The Mentor Program: Treacher Collins Syndrome

Cari Amici,

Today, the 31st of July, is my birthday. I turn 44 officially at 6:09 p.m. (‘ gotta get that power of three from somewhere!) Mathematically speaking, I should have twice as much fun as when I was 22 and four times the fun of my “terrible twos.” Right? I am looking forward to this . . .

But for now, I want to introduce you to “my kid” Rudy. OK, so he is not technically mine and he is no longer a child. I met Rudy Sanchez Jr. on 13 February 1992 through the City of Austin’s Mentor Program. I was working in image preservation back then and 11-year-old Rudy, along with 13 other children considered “At Risk,” waited in his elementary school library to meet their new mentors. As my co-workers and I walked into the room, Rudy enthusiastically shouted, “Who’s my friend?”

In all honesty and shame, being the queasy type, for that first moment, I had hoped it was not I. However, we still reminisce fondly about that day and celebrate this anniversary each year. Rudy rarely ceases to teach me things.

Rudy was born with Treacher Collins’ Syndrome. It is a facial-cranial birth defect that left his head severely deformed. Rudy has been in surgery more times than anyone I have ever heard of. His first one happened shortly after his birth to repair a cleft palate.


Rudy has a few other struggles, but he has always taken one day at a time. He is more optimistic than most and a smile is never far from his lips. He has learned how to play the drums and the guitar and teaches children at his church these skills. He often helps his parents in their print business and finds other jobs where he can.

Unfortunately, Rudy has been without teeth for about three years now. The doctors pulled out his last remaining teeth he had so that they would have a blank canvas with which to work after they did more surgery to extend his lower jaw. His mother tells me that Medicare will not pay for teeth because they are considered cosmetic. She was told she had to raise $13,000 to buy her son some teeth.

So, Gail Ferris at Modern Renaissance and I are pooling our resources and starting a fund raiser to help Rudy. I am in the process of choosing some of my images from Italy and we will create an edition of canvas giclée prints.

I have been working a lot on a private bronze commission and so I have not had time yet to fully prepare my images and the Web page for this canvas print project for Rudy, but I will be posting more information over the week or so. In the meantime, please visit what I do have online at:

Teeth For Rudy

So, as you add to your personal art collection or give the gift of art to others, know that you will be helping a young man to enjoy the simple pleasures of eating a healthy meal.

Wikipedia’s page on Treacher Collins Syndrome

http://www.craniofacialcenter.com/book/treacher/treach1.htm

http://www.tcconnection.org

The Craniofacial Center in Dallas, Texas USA

Bronze Sculpture Patina

Cari Amici,

Are you interested in watching this bronze sculpture patina process? I hope so. I find it fascinating, while at times frustrating. In my earlier post I described how after the “chasing” of the bronze sculpture (in which I re-sculpt or touch up any details after the sculpture has been cast into bronze and welded together), I thoroughly clean the metal sculpture.


There are two basic kinds of bronze patina: hot and cold. I tend to prefer the hot. But that is only the beginning of the choices available. The patina I have chosen for this bronze sculpture titled “Against the Dying of the Light” is a somewhat classical and translucent coloring for bronze.

We used a chemical called liver of sulfer in this initial application. Normally this can be applied cold, but we used a torch for a different effect. In this photo, you can see how amazingly splotchy and random the first application was. I do love this mixture of rust, blue, purple, and yellows that results (and for some pieces of art in the past I have wanted – in vain – for this effect to stay).

But I must admit: I am often baffled and amazed at the perseverance of the first person(s) who came up with such elaborate processes. Some of the patinas I know about and/or use require multiple layers and complicated steps – often mixed with some luck. I mean, how many steps does one take when the result appears to be going in the non-desired direxion before one gives up hope that the project is salvageable? (This is a valid question in many areas of life, is it not?)

There are so many tricks and variables with chemicals and heat. Temperature is a most sensitive part of the equation. If the bronze is too hot, the reaction is too swift and the results often look burnt. If the bronze is not hot enough, very little happens. If the bronze (or leftover investment mold inside) is too thick or of inconsistent thickness, results will vary tremendously. It takes quite a lot of experience to get a feel for why the metal is heating up as quickly or slowly as it is and what to do about it.

Once the bronze metal has become the desired temperature in any given area, the liver of sulfer is applied. This can be done in a variety of ways, usually by hand with a paintbrush or with a sprayer. The effect is different with each application.

Allora, I save the rest for another day as I must return to work now.

But for your reading pleasure, here are some other goodies I ran across recently:

Wanna see images of Michelangelo, the brute?
Click here
This in conjunction with a related exhibit at Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Italy.
Portraits of Michelangelo
The museum’s English site

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Here is an article about art being used as loan collateral:

http://www.nysun.com/arts/borrowing-with-fine-art-as-collateral/82333/
Quotes from article (please read full article in context):
"Art now is seen as a definite asset class which is traded,"
“They may loan against a specific work, several works, or a whole collection, generally up to 50% of the market value of the collateral.”
“Often, a collector who borrows against his art can keep it on his wall.”

Nikola Tesla and Coil

Cari Amici,

I rarely ceased to be amazed at the visual (and unfortunately the loud sound) of every new Tesla Coil that John builds. He has been fascinated for decades with Nikola Tesla, the contemporary of Thomas Edison who, unlike Edison, wanted to make electricity free for the entire world.


After reviewing the Wikipedia page online (linked above), I found these quotes that interest me at the moment :

“There is no thing endowed with life—from man, who is enslaving the elements, to the nimblest creature—in all this world that does not sway in its turn. Whenever action is born from force, though it be infinitesimal, the cosmic balance is upset and the universal motion results.”


Tesla also argued:
“ I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it can have no properties. It might as well be said that God has properties. He has not, but only attributes and these are of our own making. Of properties we can only speak when dealing with matter filling the space. To say that in the presence of large bodies space becomes curved is equivalent to stating that something can act upon nothing. I, for one, refuse to subscribe to such a view.”

I also greatly enjoyed the section describing Tesla’s personality. He also liked the power of three!

Every time that John starts up one of his Tesla Coils for visitors, he firsts asks if anyone has a Pacemaker. [So far, its been a “no.”] And his other favorite thing to do is to move people into a line, with their hands almost holding the person’s next to them. Then the person closest to the Tesla Coil will hold a fluorescent light bulb near the coil and pass the voltage through the chain of people, purple flashes visible between close but separate hands.

Art News Art Classes

Cari Amici,

I just published my art newsletter (to the list generated via my site and shows). If you are not on that list, but would like to read it, as well as see the updated listing for the art classes that I am teaching this summer, please click here:
www.borsheimarts.com/news/2008_07.htm
What I forgot to share is a little tidbit about the charcoal drawing “A World Away” (Sara, jazz). It was not until mid-June, after she made her debut in an exhibit in Florence, Italy, that I realized that I accidentally signed her with the incorrect date “2006-2007.” She should have “2007-2008” Doh!

Read past newsletters before signing up to my artlist:
borsheimarts.com/newsletter.htm
Or just subscribe: Contact Me – Thanks!

I have rearranged my classes into a schedule falling in mid-August and I have a great line-up of models to work with. Won’t you join us?
www.borsheimarts.com/artclass.htm

PS Happy Birthday, Frederick Bentley!

Arte Y Pico Blog Award

Cari Amici,

Jeanne Rhea with her ART for the HEART blog based in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA is a real sweetheart! She recently awarded me for the Arte y pico Award for inspiring others to create.

Check it out:
http://artfortheheart.blogspot.com/2008/07/arte-y-pico-blog-award.html
Saturday, July 19, 2008

I have received the Arte y pico Award from Jeanne Rhea with her ART for the HEART blog. Thank you Jeanne! The Arte Y Pico award was designed to be given to bloggers who inspire others creatively. I am so happy to receive this award and would like to pass it along to:

• The Ever-Supportive Jo Castillo and Her Art Adventures
  
• Linda Blondheim’s Art Notes
  
• The Lovely Dragana Adamov (In Italian and Serbian)
  
• Art Liquid
  
• My dear childhood friend Frannie’s Blog
  

If you have been selected for the award, please pay it forward, following the steps below:
1) Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language.

2) Post the name of the author and a link to his or her blog so everyone can view it.

3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.

4) The award-winner and the presenter should post the link of the "Arte y pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) Please post these rules!The Arte y Pico blog is in Spanish. To read it in English, click here. The translation is not perfect.

Bronze Casting Patina

Cari Amici,

So, the foundry has finished the casting of my newest bronze “Against the Dying of the Light” and now it is my turn to work. I look over every section of my metal sculpture and rework any details that may have been changed by the bronze casting process. Once the sculpting has been finished again, glass beads are blasted over the entire sculpture to remove any remaining mold material and to remove the oils from my hands. The bronze must be absolutely clean so that the chemical patination application process has fewer variables.

Stay tuned . . .

Dana Davis AKA WyrdGrl Austin Texas

Cari Amici,

John and I went into Austin last night to see my friend Dana Davis aka WyrdGrl play. I have known Dana as a lovely and inspiring model for my painting and sculpture, but I had never heard her play and sing before. Her show was a blend of original songs, and a few covers. John is a fan of Heart and we enjoyed her covers of that band, Stevie Nicks, and others.

WyrdGrl is quite the charming hostess and it is obvious that she enjoys playing her guitar or keyboards and singing for interested parties. We had an intimate crowd last night at Café Caffeine at 909 West Mary St Austin, Texas, in the oh-so-hip 78704 zip zone. We had a light and healthy dinner there and I was able to reacquaint myself with the delicious Zhi Tea. And everyone loved the low lighting, which helped me (at least) lose all sense of the hot summer and the early hour.

Dana was joined onstage by Krystal on percussion and for a little while a woman named Linda, who sang and played the flute. I like these sorts of concerts – feels like home when people enter and exit the stage for a few songs and when Dana gave personal updates on stories to friends in the audience.

Outside on the deck after the show, I told Linda that I was so pleased to see a flute player since I have had desires to bring my own flute to Italia with me and start to play again, but never did. Linda advised, “Just put it together and leave it out. You will pick it up and play it.” But my problem is that I do not play by ear. Some years ago, I bought some sheet music for Jethro Tull, but I just have not had the time . . . And I have a difficult time finding sheet music for flute, especially since I love the lower ranges and not the trill-y stuff so much.


The feel in the café last night was so very Austin. There was the definite presence of individual creative souls and the feel of casual acceptance of all. For example, our sentry was a man with long wavy yellowish-white hair snoozing in a chair outside by the door. Senza uniform, he was wearing a fully staffed brassiere under a University-of-Texas orange T-shirt and a black thong with naked legs supported probably by Birkenstocks. These are the kinds of things I miss most about Austin . . .

Check out Dana’s sites:
www.wyrdgrl.com
www.myspace.com/wyrdgrld

And Café Caffeine:
www.cafecaffeine.com