[Today’s featured artwork for Day 59 of the 365 Days Project is by Kelly Borsheim.]

The Artist as athlete.
#59 – The multidisciplinary Artist is like the athlete who cross-trains – creative muscles are developed by exploring a variety of mediums.
Cross-training helps athletes tone their muscles overall so they can be more effective in their chosen sport. Artists do the same thing by working in a variety of mediums, where a writer’s creative process might be enhanced by painting, or a sculptor’s understanding of movement could be derived by dancing.
Kelly Borsheim’s website is filled with sculpture, paintings, charcoals, photography, even street paintings she created while living as a Madonnari (street painter) in Italy. “The more one pays attention,” said the artist, “the more one realizes how much things are connected.”
While in college, Borsheim took a course entitled, “Music and Literature.” Her professor explained that long ago, these two arts were not separate. Music told stories, while people put words together so that they sounded lyrical, as well as having meaning.
She has this to say about her painting: “I do not consider myself a colorist, the way many painters describe themselves. I love color, too, but I have not come to the point of thinking that color is the primary quality of my own work.”
“My goal is to appeal to more than one sense. So I study tone. I want to try to create three dimensions with two. I am a sculptor. And doing these paintings helps my sculpting ability.”
Like Borsheim, I have worked in a variety of mediums as I explored my creative talents, but I know I am a sculptor first and foremost. As I work at my writing, it is my artwork that has provided the creative foundation for the literary process, which in turn informs my sculpture.
We are all, in a way, creative athletes.

Kelly Borsheim’s artwork can be viewed at: Borsheim Arts Studio
Description of the images included in this post:
Unwritten Future
Kelly Borsheim, Texas and Italy
Bronze
Le Scale dell’ Eros
Kelly Borsheim, Texas and Italy
Pastel & charcoal on Somerset paper
The 365 Days Project
In 2012, Serena Kovalosky committed to writing an article a day for 365 days as an exploration into the lives of artists and the value of creative thinking in our society.
Experience the full evolution of the project! Click below to read the entire collection of articles.
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