Art of a Child

Dear Art lover,

     Part of the problem of my living out of a suitcase is that I do not have access to many of my backup drives or my older images that I rarely use.  I am working to launch a campaign on Kickstarter in March.  I want some of my wax sculptures cast into bronze so they may find new homes.

     For this reason, I have been searching all over for images of me casting bronze back at the Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory in Austin, Texas, many years ago.  Sadly, I lost what images I had online when I transferred my Web site to a new host company back in June (my fault).

     I got a giggle last night when I found a folder that contained a few of my childhood artworks.  These are dated around 1974 and 1975.  The horse is 1974, so I would have been ten years old (if the art fair was in the fall as it is these days).  My mother taught me how to paint in acrylics and all but the last shown here were in acrylic paint on canvas or canvas board.  My mother probably helped me make that orange frame around the horse in the wild, wild west.

     I did not do so well the next year with the mouse. Haha.. All I remember about that artwork was that I copied a card I found in a store and I painted it for the first boy I ever fell in love with.  I was eight years old and my family had just moved to Florida from Germany.  I doubt he was impressed, but I think he never knew.  [I had to force the crush to stop before I entered high school.  I was such a geek.]

    

     I am amused by the frog.  Was I thinking that the shapes of my initials painted LARGE and in bright yellow balanced out the big round sun?  oy yoy.  And the final fish painting:  I was experimenting with texture even then.  That is a crumpled up brown paper bag used as a canvas.  It looks like some cheap school-grade paint in traditional bright kid colors.  I am still hoping to find some picture of my very first mural shortly after these little works were made, but have little chance of that.  

     In any event, these are not bronze casting images.  However, today is “Throw-back Thursday” on Facebook and thus, I thought I would contribute some OLDIES.. have fun.

Like nature images?  Check out Tantalizing Tasmania:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/2015_02_ArtNews-TasmaniaLandscapePainting.htm

Please share this with anyone you think might bust a gut over it-ha!  Thank you.

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

Sea Shell Hunting

Dear Art lover,

     I find it interesting what one learns about another in simple shared experiences, such as collecting sea shells by the sea shore.  I have at least two friends that I have had the pleasure of doing that with over recent years.  Funny, they both prefer the perfect shells.  While I find the perfect ones beautiful and amazing in design and execution, I tend to adore the ones in which the broken exteriors reveal some of the beautiful forms inside.  The good news, of course, is that we will never “fight” over the choices the other one desires.  That is always a relief… as when in high school:  you were glad when your best mate had different tastes for dating.  If not, things could get ugly. Ha.

     So, along this rocky beach I found north of Umag, I was enchanted to find these tiny shells.  Because one of the friends referenced to above, Kumiko, cherishes the tiny beauts.  She likes them perfectly formed still.  I picked some up for her, as well as lots of tiny broken ones for me. 

     My friend Ruth pointed out to me many years ago that perhaps the reason I can so easily recognize fear in others is because I am consciously grappling with my own fears.  On my day sifting through shells recently, I wondered if the reason I want to hang onto my friends who like perfect is so that I reach just a little bit higher.

     You know, perhaps, the famous quote by Michelangelo:  The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.

     Oh, enough philosophy.  I am getting closer to having a place in which to carve stone.  You cannot believe my excitement!  I have much to do before my sun sets!  Enjoy my little self portrait in the setting sun on the Adriatic Sea.

Like nature images?  Check out Tantalizing Tasmania:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/2015_02_ArtNews-TasmaniaLandscapePainting.htm

Please share this with anyone you think might appreciate it!  Thank you.

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

Green Tulips

Dear Art lover,

     I imagined my Valentine’s Day to start with brunch of kiwi, oranges, and cheese with fruit tea.  Then I would do some writing, research, and later painting; maybe a break by walking to the sea for the sunset.  Once back home I would then make a lazy dinner of salami slices, avocado, tomato, lettuce, and cheese layered in a tortilla.  No cooking and very little washing up.  I thought I might celebrate in the evening with a wee bit of Bailey’s Irish crème and some lovely new flavored dark chocolates I found locally.

Balancing triangular stone along the sea north of Umag, Croatia, surrounded by native red (iron-rich) clay

     However, my family nickname of “Grace Kelly” does not only describe my physical moves in sarcastic terms.  Earlier this week, I stepped “into it” again with words I used and found myself within a sadly familiar argument with someone I dearly love.  Every time this happens it bothers me seriously for days.  On the 11^th, I took a long walk north along the sea and tried to figure out why I do this time and again with this person (and others, if truth be told).  I tried to find a solution.  I do not really think that one exists.  So, the only good thing is that with each confrontation, I come away with a better understanding of how I feel, what I really want, and why I do what I do.  It may be the best I can do in this case.

     So, last night, I did not sleep.  With so many things on my mind, sleep has been elusive for several nights and last night even moreso.  Allora, I write, as I have done all of my life that I can remember.  It is a cathartic experience, a physical release through the arm and a tactile experience with ideas and paper.  The Bailey’s Irish Crème turned out to be breakfast around 5 a.m., I think.  Finally a bit of rest, and then …..Hahah… and lunch was the chocolate. There are few rules on these sorts of things, right?

     My friend and fellow stone carver Mary Tanner of Nebraska [I am charmed that this is how she signs her letters to me] had given me a wonderful gift the day we met in Firenze:  a handy tote bag which features images of her scientific drawings of Smilodon californicus, fossils that came from La Brae tar pits in downtown Los Angeles.  I packed this full of my pastels and a pad of paper, just in case, and took it with me on my walk by the sea earlier this week.  I stopped in this spot shown here to eat a few kiwi and watch the sun go down.

     Thus, it was a good day.  In fact, it was a great day since several of the ideas in my head that have too long vague began to take a more solid form and are coming together in a cohesive and do-able vision.  I have my next body of work.. many parts are still vague, however, for me it is always that way.  And once I find a home and can start this particular work, the forms will emerge as we go.

     In addition to a lovely day, I want to share with you two pastel works on one easel in my little space here in Croatia.  I started them in Italy… now trying to play with color and other explorations while I am away from my normal space.  Green Tulips and Piazza at Night [the latter started out as Piazza Santo Spirito in Firenze, but I have only memory to go by at the moment and am still working with this one].

     I have also spent the week being technically challenged on several fronts.  I still have not found a way to send out my art newsletter, despite having signed up for a different program (which freezes each time I try to enter content).  My e-mail program has mysteriously stopped keeping copies of my sent e-mails.  Random weird and frustrating things are happening in various programs on my laptop and the screen keeps crashing.  The type font now also looks jiggy-jagged, making writing on this computer a bit of a headache.  Yet, virus scans turn up nothing.  My Internet research leads me to no solutions.  It has been a frustrating week.  

     However, those who HAVE seen the newsletter published on my Web site have written me to tell how much they enjoy the images there…. So if you can, share and enjoy yourself, please:  Tantalizing Tasmania:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/2015_02_ArtNews-TasmaniaLandscapePainting.htm

And, as always, thank you for your continued interest.  Share this with anyone you think might appreciate it! 

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

P.S.  Happy Valentine’s Day, there is still so much to love and for which to feel grateful.

Smilodon californicus, Umag, Croatia, Tasmania, sea walk, Mary Tanner, frustration, Grace Kelly