Book Signing Street Art Florence Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I am delighted to announce that I received the proof copy of my new book “My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy” and it looks great! There are over 330 images in the book and while I did try to focus on the art, there are images of the artists who create the paintings. I also wrote about various issues that street artists face, including our struggles with taxes and government and the joys of sharing the street.

I placed my first order for the books, which should arrive before October. And so, I am offering a very SHORT-LIVED Special Offer:

Pre-printing sales offer:
Signed copy $25 + $5 shipping (anywhere in the world)
[regular price for unsigned book = $28.95 + shipping]
Offer Expires 28 September 2011
Do not forget to include the name(s) you would like me to write into the book signing.

To order, please visit my home page:
http://borsheimarts.com
and you may pay safely with PayPal
or
send a check to me for the proper amount, depending on your book quantities to:
223A Greystone Lane, Cedar Creek, Texas 78612
and then send me an e-mail to lock in your rate. I will reserve a book for you.

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Calendar: Art Events:

My time in central Texas is coming to a close soon, so I do hope that I get to see you before I leave. Here is what I have planned thus far:

~ 1-2 October: Stone Carving Competition, The Vineyard at Florence (Texas)
~ Thursday, 6 October, 6 - 8 p.m.: Book Signing - ArtSpace, Austin, Texas
~ Saturday, 8 October, 4 - 6 p.m.: Book Signing - Community Renaissance Market, Austin, Texas
~ 14-16 October: Kelly's Last Open Studio in Texas
~ 22-23 October: Sculpture Show, Wesley Gallery, Dripping Springs, Texas
~ 25 October - 14 November: One-man exhibit, Quattro Gallery, Austin, Texas
~ Saturday, 5 November: Quattro Gallery, Artist's reception (evening, time to be announced)
~ Saturday, 12 November, 2 - 5 p.m.: Book Signing - Quattro Gallery, Austin, Texas

This coming weekend:

1 & 2 October:
Saturday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.

2011 Stone Carving Competition and Fine Arts Festival
The Vineyard
8711 FM 487
Florence, Texas 76527
Contact: KAMBRAH GARLAND at 512-924-7447 or ph. 254.793.3363
www.thevineyardatflorence.com E-mail: stonecarvingevent@gmail.com
The competition will be judged on Sunday afternoon at 2 pm by no less than 3 independent judges. Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places will be given.


For details about all the future events, please visit my exhibits page:
http://www.borsheimarts.com/exhibits.htm

Straccetto Toto de Angelis

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Toto de Angelis (aka Straccetto) breathed his last breath this evening in Italy. Or, as his niece Anna Innocenzi wrote, “Il cielo da questo momento non solo sarà profumato di lavanda...ma sarà pieno di tanti colori...ZIO TOTO STRACCETTO CI HA LASCIATO.............” ["The sky in this moment is no longer perfumed with lavender, but it will be full of many colors. Uncle Toto "Stracetto" has left us."]

Toto was born on 31 March 1948 in Rome. At an early age, he was stricken with polio, which left him with a permanent limp. He had a difficult childhood in a ghetto in Roma, with a father who was in and out of prison. As he got older, Toto sold lavender from a cart that rarely left him. He often admired the work of the madonnari, who created devotional paintings on the street, but it was not until 1982 that he began to try his untrained hand in art. He painted consistently once he got going, teaching himself mostly, and in 2003, he began to receive recognition from such events as the street painting competition in Grazie di Curtatone in northern Italy.

Straccetto was arguably the most famous of all of the contemporary madonnari in Italy. Even in my relatively short time street painting in Italy, it was not long before I met Toto. I was introduced to him on May 15, 2009, in Nocera Superiore, a small town in southern Italy that hosts an annual street painting competition each May. I noticed him at another table before I understood that he was also an artist. His face caught my attention and I remember thinking that he would make a tremendous portrait subject – what a sculptural face! It struck me as classically Italian and reminded me of the many Dante sculptures I have seen in that country.

He was always friendly to everyone and the night after we all finished our paintings that year, my colleague Johnny McGrogan and I got to share a drink with Toto and another true madonnaro Pino Vommaro (also from Roma). That was a pretty cool evening!

Toto was never far from his cart and in August 2010 at the competition in northern Italy, I saw that his dogs Mara and Valeria were with him as well. His art would be considered folk art, but like any true artist, he walked his own path and spoke with his own symbols in his work.

This blog post was intended to be about my new book “My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy.” In it, I shared a few of the images I have of Toto. But on the eve of his death, it feels wrong to try to sell anything to you in my tribute post to him.

That said, there is another situation that I was made aware of by my contacts on Facebook. The Sarasota Chalk Festival in Florida recently experienced something quite unpleasant. The City’s Art Funding program just changed the rules on current applicants for those events happening this year. My understanding is that the Chalk Festival no longer is eligible because they are not “old enough” yet as a non-profit organization. However, this event is not new and they appear to have had an understanding that they had properly followed all of the rules and application guidelines (until they changed). They thought that they would be receiving a serious chunk of change to fund the many artists who have bought airplane tickets to arrive in Florida for the event, which is scheduled for 1-7 November. And it is a little late for them to be having this kind of funding surprise.

Check out their Web site and if you like what you see and would like to support them, whether or not you can attend this year, buy a catalog of the art, or make a donation in the name of Toto de Angelis. Maybe they can even create an award in his name for the artist who shows the most creative or story telling work. That would be a good way to honor Toto, as well as the history of street painters. Toto de Angelis was part of making street art into something more than a few small voices in one country.
http://www.chalkfestival.com

Art Calendar Book Signing

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Good grief, time moves with such fluidity! On the mornings that I have been home, I continue to work on the marble Gymnast. These images were taken about a month ago, but I am starting to run out of time and must really focus now on using my time well. I must say, though, that carving ears are really fun. In truth, I am only carving one ear since I wanted that asymmetrical look and have part of the figure’s pontail falling to one side and over the other ear. I find that the non-ear side is actually more difficult to carve. No doubt you have seen bronze figures in clothes in which the proportion of the body looks off. It is because the artist got lost in the fabric and forgot that clothes hang on a skeleton. Without clear reference points (in my case a jawbone), it is easy to lose one’s way.

Art Calendar

Here is what is happening in my neck of the woods and hopefully yours too:
1 October: Stone Carving Competition, The Vineyard at Florence (Texas)
Thurs, 6 October, 6 - 8 p.m.: Book Signing - ArtSpace, Austin, Texas
Saturday, 8 October, 4 - 6 p.m.: Book Signing - Community Renaissance Market, Austin, Texas
14-16 October: Kelly's Last Open Studio in Texas (Cedar Creek for the event)
22-23 October: Sculpture Show, Wesley Gallery, Dripping Springs, Texas
25 October - 14 November: One-man exhibit, Quattro Gallery, Austin, Texas
Saturday, 12 November, 2 - 5 p.m.: Book Signing - Quattro Gallery, Austin, Texas

After this last date, I will be heading to North Carolina, Florida, and then Italy.

My book is out and it looks great!

Do not live in Texas and would like a signed copy of my new book “My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy”? It has over 330 images and you may find out more about what is inside here.. But take advantage of a pre-printing special by visiting the special offer on my home page. Early Bird Offer expires 28 September 2011.

Finally, I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome into the world my new nephew, August. He was born on 12 September and is a complete joy to our whole family.

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.