Sausage Buying in the Fog

Dear Art Lover,

 

    Today I would like to share some images from my Facebook post yesterday that had a much higher than usual response rate (positive).  I know that I have let this blog slip a bit, but I have been trying to get my art-making schedule back, as well as going through rehab for my injured knee.  On that latter front, I was relieved to have two specialists in January overturn the verdict for ACL reconstruction surgery that I received from another specialist on 2 Dec.  So, I was given electro-magnetic therapy (for bones) and electro-stimulation therapy (for atrophied quads), as well as a slew of exercises and instructions on how to retrain my brain to walk without limping.

     Another good thing is that I have returned to the mural painting and I hope to keep at it until I can finish it.  It turned out to be way more complicated than I imagined when I started it.  But only because it is not just any landscape.  It is a specific one.

     I also got the green light from my therapist to travel and have booked my flights to the US.  I will mostly be working in Texas, but will be traveling around a bit for family and galleries in April and May.  Drop me a line if you would like to try to meet up, please.

     So, here are the images of my walk yesterday.  A couple of friends saw me on the road and stopped for a hello.  Then Gianni invited me to tag along with them while they went into the small town to buy some fresh sausage from a kill made on Sunday.  I know that my vegetarian friends are cringing at that thought, but hey, at least the Italians here are raising only a few animals in lovely spaces and they use practically everything of the animal.  I was pretty impressed that the little scruffy dog, Gregory, was so well behaved around all of this raw meat.  Not all of it was packed under salt.  He was good even in the van with the meat in a bag underneath his little paws!  He seemed more interested in barking at the windshield wipers when they were in motion than in sniffing out pig. 

Enjoy…  

     If you like, please have a look at some of my sculpture online here:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/sculpture.htm

Peace,

Kelly

P.S.  Subscribe to the art newsletter here (it is FREE):  http://www.borsheimarts.com/contact.htm

Buying fresh made sausages in Tuscany, Italy

Salted pig meat in Tuscany, Italy, leave for TEN DAYS

Buying fresh made sausages in Tuscany, Italy

Surprised that Gregory behaved so well.

Pietrasanta Dali Viareggio

Dear Art Lover,

     This past Thursday, my wonderful neighbor drove me back to the foundry in Pietrasanta where I recently completed a new bronze garden sculpture, “Rock Towers and Frogs.” 

     Real estate is costly and even most of the foundries that I worked with in the US are not great about storing the molds of their clients.  Here, they made the molds of silicon and plaster, reinforced and with handles made from embedded metal.  John Borsheim and I made the mother (outer/supporting) molds for my sculptures from fiberglass, which I see as a huge improvement.  Anyway, I do not like to see these materials, the only thing that exists now of my original sculpture and therefore necessary for me to keep in good condition, outside and open.  I do not like the exposure to the elements and I do not like the idea that anyone can walk in during the lunch break and take a souvenir, for example, of part of a sculptor’s mold.  Call me paranoid, but people also collect street signs!

     So, it took all of fifteen minutes to load up the car with fourteen separate molds.  This bronze may be ordered if you are interested.  See some of the images of the final piece here:  http://www.borsheimarts.com/sculpture/2016/RockTowersFrogGardenSculpture.htm

Loading up Sculpture Molds from foundry in Pietrasanta Italy

      Since my friend had never been to Pietrasanta [Italy] before, we took a little “giro” [walk] around the center of town. Luckily, there is an exhibition going on now for the sculptures of the surrealist artist Salvador Dali.  Because I am in the middle of my knee rehab, we did not go into many buildings and did not stay very long.  Mostly, during the winter time or off-season for tourists, the beaches are closed.  So are almost all of the restaurants.  We had really wanted to eat some seafood along the water, but we did not find an obviously safe place to park for a walk on the beach.

     I include some snapshots of our “giro” and also of our wonderful seafood lunch at Tito del Molo (‘molo’ means ‘pier’ in Italian) in nearby Viareggio.  Viareggio is a city, larger than the working town of Pietrasanta, but even there, many of the eateries were closed.  Viareggio is also famous for its big Carnevale parade, which includes very political floats and is quite spectacular from what I have seen online and heard from friends [I really make a lousy tourist in crowded places].  Still, we were happy with our meal and I even bought my friend a bottle of the house wine there as a thank you for helping me with this errand.  We got home before dark and our landlord met us there.  The two guys (and Gregory, my landlord’s dog) helped me unload the sculpture molds and put them in a safe place in hopes that I may sell another bronze!

     Knee Update:  On 2 December, I received a diagnosis of a torn ACL and was told that I needed to wait until mid-January before the surgeon would know WHEN he could operate.  The surgery requires a six-month minimum rehabilitation.  However, recently, I saw another specialist and also got feedback from a doctor friend of my landlord.  Their verdicts are that the MRI does NOT show a torn ACL.  Instead, I was prescribed an electro-magnetic therapy to help the blood-saturated, spongy bones in my tibia (mostly) and an electric stimulation therapy to jumpstart my atrophied quadriceps muscles.  I was finally given instructions on how to ride my in-home bicycle (how often and other details), as well as a series of exercises (balance and relearning to walk).  I am almost half-way through that therapy, and the glucosamine supplements will continue for many more weeks.  Naturally, I hope this works.  Thank you for all of your questions and kind remarks.

     Now, please enjoy these images.

     If you like, please have a look at some more of my sculpture online here:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/sculpture.htm

and again, welcome to 2017.

Peace,

Kelly

P.S.  Subscribe to the art newsletter here (it is FREE):  http://www.borsheimarts.com/contact.htm

 

I miss my real BIKE! 

The main piazza in centro Pietrasanta, Italy

Because I am too lazy to write (actually, got some cooking to do)

Note the signature melted clock on the neck

I love this crooked window!  Entering the Museo dei Bozzetti

Modern Day traffic

Funky outside wall decoration for shop, Pietrasanta, Italy

nice juxtaposition of shapes

Cool entrance in Pietrasanta

marble carvings in small church near the main piazza

Onto Viareggio for lunch at Tito del Molo, near the main pier.

Pasta with fresh anchovies (not salted)

Rhombo (fish) with potatoes and olives (basil for a tail)

odd, but interesting decor, no?

apples and pineapples with gelato and caramel creme

Ah, home sweet home and my sculpture mold safely recovered!

Now, I just need to sell some more sculpture!

Gregory, curious about everything!

Unpacking the Shadow Art Exhibition

Dear Art Lover,

     Last year my friend and fellow sculptor Lorri Acott invited me to create a submission for a project she dreamed up.  I am not really into the whole “women’s art show” thing, but the older I get, the crankier I get about rudeness.  And thus, Lorri caught me at time when my life was starting to get some stability and it was also shortly after I had worked with Artesimia, a battered women’s shelter in Florence, Italy. 

     I think some realities there hit me pretty hard, especially since in my own childhood, it was often women who kept other women “in line.”  I struggled with that a lot as a young adult when I found myself living my first year at university in a female-only dorm.  Having been raised with three brothers and lots of fighter pilots, I once called my mother long-distance and cried to her that I could not understand females and felt out of my element.  Years before, my own well-intentioned mom had actually told me, “Don’t smile so big; your lips get thinner and are less appealing.”  She was probably told that herself by someone when she was a runway model.  Insecurities:  the gifts that keep on giving.

     Opening TODAY:  In any event, my contribution to the “Unpackingthe Shadow” exhibition focused on the above topic.  But not all of the art submissions were so heavy or even traditionally serious topics.    This was an interesting collection of female artists with very human desires in a variety of subjects.  I hope that you may see the exhibition, even if only online.   [In the photo, my piece is the image in the upper right corner.]

Denver, Colorado area:  Lakewood Cultural Center
470 S Allison Pkwy, Lakewood, Colorado 80226

Exhibit runs January 3-31, 2017 in the Corner Gallery
Opening reception is January 12, 2017, 5-7 p.m.

Selected Artwork Unpacking the Shadow Women Art Exhibition

Details

     Please join us for a bold, thought-provoking exhibit that features 50+ original works created by women, presented together at a time that feels especially poignant for female voices to be heard and recognized.

      Lakewood Cultural Center is pleased to present “Unpacking the Shadow,” a collaborative group exhibition conceived and compiled by sculptor Lorri Acott that explores the idea of how women rediscover, explore, and reintegrate important aspects of themselves that, throughout their lives, have been carefully removed and “hidden away.”

      This exhibit features more than 50 miniature pieces—no larger than 3" cubed and accompanied by mini-essays— that were selected from submissions by women from all walks of life and from around the world. These small expressions of intimate aspects represent what each participant hopes to rediscover in her life. The works are as diverse as sculpture, found objects, photography, painting, and mixed media.

      "And if we have put away so many of our angers, spontaneities, hungers, enthusiasms, our rowdy and unattractive parts, then how can we live? What holds us together?” 

- Robert Bly (excerpt from "The Long Bag We Drag Behind Us")

Lakewood Cultural Center
470 S Allison Pkwy, Lakewood, Colorado 80226

Exhibit runs January 3-31, 2017 in the Corner Gallery
Opening reception is January 12, 2017, 5-7PM