Destroying Art and Inside Collectors' Homes

Dear Art Lover,

     Hurricane Helene is a name too many will remember and for ugly reasons.  My family was mostly spared damage and a beloved aunt was helped by a neighbor to get a generator going so that she did not miss her home dialysis.  For that I feel extremely grateful.  But so many others are seriously suffering and have so much work to do.

     On social media, I heard about the arts community in Asheville, North Carolina, was totally demolished.  It will take years for them to recover.  In time, there will be places to donate (money, supplies, working spaces) to help them get back into their creative lives.  Of course, it will take others hurt by this storm time to get back on their feet, but as my talented friend and fellow artist Theresa Taylor Bayer likes to quip, "Artists are the 'canary in the economic coal mine.'"  It is true... our sales drop before other types of businesses experience losses, while we artists are often the last to recover.

     Farmers, too, are devastated.  They also need years to see positive results since newly planted crops need time and attention before they start producing.  I suspect that the American Red Cross is efficient at getting food to people and utilities will be restored by experts.  However, if we can come up with direct support for those hardest hit, we can all make a difference that counts!  If you know of something to specifically help those two groups (or others in similar situations), please send that information to me.  I will share it, as well as make my own contribution.

I find processes of many kinds fascinating.  Sadly, the doctor confirmed that the more destroyed of the two broken vertebrae bones will never grow back, as some bones can.  You may note the wounded triangular shape of Vertebrae 6, the one between the screws.

     Last month, I had my one-year X-rays and then a meeting with a doctor in the surgery department in Livorno, Italy, where I had the metal rods and screws inserted in and around my spine.  They are happy with their work, but the result of that meeting and again with my therapist, my therapy was doubled up... more Pilates and add swimming.  I still hope to start sculpting, at least with rotary tools soon before this gorgeous fall turns to the cold of winter.

     Although my time for art making is limited for the moment, I have begun painting more now and also publishing more content.  Check out some recent videos I published:

Painting dilemma ~ Getting Stuck ("Waiting for the Sunrail"):   4 minutes
https://youtu.be/j2uzGM3oUgU

Watch me destroy a painting in pastel from realism to abstract:
Self-critiquing one’s art 2024-09-13 ("Uzzano Park"):    24 minutes (about the ten-minute mark, I start to destroy my townscape pastel painting)
https://youtu.be/67z9WDjWAvo

This was a landscape painting.  Now it is a work-in-progress abstract.

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Starting a new Figure painting on wood 2024-08-12:  6 minutes
https://youtu.be/e6Wm4dJY1QM

and then continues:
Painting WIP ~ Roma, Antico Caffe Greco (Nonno e Nipote):  24 minutes
https://youtu.be/n_KK4Z6pvHQ


     If you are interested in this sort of content, please subscribe to my channel here, and click on the bell if you would like to be notified each time I post something new:
https://www.youtube.com/@BorsheimArts

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     This year, I met an artist with 75 years and we have started up a new friendship.  I would like to show you her work.  I think because I am in a stage in which I want to expand my understanding of color, mark making, and trying to develop my own voice, her work inspires me because of its sincerity.  Read my blog post here:

Presenting Artist Daniela Maccheroni from Pisa Italy:
https://borsheimarts.com/blogs/news/presenting-artist-daniela-maccheroni-from-pisa-italy


     Thus, I thought this would be a good time to showcase some of the art that has become part of private collections over the years.  I am so grateful when collectors send me pictures (with permission to publish) of how they used my art to enhance their living spaces.  Thank you.  See images below.
 

Collector's Corner:

     Marble sculpture 'Zebra Lips' fits right into this game room decor at a private home in Texas.

     This tall, thin painting was a commission for the new kitchen in a Texas home.  The subject is an Italian breakfast, with a single iris to represent Florence, Italy (Firenze).

     Another commission, this time for an Italian home, of a surprised man's face behind the faucet, which emerges from his open mouth.  Cement sculpture.  I started the clay original before my accident in July 2023.  The lovely clients waited a year for me to have the ability to create the molds and then cast this piece in concrete for them.  I also made a separate mold and have made copies in terra-cotta for other homes.

[The profile image shows my original idea of two separate pieces to be installed under and over the plumbing to avoid having to redo that work.  Clients later chose to pay the plumber to change out the spigot, thus, I later cast a solid face in cement for them [in the first photo.]

     Now, THIS brought me back many memories.  This wonderful man bought one of my very early paintings:  drawn from a live model in a three-hour session (with breaks) that I painted in raw umber and white.  Later when the painting was dry, I glazed over it with this warm green.  Private home in Austin, Texas.  [And thank you to the Austin Visual Arts Association and other groups of artists for holding sessions each day of the week with live models to help all of us hone our skills.]

     The home above of a lovely art supporter hosts a framed print of one of my drawings from my trip to Morocco.  She helped me launch one of my shops on Etsy.  [I have two, one for nudes only and the main one for all sorts of artistic creations.]

     The above pastel painting was commissioned by a huge fan of Oscar Wilde.  She is a musician and used this on an album cover:  She plays the piano, looking up him.  He has a cigarette in his hand, the smoke drifting off to our right.  His top hat rests on the tall piano back.  She put text in the fairly solid area of the back of the piano, lower right.

     This commission of two sisters in a mixed realism and abstract composition, involving thoughts of flight and toes in the sand, was what helped me get through Covid.  I was fortunate enough to have this piece of marble at my home, since going to the quarry was not an option at the time.

     Just recently, Dilya (the wife of artist Vasily Fedorouk) received this image from one of his collectors in Chicago.  He carved the same black and white striped marble of my 'Zebra Lips' in the first photo of "Collectors' Corner here.  We were at the same carving symposium in Marble, Colorado, when we each bought some to take home to sculpt.

     My dear friend and fellow artist tends to work more for public art collections, via stone carving symposiums in many countries.  This lovely work is shown in front of a library in Spain.  On my site, Kumiko's smaller works, sometimes her maquettes or bozzetti (small scale models for larger works), are what is offered to private collectors.

     Dragana Adamov's artwork part of this salon-style hanging in a private home in Italy.

      I hope these allow you to spark your own decor ideas and interests.  If you have bought an artwork from me, or any of my guest artists, Vasily Fedorouk, Dragana Adamov, or Kumiko Suzuki, and want to share, please send me your images. 

     Thank you for your appreciation of art and expressing your own taste in your home or office.

Yours truly,

Kelly Borsheim

https://BorsheimArts.com