances. We got to share stories. And I got updated on the travels of several patrons of the gallery that I have met in years past. This next image shows our little “after-party dinner” at a nearby restaurant.
Don is sitting next to me, while artist Travis Little and I hold down the end spots of our group of friends. What a day! I think that Don and I arrived at his home around 1 a.m.

I did not leave the gallery until they closed on the next day, only to drive another more than 18-hour drive back to Texas. I slept maybe 3 hours along the way, so once I returned to my home studio, I fell into a coma-like nap on Sunday. I woke to a call from John B. asking if I was close to the wildfires. Well, that was a bit sobering for an eye opener! He ended up coming over to help me pack what we could. Thankfully, I had not unpacked the art in my car that I brought back to Texas from Indy. The frustrating thing was that there was so little information. Not on TV, not radio that I found, and even the Internet offered little. As the hour got later, John just told me to give up. He believed that the authorities were more focused on getting everyone out than they were in talking about details about the fire. But then, lack of accurate information is often the case in emergencies. John, Cat (the abandoned kitten that now has a home here), and I drove off around 5 a.m. to Austin.

We drove back about seven hours later, around noon on Monday, September 5. These next three images were shot through the car windows. The first image was a fire we passed near a propane supply place not far from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. This fire had not been reported on the news that we had seen.

The middle image of this series was taken on Farm-to-Market Road 812, just inside the Bastrop County border after leaving Travis County. I must say, it is really difficult to tell distances on things like mountains … and smoke.

And this third image was shot just as we turned onto Greystone Lane. This dirt road goes for about three-fourths of a mile before my driveway starts. That may have been the closest the fires got to our neck of the woods, but it was hard to tell. We had received a call that the fire had jumped a road near the Cedar Creek post-office (a 10-minute drive by road, not sure about crow-flying distance). But I never saw anything that confirmed that the fires had moved that far south.

For the next few days, John and I returned to the house during the day, working and cleaning up dead leaves, plants, and trees, and moving it from the house. We spent the nights in Austin at John’s place with Cat.

In all honestly, I feel a bit daft showing you these not particularly dramatic images when Facebook enabled me to see more of what was going on in the thick of it. Several of my friends have lost their homes in nearby Bastrop. Too many more that I did not know have lost so much. The drought this year and the 3-digit temperatures have been with us longer than “normal” and apparently this is the worst dry spell Texas has had since recorded history.

Still today (the 9th), I have been back in my outdoor studio carving marble and working indoors during the hot time of day again. I have been sorting things and trying to figure out what I have that can be donated to many of my artist friends who are now homeless. I finished my last book edit yesterday for my project “My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy” and I must say that I cannot wait to hold the book in my hands! So, good things and horrible things: what a summer of yin and yang.

Gallery Visit Indianapolis

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Well, today’s post is another invitation. But first… a little tooting the horn of my artwork:
My pastel drawing on black paper titled "World Traveler" was a finalist in the prestigious Art Renewal Center 2010-2011 ARC Salon - Still Life Category. The ARC works to promote excellence in representational art.

“World Traveler” is one of the images that you may see at my next event. I hope you will help me start of the Labor Day weekend right by checking out “First Friday Gallery Walk” in Indianapolis. Gallery owner Don Elliott and I (at least) will be on hand Friday to personally show you the latest from my studio. I would love to see you there.

2 September 2011
6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
during the Gallery Walk

“Italian Living” Gallery Walk features pastel + charcoal artworks by Kelly Borsheim

Franklin Barry Gallery / The Frame Shop

617 Massachusetts Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
For information, please contact Don Elliott at the gallery via telephone at 317.822.8455.

In any event, stay safe and stay cool during the upcoming holiday weekend (here in the States anyway).

Cat and Sculpture

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Well, I am back, sort of. I trust you are enjoying the holiday months. I have been working almost non-stop for such a long time, but am happy to say that I am making progress. The book I am writing about my experiences street painting in Italy has now gone to the graphic designer to work her magic. What I have seen thus far looks really, really good and I cannot wait for the day that I can say that the book is READY!

When I returned to my studio after a couple of weeks away, I began again to carve the marble gymnast and discovered that I had a new companion of sorts. No doubt, I will lose a couple of friends with this admission, but I have never been much of a small cat person. Still, people who abandon cats are much lower on my list of favorite things. . Out where I live now, her presence is no accident.

Cat (think Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”) is quite a young cat. She is sweet and has funny markings on her face, with a bushy tail more in line with a raccoon than a kitten her size. Her eyes are more orange than yellow. She has sharp little teeth surrounding that raspy tongue, but surprisingly, her little bites on my fingers and toes do not hurt as much as cat bites in my memory. Perhaps she is only being affectionate.

Cat craves attention, as any abandoned creature would. While I have been stopping my work at times to sit down and cuddle with her a bit, I do not have as much patience in the morning as I might otherwise have. Sadly, with about a month of daily temperatures easily over 100 degrees F., I am no longer working outside in the evenings. I find the air too heavy and my other work has more appeal. So the mornings are precious time and I am feeling quite protective of it, selfishly saving those hours for the marble sculpture.

In any event, progress continues regardless of delays and Cat now has food and water, and sometimes me.

Happy Birthday Möbius Artist

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

It is my 47th birthday today and I find myself thinking about mathematics. Or maybe it is just the morphing of shapes and paths as we affect our own lives and the lives of others based on decisions of what we do and also (and sometimes more importantly) of what we choose NOT to do.

Take a long strip of paper or a ribbon, such as 1” wide by 10” long. As you pick up one end, give it a half twist before attaching it to the other end to form a ring. You will now have a Möbius Strip. Now, pretend you are a little person and go stand on one part of this circular form. Start walking -- either direction, it matters not. Make a mark as you move along -- just so you do not get lost. You will note that if you walk long enough you will reach the point of origin and you will not have crossed an edge to do it, but you will find that your mark lies on both sides of the paper! Named for German mathematician and astronomer August Ferdinand Möbius (1790-1868), a Möbius Strip only has one side and one edge.

I understand this technology is used in engine belts among other things. That half twist is key to putting a consistent wear and tear on the belt instead of just wearing out one side. Efficient and healthy a little twist can be!

My 2-part stone sculpture ”Möbius Mouth” is part of my "Lips Series." The mouth has a heart shape in the negative space inside the lips. He is carved from a Rattlesnake Limestone from Texas, named after the shape of the shell fossils in the stone. The triangular base enhances the idea of the mathematics of the Möbius lips and is carved from Henna Limestone from Canada. He also has some wonderful fossils that I hope you will discover.

“Möbius Mouth"
Rattlesnake Limestone (Texas)
with Henna Limestone (Canada)
one-of-a-kind
17" h x 22" w x 8.5" d

To see more of this stone sculpture, including images taken during the carving process, please visit: www.borsheimarts.com/sculpture/2006/mobius.htm

So, thank you to all who sent me birthday wishes via e-mail, Facebook, and phone. Let’s get a little twisted! Or stoned – ha! ;-)

Italian Artist Sebastiano Ricci

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Howdy! On a visit to the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, last month, I “rediscovered” an Italian artist named Sebastiano Ricci. Inspiring and intimidating other artists can be and I know that I must learn how to work faster. I cannot keep up with my brain! I have so many ideas in my head about art and mathematics in composition that I seem to be finding more and more examples of thoughtfully designed shapes, especially with the figure. Seek and ye shall find . . . an idea as old as mankind.



“Flora”
Sebastiano Ricci
125.3 cm x 153.7 cm (49 5/16 in. x 60 1/2 in.)
Oil on canvas, circa 1712-1716
Part of the Suida-Manning Collection

In Ricci's “Flora” (shown here) I noticed that the angelic figures in the painting surrounded the main figure of the woman in a circular pattern, the positions of their bodies and limbs leading the eye around her and thereby emphasizing her as the subject of the painting. The sign at the Blanton explained what is going on:

"In Ovid's Fasti, the nymph Chloris is seduced by the West Wind, Zephirus, and renamed Flora, goddess of flowers and spring. An important Roman deity, she was associated with voluptuousness. This painting renders the moment before her seduction: as Flora flirts with one putto and suggestively grasps the stem of an iris, Zephirus approaches from behind, indicating his quarry and cautioning silence to another putto. At the right, a vessel spills over with blossoms that portend the result of their union and celebrate their namesake. The design is so equilibrated, the rhythm so elegant, and the handling so rich that a quotation from antique statuary -- the Kneeling Venus -- appears seamless. The painting recalls the great mythological works of sixteenth-century Venice."

Another oil painting that I really enjoy on a much simpler arrangement of shapes is “Venus and Cupid” painted by Ricci in 1700. I like the giant sweeping “S” curve of the gesture of Venus, especially that long and slow-curving leg. It makes me want to ride a sled over snow! And I like the lighting with just enough shadow shapes to keep me interested. But one of my favorite parts is how seemingly natural the “modesty device” comes across -- that lovely white bird whose wing tones are light enough to do the job while the interaction between the two doves hardly makes you notice the function of the one.



If you would like to see more of Sebastiano Ricci’s paintings and read more about attributing art to dead artists, please read my my latest art newsletter

For a while now, I have been working almost every morning and again in the evenings for as many hours as I can stand to be outdoors on my marble sculpture “Gymnast.”. While I have written about various parts of my progress, I have been working here and there on other parts as well, such as her hair, her hands, and refining that difficult-to-reach inner area between her piked torso and legs. My students and colleagues have often heard me say that we tend to draw, paint, or sculpt ourselves. This is not a bad thing, in my view, it is simply part of our individuality. We see the faces and shapes of our family members more than anyone else’s. I suspect these shapes are imprinted into our memories before we even become aware of such things.

I have been fighting this a bit in my marble carving. She keeps having a short torso and she’s got some pretty ambitious hips for the size of the rest of her figure. So, while I work the rest of the composition, I am still trying to carve away the abdomen area and shape the forms there.

Unfortunately, I now have cat-sitting duty away from my studio and while I will take some art with me, I will be using this other home to withdraw a bit and focus on finishing the book I am writing on my life as a streetpainter in Florence, Italy.

So, I am taking a holiday from this blog for the next two weeks or so. I hope you get to swim in an ocean, sea, or river and enjoy this summer heat. I am looking forward to doing that next summer, but for now, I have too much work to do!

Take care and do not give up on me -- I will finish this stone carving in 2011 before I go back to Italy!
Ciao, ciao,
Kelly Borsheim

Stone Carving Tortoise Shell

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Hello again. I have been carving the basic shape for the base of my stone carving “Gymnast” a little bit each day and at some point, it was time to get into a bit of detail. So, out with the crayons and get to drawing.

Before that, I would like to explain that I was inspired to create a kind of turtle to hold up the female figure by a visit to the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy several years ago. That mountainous country has known many different cultures over the centuries and one can still see signs of some of them. The Pitti features a large Egyptian obelisk in the main garden. Each corner is supported by a bronze turtle. What a load those four turtles carry!

Of course, I designed my sculpture a little differently. Instead of four turtles, I will create a four-headed tortoise of sorts. So, in these first two images, I drew the shapes in the shell. Only the next morning, I realized my mistake and redrew the shapes at the bottom of the shell, making them line up in a way more consistent with the real animal. I think the lines were better then -- not so obviously mathematical in the way they lead the eye.





I was afraid that I would find this task tedious, having to repeat so many similar shapes. However, once I got into it, I found myself almost laughing out loud because I was enjoying the process so much. The exposed marble crystals were a delight. I rarely get to carve a lot of texture in my compositions and I may have to rethink that for future stone carving designs.

Oh, and it did occur to me that I should have used a more turtle-shell colored crayon! Hopefully, all of the blue wax will be chiseled off, but one never knows.

Stay cool and thank you for reading!
Kelly Borsheim