Artist Biography: Kelly Borsheim

[pronounced BORE SH-EYE-M (silent "e", long "i"),accent on both syllables, a Norwegian name]

     Although Kelly Borsheim obtained her degree in English and mathematics, she began her art career in the photographic industry and moved into image preservation in the early 1990s.  As her skills progressed, Kelly began to restore images of daguerreotypes that had degraded so much that critical portions were missing.  In 1992 she enrolled in a self-paced art school to learn to create, for instance, a missing hand in a photo. 

     Learning to draw led to learning to oil paint, which led to the desire to “push clay around.”  Once Kelly discovered sculpture, she knew she had found her life’s passion.  Now a figurative artist in 2- and 3-dimensions, Kelly prefers to create sculpture in stone and bronze, as well as paint in oils or acrylics.  Kelly followed Michelangelo to Italy and has been working in stone carving symposiums to create work in public spaces, such as the Pinocchio Park in Collodi, Tuscany, Italy.  Borsheim artworks are in collections throughout the United States and in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Serbia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

 

From Kelly:

     It never occurred to me to become a full-time artist.  My mother was the only artist I knew in my childhood.  As the oldest of her then four children (later six), I watched her do every artistic thing she could think of from selling her paintings, creating theatre sets and murals to teaching and being a great Boy Scout Den Mother who brought many art projects to kids.  It was such a struggle and it was never enough to put food on our family's table.
     I knew that, because of her, I would always have art and crafting in my life.  But it never crossed my mind as a career idea.  Instead, I studied mathematics and later diagramming sentences and reading Shakespeare.  I took a course in Music and Literature, learning that they used to be one art.  When changing majors to English (minoring in math), I was told to take an elective.  I enrolled in a black and white photography darkroom class.  My mother had done a lot of that, too.
     There it was.  The turning point that changed the entire course of my life:  That moment in the darkroom, red light on, when I slipped a piece of photosensitive paper into the developer chemical and magically, an image I took emerged on the page!  I felt so enchanted that I decided in that moment to find a job in a photo lab to pay for the rest of my college years.
     I worked 11 years in the laboratory business, ending in image preservation by digital imaging.  After retouching negatives and then the resulting prints, I needed to learn how to draw a missing hand in a daguerreotype.  I began taking art classes for two hours each week (since I worked over 60 hours per week in the lab).  Drawing led to painting.  Painting led to the desire to "push clay around."
     I took my first adult sculpture class in 1994, when I was 30 years old.  The deal was sealed.  I knew that I had found home.  Found my purpose.  Found my passion.
     I want to share that with you.
~ Kelly Borsheim, https://BorsheimArts.com

 

 

     Born from a pilot father and an artistic mother, I watched my mother work in all sorts of areas in art, as well as teaching me how to draw and paint.  However, it was such a struggle for her to earn money from art that it never occurred to me to choose to work as an artist.  It was just a given that art would be a part of my life, as I choose to continue my studies of mathematics when I went to university in 1982.

     Fate decided:  having to choose an elective led me to the B&W photographic darkroom.   My life was changed forever while watching my image emerge on a seemingly blank sheet of paper in the chemistry.  I found a job in a photo lab in central Texas and ended up spending eleven years in the lab business.  During that time, I learned to retouch negatives with the aid of sharpened lead and a microscope, and moved into preserving images onto 12" video discs.  At Stokes Imaging Services, we photographed many collections for the Library of Congress, National Geographic, and the National Institute of Health, for example.  I still have a fondness for preservation and restoration work, as well and Black & White imagery.

     During my attempt to restore the image on a daguerreotype, I realized that I needed to refresh my drawing skills.  I found a self-paced class on classical drawing and painting techniques, but I was working sixty hours a week and thus, could only take two hours a week in this school.  After a year of this, my teacher Lisa Klayman (now goes by Elisabeth Locke) told me that I was ready for my first life drawing session.

     Wow!  I had never seen another woman nude in front of me before.  Robbie was curvaceous (unlike me at the time) and gorgeous.  I was hooked on drawing from life!  I quit the school so that I could attend many of the life drawing sessions around town [Austin, Texas] and expected to go back once I knew my weak areas.  However, charcoal led to oil.  And the squishiness of oil led me to clay.  I found the Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory and in 1994, at the age of 30, took my first sculpture class.  I worked in every material offered and learned so much there.  But it was really just the beginning. 

 

     In 2004, I came to Italy with the hope to touch a Michelangelo sculpture before I turned 40.  I did it, and fell in love with Florence and Anacapri in the process.  My six-weeks of backpacking around Italia was not enough time, and thus two years later, I got a student visa and began to continue the same type of program that I had studied in the early 1990s.  

     While I consider myself a sculptor, I find that work heavily depends on drawing skills.  Painting helps my sculpture and sculpting helps my painting.  While many tell me that I "do too many things in too many styles," I do not see that at all.  Everything is connected and I still have so much to learn.  

     Most of my artworks tell something of my life.  Friends are models, models become friends.  I hope you enjoy traveling along with me and feel something with each artwork that I create.  

     Thank you for your interest and your time.  

Peace,

 

Kelly

 

 

CV / Resumé

Selected Exhibitions

 

2020:*  "Stories," opening Saturday, October 24, 2020, Ended on 13 Nov.  Solo Exhibition by Kelly Borsheim, Bottega d'Arte Salvadori, Pescia, Tuscany, Italy

2024   Group Art Exhibit in Vinci, Italy

2023   "Contemporary Sacred Art," La Pieve (church from 879 A.D.) Castelvecchio (PT) in Valleriana, Tuscany, Italy

2019  

            *May 3 - 5:  Sculpture at the River Market, Little Rock, Arkansas USA, BEST OF SHOW award for 'Pelican Lips'

            *April 26-28:  SculptFest, Round Rock, Texas, USA

            *April 14:  The Palms of Sanford, Florida

            Solo exhibit:  La Pieve, Castelvecchio, Valleriana, Tuscany, Italy.

2018    Solo exhibit:  La Mia Arte:  Dipinti e Sculture; Bottega d’Arte Salvadori, Pescia, Italia

2017    *AVAA Summer Show, 21 July-26 Aug; Best of Show for ‘Relinquish’ painting, 3 judges all gave perfect scores, Julia C. Butridge Gallery, Austin, Texas

             *Sculptor's Dominion, Boerne, Texas, USA

             *Unpacking the Shadow Lakewood/Denver, Colorado – invited by Lorri Acott

2016    *"Scultori in Cava" Stone carving Symposium, Vellano, Italy - Pinocchio theme *Pinocchio sul Colombo' was permanently installed in Parco di Pinocchio in Collodi, Tuscany, Italy in December     2016; dedication ceremony was April 9, 2017

2015     London, UK; Bargehouse - Oxo Tower Wharf The Artists' Fair

              "Rembrandt Meets Picasso: Art Party with Kelly Borsheim and Warren Cullar (Picasso)" Austin, Texas

              Art auction against domestic violence, benefiting ArtemisiA, Florence, Italy

              DRAWN 2015: Manifest Gallery, 2727 Woodburn Ave, Cincinnati, Ohio 45206

2014     The Royal West of England Academy's 162nd Annual Open Exhibition in Bristol, UK

              Russalka, Bulgaria,: Participant in Stone Carving Symposium (Serena, a stone carving-in their collection now)

              Art Competition Judge and Teacher in Sarina, Australia: Sarina Arts Festival Judge,

                     taught adult workshop in Sight-Size Pastel and Charcoal Drawing Method (to adults),

                     guest teacher in local schools during the festival week [all ages],

                     created two street paintings for the festival, and consulted for mural in local high school w/kids

             "Salon International" Greenhouse Fine Art, San Antonio, Texas

             "The Sculptor's Dominion" large sculpture exhibition, San Antonio, Texas

             "Passages - Morocco" solo exhibition at Baraka, Firenze, Italia

2013     Stone Symposium in Castelvecchio, Tuscany, Italy: stone = Pietra Serena

              Stone carving in Pontremoli, Italy: Medieval Festival - marble carving

2012     Sculpture Challenge Carved Stone Fundraiser for PAWS, Dripping Springs, Texas

              Tuscan mural Commission [200 x 400 cm], private home in Caprese Michelangelo, Italia

2011      Places and Poses", solo exhibition (sculpture and 2-d) at Quattro Gallery, Austin, Texas

              Summer of Sculpture, juried exhibit, Texas Society of Sculptors, Georgetown, Texas

              Showcase of Sculpture, juried exhibition at New Braunfels Art Gallery, Texas

             Salon International 2011 (Awarded Judge's Honorable Mention) Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art;

                   San Antonio, Texas USA (2011 Exhibit Judge: Daniel E. Greene, N.A.)

2011      Stone Carving Competition and Fine Arts Festival, The Vineyard at Florence, Texas

              Sculpture Challenge Dripping Springs, Texas

2010     "Italian Inspirations II"; SOLO exhibit, The Vineyard at Florence; Florence, Texas

              E.A.S.T. [East Austin Studio Tours: guest artist at Beth Schoen Sculpture Studio; Texas

              Urban Groove solo exhibit at Urban Groove Salon; Austin, Texas

              Art Invitational, Flat Creek Estate Winery, Marble Falls, Texas

              Annigoni's Legacy-Annual Exhibition Angel Academy of Art Villa Bardini,Florence,Italy

              "Italian Inspirations 2010"; SOLO exhibit, Sei Divino, Florence, Italy

2010     Stone Carving Competition & Art Festival: The Vineyard, Florence, Texas

              Sculpture Challenge Dripping Springs, Texas

2009    E.A.S.T. - East Austin Studio Tour (Texas): Guest Artist at Schoen Sculpture Studio

              New Drawings by Kelly Borsheim; solo exhibit in Pozzo Divino; Florence, Italy

             "Kelly Borsheim: Luce dall’oscurità" (Light from Darkness); SOLO exhibit, Sei Divino, Florence, Italy

2006    Sculpture in the Park; juried exhibit; Benson Sculpture Garden, Loveland, Colorado

              Sculpture in the South; Summerville, South Carolina (invited to exhibit and speak)

              ‘Sculptors' Dominion Invitational 2006’; San Antonio, Texas

2005     International Artexpo New York; SOLO Booth, New York City
2004     8th Annual Stone Carvers' Exhibition; Redstone Art Center, Redstone, Colorado

              Museo Gilardi Presents Kelly Borsheim; Museo Gilardi, Forte Dei Marmi, Italy

              Sculpture in the South; Summerville, South Carolina (invited to exhibit)

              Sculptors' Dominion Invitational 2004; San Antonio, Texas

2002     Sculptfest 2002; Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum; Austin, Texas

              Austin Museum Day; Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum; Austin, Texas

              11th Annual Loveland Sculpture Invitational Show and Sale; Loveland, Colorado

              From Paper to Bronze: Sculptors Who Draw (2-person show with Marian Waldrip, July 2-28, Julia C. Butridge Gallery, Austin)

              Sculpture in the South; Summerville, South Carolina (invited to exhibit)

2001     Sculptfest 2001; Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum; Austin, Texas

              Loveland Sculpture Invitational Show and Sale; Loveland, Colorado

2000     Loveland Sculpture Invitational Show and Sale; Loveland, Colorado

              Sculptfest 2000, Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum; Austin, Texas

              Bayou City Art Festival; Houston, Texas

1999     Austin Artists' Harvest; Austin, Texas

              Sculpt*fest ‘99, Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum; Austin, Texas

              Bosque Conservatory 14th Annual Art Competition; Clifton, Texas

1998     Sculpt*fest ‘98, Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum; Austin, Texas

1997     Artists' Harvest; Austin, Texas

              TSOS Shows Off, Texas Society of Sculptors' Membership Show; Austin, Texas

1995     Student & Faculty Exhibit of Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory; Austin, Texas

              Go Figure . . .; Austin, Texas

 

Education

2014                             Graduated Angel Academy of Art, oil painting and drawing, Florence, Italy

2001, 2003, 2004      MARBLE/marble (stone carving) Symposium; Marble, Colorado (scholarship 1^st year)

2002                             Verdaccio Painting (one week class) with Frank Covino; Bastrop, Texas

1998-2000                  Loveland Academy of Fine Arts (Colorado): 3 workshops (one week each year)

1994-7                         The Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory; Austin, Texas (sculpture)

1992                              Mission Renaissance Art School; Austin, Texas (drawing & painting; self-paced)

1982-6                          Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University); San Marcos, Texas

                                             (Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude; English major, Mathematics minor)

1982                              Sebring High School; Sebring, Florida (Valedictorian)