Artist Sculptor Kelly Borsheim Biography

[Borsheim Arts Studio]

Artist Biography: Kelly Borsheim

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

I want to change the way we view the human form. I want to celebrate the elegance and beauty of the nude in art. I am a figurative artist, working in stone and bronze, as well as many 2-dimensional media. While I was studying drawing and design in Florence, Italy, in 2007, I learned the art of the madonnari -- street painters. I love art. I love the processes. I love the materials. I love the intelligent exploration of our world. But mostly, I love the human form.

I was always into art and writing. I knew that these things would be in my life always, I just did not ever realize that they would become my life's calling. I tend to watch the world. And I am more concerned with our internal thoughts expressed through our physical bodies.

Photo by Michelle O'Brien, San Marcos River, Texas, on October 21, 1987.

I was born Kelly Aileen Seiler in St. Paul, Minnesota (USA) on July 31st, the year The Beatles came to America (1964). My father is a pilot. My mother is an artist and mother of six -- three boys and three girls. When I was very young, my family moved around a little. Most of my earliest -- and fondest -- memories are from our time in Germany. About the time I started the third grade, my family moved to Sebring, Florida, with summer pilgrimages of various routes to be with family in Minnesota.

Looking back, this path seems so logical . . .

When I started college in San Marcos, Texas, in 1982, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I met Dr. (D.) Hazelwood by accident while I wandered through SWT's math building and ended up signing up for Calculus I and Dr. Hazelwood's mathematical theory class (you know: why does -1 times -1 equal 1 and how can you turn a donut into a coffee mug?). During my sophomore year, I took a beginning class in black & white photography. I then found a job at a local photo lab, where I worked for over 3 years. After moving to Austin (still working in photo labs), I developed an interest in restoring old photographs. In 1990 I enrolled in a class to retouch negatives and prints, and then in a photo restoration class (actually image restoration, since the technique was to photograph the image and work on the copy photo). As my skills progressed, I tried working on daguerreotype images that had degraded so much that whole body parts were missing. I decided it was time to renew my interest in art, thinking I could learn to create, for instance, a missing hand in a photo.

My first career thought was to be a mathematician. Later, I hoped to be an underwater photographer and was certified in U/W archeology and photography.

In January of 1992, I enrolled in the self-paced classes taught by Lisa Klayman in Austin (now called Austin Fine Arts School) where I studied line, tone, and then color. I loved it! I also discovered that "fixing" an existing image was not nearly as fun as creating a new image (although I still occasionally retouch images). After about a year, Lisa told me that I was ready for my first life-drawing experience. It was amazing. Robbie was a voluptuosly beautiful woman, not like any I had seen before. I was always a thin person and not accustomed to curves. She opened my eyes to true beauty. After that, I left the school and decided to go out on my own and simply PRACTICE. I began attending several of the life-drawing sessions offered in Austin (where artists get together and draw/paint/sculpt from the same model to help ease the expense of hiring models individually) and it was not long before I found myself drawing and painting mostly body parts--typically not faces.

An image of me with some of my paintings on opening night of "SKIN", held at the Laughing At The Sun Gallery in Austin, Texas, on September 12, 1996.

Then in September 1994, I began to study sculpture at the Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory in Austin. I was easily able to transfer the skills learned in Lisa's painting lessons to creating works in 3-dimensions. I have studied with many wonderful artists at the Ney--sculpting in clay, concrete, wax (for bronze), and stone--but I wish to acknowledge Jon Formo who constantly pushed me to do things of which I did not think myself capable and emphasized that life-long lesson that we are only limited by our imaginations.

In September 1995, the photo lab for which I had worked for 6 years closed because of financial mismanagement. My colleague and friend Mark showed me what the Internet was and how to teach myself how to write Web pages. I decided to leave the photo industry and see if I could take my hobby beeswax candle business to a new level, while I continued on with my sculpting dreams. In mid-January 2001, I sold my online beeswax supply business to some friends and became a full-time artist.

2001 was one of my pivotal years. I attended my first MARBLE/marble Symposium on a scholarship in Marble, Colorado, to learn more about stone carving. There I met Vasily Fedorouk, a Ukrainian-born sculptor who became my friend and mentor. He can do anything in stone and I continue to learn much from him.

I had a strong personal goal to touch the art of my very first stone sculpture teacher, Michelangelo, before I turned 40. And that was how I ended up in Italy in 2004. All of my studies up to this point only helped me to realize how little I really knew. I needed to return to Italy and to stay longer. So, in 2006, I enrolled in the Angel Academy of Art in the ever-enchanting Firenze (Florence). My work in the Renaissance City, including as a madonnara (street painter), gave me a new understanding of drawing and the materials of pencil, charcoal, and pastel. I continue to work with many materials, wavering on whether or not I should get into engraving . . .

Thank you for your interest in my journey thus far . . .
Kelly Borsheim, sculptor

Artist Kelly Borsheim currently splits her time between Florence, Italy, and central Texas, USA.
The best way to keep in touch is to sign up for the free art newsletter via the "Contact Artist" link on this site.

OR read the blog here: http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.com

Articles

Exhibits

How to Commission a Sculpture (or Painting)

Current Endeavors:

Jan. 2001-Present

Borsheim Arts Studio
Cedar Creek, Texas
Sculptor and painter of figurative and marine works in stone, bronze, and oil paint

Past Employment:

March 2002-January 2005	Teaching Anatomy and Sculpture Austin Sculpture Center, Austin, Texas
1991-1/2001	Lumina Candles & Art (business name since January 1993), Cedar Creek, Texas Owner; sold beeswax candles & supplies, paintings, and sculptures
1/1996-9/1999	Texas Society of Sculptors, Austin, Texas Treasurer, VP Database manager~membership roster, and Webmaster (1995-1998: Editor of The Third Dimension, TSOS newsletter)
7/1996-1998	Hoover's, Inc., Austin, Texas Publishers of Company Profiles Freelance (Part-time) Copyeditor; (1998-1999: teacher of HTML class)
9/1995-1997	Bastrop Association For the Arts, Bastrop, Texas Sculpture Teacher~"Art After School" Program Levels: 1st through 6th grade
5/1989-9/1995	Stokes Imaging Services, Austin, Texas (Sept. 1995: out of business after 32 years) Digital Imaging Department Film Quality Control, Image Preservationist, and Database Manager Customers: Library of Congress, National Geographic, and National Library of Medicine (Also, started work on duplicating the transparencies of the Visible Human Project for the National Institutes of Health) Prior to the move to the Digital Imaging Dept., position held was Supervisor of the Neg/Pos Dept. (slide duplication) Editor, employee newsletter (began in 1995) Can you tell I loved this job?
5/1984-3/1989	Photo Lab Technician~3 labs, San Marcos and Austin, Texas Held various positions ("wholistic" role, i.e., I did every task needed as deadlines dictated), emphasis on quality control, esp. chemical monitoring. Also, involved in customer service.

Education:

I would like to thank some very influential teachers.

Sebring High School
Sebring, Florida

Valedictorian, 1982

Southwest Texas State University (now called Texas State University)
San Marcos, Texas

Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, 1986
English major, Mathematics minor

Austin Community College (2 semesters)
Austin, Texas

1990-1991
Marketing & photo restoration

Mission Renaissance Art School (1 year, self-paced study)
Austin, Texas

1992-1993
Studied line, tone, and color

The Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory
Austin, Texas

1994-1997

Loveland Academy of Fine Arts (Colorado): Sculpting with De L'Esprie (1 week class)

1998

Loveland Academy of Fine Arts (Colorado): Human Anatomy with David Klass (1 week class)

1999

Loveland Academy of Fine Arts (Colorado): Portraiture in 3-D and Bas Relief with Eugene Daub (1 week class)

2000

Classical Painting with Frank Covino: 5-day workshop studying creating verdaccio underpainting on a marble-based gessoed board

2002

MARBLE/marble Symposium (Colorado): 8-day stone carving workshop (scholarship recipient in 2001)

2001, 2003, 2004

Italy: Studied the art for 6 weeks, traveling alone with cameras and paintbox

May - July 2004

Angel Academy of Art: Studied drawing in pencil and charcoal, including the Sight-Size Method

September 2006 - December 2008

Sebring High School Sebring, Florida	Valedictorian, 1982
Southwest Texas State University (now called Texas State University) San Marcos, Texas	Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, 1986 English major, Mathematics minor
Austin Community College (2 semesters) Austin, Texas	1990-1991 Marketing & photo restoration
Mission Renaissance Art School (1 year, self-paced study) Austin, Texas	1992-1993 Studied line, tone, and color
The Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory Austin, Texas	1994-1997
Loveland Academy of Fine Arts (Colorado): Sculpting with De L'Esprie (1 week class)	1998
Loveland Academy of Fine Arts (Colorado): Human Anatomy with David Klass (1 week class)	1999
Loveland Academy of Fine Arts (Colorado): Portraiture in 3-D and Bas Relief with Eugene Daub (1 week class)	2000
Classical Painting with Frank Covino: 5-day workshop studying creating verdaccio underpainting on a marble-based gessoed board	2002
MARBLE/marble Symposium (Colorado): 8-day stone carving workshop (scholarship recipient in 2001)	2001, 2003, 2004
Italy: Studied the art for 6 weeks, traveling alone with cameras and paintbox	May - July 2004
Angel Academy of Art: Studied drawing in pencil and charcoal, including the Sight-Size Method	September 2006 - December 2008