Author Archives: marikaarts

Visions in Wood: Marika and Her Students Sculpture Exhibition

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Art in Seguin...Seeing Is Believing

 

Heritage Museum is Venue for Special Evening of Art, Oct. 16

Volunteers working on the Seeing is Believing: Visions in Wood sculpture exhibit gathered at a recent planning meeting. The event is being held on Saturday, Oct. 16 from 6-8 p.m. Those with tickets to the Child Advocacy Center Fundraiser are invited to a sneak preview of the event from 5-6 p.m. that evening. There is no charge for the event, with donations supporting the Heritage Museum which is hosting the exhibit through Jan. 5.

By Mary Jo Filip, Main Street Program Director

(Seguin) — When Marika Bordes puts her mind to something, everyone should get in line and help her on her way. A while ago, John Gesick with the Heritage Museum suggested she might consider holding a show of her sculptures there. Taking his suggestion to heart, she envisioned a dramatic art event that would make the people of Seguin, and visitors, stand a little taller and think a little grander about the art we have here, the artists who create it, and the importance art has for our community. She didn’t want just a typical event. She wanted it to be special, so those who attended would leave excited, spread the word, and tell their friends they must go to the Heritage Museum to see this exhibit.

To help her meet her goal she assembled a committee of 11 people, each of whom was tasked with assisting in setting the stage for the event which will be held Saturday, Oct. 16 from 6-8 p.m. * Exhibit committee members were tasked with organizing publicity, the reception, staging for the exhibits, and organization. The committee includes Hil Starcke, Patt Linden, Barry Duncan, Dennis Martin, Roger Betschler, Lynn Pfullmann, Donna Dodgen,

Audra Schulz, Bob Gardner and myself. John Gesick works with the committee to ensure smooth interaction with the Heritage Museum.

The evening is called “Art in Seguin…Seeing is Believing”, with the title of the exhibit: Visions in Wood: Marika and Her Students. Over thirty sculptures by Marika and ten of her students will be on display. The crowning event of the evening will be the unveiling of a 14-foot tall breath-taking wood sculpture of “Gwaihir” that Bordes created and brought to life with assistance of her students and friends. The inspiration for the sculpture comes from Gwaihir, an immense eagle from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth who helped Gandalf escape and snatches Frodo and Sam from certain doom in the Lord of the Rings.

Adding another artistic element to the evening, Bordes asked people from the local community to write poems or impressions of the sculptures. These pieces, written by Mayor Betty Ann Matthies, Darren Dunn, Whitney Bischoff, Evelyn Streng, Patt Linden,Jean-Marie Ngendahayo, Michelle Rumbaut, Nancy Masterson, Jack Linden, Marie Jo Billnitzer, Beth Raetzsch, Michael Saenz, John Upper, Barbra Upper, Janice Turk, Cindy Aguirre, Ana Maria Gonzalez, and yours truly, will be displayed along with each of the statues.

Patrons of the evening will be greeted outdoors by the gentle sounds of a djembe drum. Inside, live string music will be performed, with hors d’oeuvres and wine available while strolling the two floors of the museum to observe the art.

The event is free and open to the public. Donations are welcome both from those wishing to help sponsor the event and those attending. Proceeds benefit the Heritage Museum. For more information contact Dennis Martin at 560-6852 or John Gesick at 372-0965.

*A sneak preview for those with tickets to the fund raiser comedy show for the Child Advocacy Center being held that same evening is being held from 5-6 p.m.

 

From the Seguin Daily News

September 27, 2010

 

 

 

Eden Hill Communities Visits Marika

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Eden Hill Communities of New Braunfels, TX came by to see Marika’s Gallery and Studio.  A good time was had by one and all as the saying goes.  The stay was fun, lively and informative.  There were a lot of questions and a wonderful exchange of ideas.  The Eden Hill plans to visit Marika’s art at the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center and to visit the gallery again!



Seguin Artist Selected for Prestigious Texas Tour

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Seguin Daily News

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The art pieces, as well as the skills and talents used in creating these fine wood sculptures, will soon be available to all Texans. Artist Marika Bordes, of Seguin, has been selected to participate in the prestigious 2010-2011 Texas Touring Roster of the Texas Commission on the Arts. Bordes is one of only a handful of Texas artists who have been selected for the opportunity.

By Cindy Aguirre-Herrera

(Seguin) — Local Sculptor Marika Bordes is taking her art on the road. Bordes, a member of the Seguin Oakwood Art League and the Texas Society of Sculptors ,has been selected by the Texas Commission on the Arts to participate in its 2010-2011 Texas Touring Roster. Bordes is one of only 124 individuals and companies to receive the grant award.

By being chosen for the touring roster, the wood carving sculptor will receive the opportunity to offer presentations, demonstrations and workshops to adults and youth. Through these presentations, Bordes says she hopes to inspire people to appreciate the importance of art.

“It’s a great honor, although we applied for it, but after that when I knew about the process (and of ) getting in, I feel very blessed and honored to be with such a group of people. I do think by going all over to show people what we can do with wood, I will pass on the legacy that I received from my people to other people that will continue it,” said Bordes.

The state of Texas designed the Touring Arts Program to ensure that all Texans have the ability to enjoy performances and presentations in their own communities by what they call ‘outstanding Texas-based artists’.

“Artists on the Texas Touring Roster travel to communities across the state and perform in a variety of venues,” said Gary Gibbs, TCA executive director. “In addition to performances, they may also conduct workshops, master classes, residences, lecture-demonstrations or arts education components as a way to engage community residents. We are proud to offer the citizens of Texas access to such high-quality artistic talent.”

Gaye McElwain, director marketing and communications for the Texas Commission on the Arts, says Seguin should be proud of Bordes’ accomplishments thus far. She says selection for the touring list is limited to the elite and most creative artists and performance companies around.

“It is prestigious in the sense that those artists are going to be looked at by Texas presenters state wide to be brought into their communities to do workshops and exhibitions and performances — things of that type. So we at the Commission on the Arts want to make sure that the list that we are providing are all the highest quality, people who are good not only in terms of artistic product but that are also going to be a good addition to their community in terms of the way they can communicate about their artwork maybe do some educational outreach — things of that type,” said McElwain.

The Texas Commission on the Arts does not provide funds to artists in the Texas Touring Roster. Instead, TCA provides grants to arts presenters, schools, libraries, theatres and other non profits throughout Texas to help with the cost of bringing in companies and artists from the roster.

Bordes says what is particularly exciting for her is the opportunity to spread the word about Seguin as an arts destination.

“Here in Seguin we have so many talents and I’m experiencing it everyday. Actually, I have nine students, and we are going to have that exhibition in October. You are all going to see

how it is. The variety of talents and thought and creativity — I think we need people to know who we are in Seguin, and I don’t mean that I’m the best ambassador for it, but I will do my best to let people know who we are in Seguin and what we can do,” said Bordes.

Artists on this year’s Texas Touring Roster range from individual performing and visual artist to large performing arts companies.

Artistic disciplines include music, visual art, dance, theatre, storytelling, literary art and folk art.

The Story of Marika and a Small Texas Town

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The Holidays: Central Park, Seguin, TX

The Story of Marika and a Small Texas Town

A woman from Haiti by taking mallet and chisel to wood, and a small town are writing a Texas story.  Five years ago, Marika arrives in Seguin with her tools, wood, and sculptures.  Something beautiful happens.

Folks meet her and soon thereafter she is speaking before civic organizations and church groups;

The Seguin Main Street Program appoints her to the Advisory Board;

Texas Lutheran University hosts a solo exhibition;

For the new maternity wing, The Guadalupe Regional Medical Center commissions a sculpture;

The Seguin Oakwood Art League sponsors the Haiti Benefit Art Auction “in honor of sculptor, friend, and member Marika Bordes;”  and

The Seguin Heritage Museum schedules a three-month exhibition for Marika and her students for Fall 2010.

Her love for sculpting and the desire to share this life-changing passion places her before diverse audiences:  Rotary International, The Shakespeare Study Club,  Zonta International, Wesley-Harper Vacation Bible School and other venues.  The topics vary.  Always, the theme is the importance to both the individual and the community of hard work, discipline and the creativity within us.

Shortly after joining the Main Street Advisory Board, Marika accepts the mandate to develop a plan for promoting and supporting the arts in Seguin.  Though her efforts and others, the City of Seguin now has an Arts Commission.

Marika’s passion for sculpture and giving to others shines through when she teaches sculpting.  The artist wants the story to continue.  A story that begins with the carvers of Africa, then to the carvers of Haiti, and now to the carvers of Seguin.  In a small Texas town, from the rising of the sun, until the rising of the moon, mallet and chisel ring out against the intrinsic beauty of wood.

Photo: www.BilSullivanPhotography.com

Texas Country Reporter

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Photo: www.bilsullivanphotography.com/

Since 1972 Bob Phillips has traveled the backroads and told the stories of real Texans – ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Texas Country Reporter celebrates the history, emotion and beauty that make Texas and Texans so unique.

Recently, Texas Country Reporter interviewed Seguin sculptor and Main Street Advisory Board Member Marika Bordes.  Bob Phillips and his team came to Seguin to meet with Marika and to visit her studio and gallery.  Team members also took the opportunity to film her exhibit at the George Washington Carver Museum in Austin.  The segment will air the weekend of May 15 & 16.

One can view the show on:

 

KTBU 55 Houston, 4:30 pm SUN

KTXA 21 Dallas/Ft. Worth IND 10:00 am SUN

KEYE 42 Austin, CBS 10:00 am SUN

KVIA 7 El Paso/Las Cruces, ABC 5:30 am SAT

KENS 5 San Antonio, CBS 9:30 am SUN

To find showtimes for other cities in Texas please visit http://www.texascountryreporter.com/show_time.htm.

Texas Lutheran University Spanish Class Visits the Studio

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Recently, an upper level Spanish class visited Marika’s studio and gallery as part of their class activities.  Some excerpts from the students:

From Samantha-

My favorite piece that she talked about was the Carousel of a Woman’s Life.  At first glance i had no idea the depth and creativity of this piece of artwork, but then as she started to explain it you began to see numerous different women figures in the one piece of wood.  Marika made me feel the passion she has for her work simply by describing it.

Kyle-

My favorite piece was The Beggar because the sculpture really captured the posture of the beggar.  The piece was very emotional.  I thought the way the artist was able to sculpt the wood to look like cloth blowing in the wind was really incredible.

Jessica-

I was really inspired by Marika.  …,but she made me realize that it is important to love what you do and to take a deeper look at things, rather than what is just on the surface.  The way she spoke about her piece “The Beggar” was amazing.  I hope that I will be as passionate about my work as she is.

Auction draws art lovers to support Haiti

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By Felicia Frazar
The Gazette-Enterprise

Published February 16, 2010

Area art connoisseurs opened their hearts and their wallets to honor a local sculptor and her country.

In the wake of the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated the country of Haiti — and in honor of local artist Marika Bordes’ Haitian roots — the Seguin Oakwood Art League decided to host an art auction benefit on Saturday at the Silver Center.

Artists from the area and beyond brought in some of their collected pieces or their own works of art to be sold through a live or silent auction, said Jeanne Palmer, Seguin Oakwood Art League president.

“We got donations from artists from San Antonio to Austin and a majority of the donations were from artist in the Seguin Area,” Palmer said. “People were just really outpouring. They just really embraced what we were doing.”

Along with the auctions, donation jars were placed throughout the room to generate more funds for the cause.

“Some people don’t really want to bring something else home, but they want to donate,” she said. “A little less than $500 came from the jars.”

All three forms of collection brought in nearly $10,000 to be distributed to three organizations — American Red Cross, Save The Children and Doctors Without Borders, Palmer said.

“The total funds that we have in our hand is $9,747, with the incoming funds it’s going to be over $9,800. It would not surprise me if we hit that $10,000 by the time all of the funds are in,” she said. “The majority of the funds are going to Red Cross, then Doctors Without Borders and then to Save The Children.”

Purchasers were given the opportunity to choose which charity their donation would benefit, said Dennis Martin.

“We were trying to come up with three organizations that everyone knows about and Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders both have offices in Haiti and I am sure the American Red Cross has one, as well,” he said.

Martha Swanson, artist, said she came out to support the cause and had donated some artwork to be sold.

“I think it’s a good thing,” she said. “We need to take any possible opportunity to help these people.”

Nearly 100 works were donated to the fundraiser. Twenty of them were designated to be sold in the live auction, but a couple of surprises were added — one only moments before the auction and the second in the middle, Palmer said.

“Edmund [Kuempel] gave us a Texas chair from the senate and then we had someone who brought a gift certificate for 10 hours of instruction from Marika and then donated it back,” she said.

Of the pieces auctioned off were two of Bordes’ sculptures and a teaching session with Bordes that brought in about $4,000.

Overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for her homeland, Bordes addressed the audience with a “thank you” note from her sister-in-law and a Haitian Creole song “Mèci Bon Dié.”

“It means, ‘Thank you, Oh Lord.’ I thanked the Lord like the people of my country would do,” she said. “I just wanted to be connected with my people and thank the Lord with everybody.”

Haitians may have never heard of Seguin, Texas, but through the tragedy they are feeling a connection to the area residents, Bordes said.

“Right now a small town they have never heard about — I have been sending them all of the papers for them — has been doing so much and they know that we are with them,” she said. “I think with that fundraiser it would help some smiles to come back on my peoples’ faces, like all of the fundraisers. It’s very neat and very moving of what is going on in this little community.”

Main Street Artists Supporting Haiti Fundraiser

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Seguin Daily News Monday, February 15, 2010

Main Street artists supporting Haiti fundraiser

By Mary Jo Filip, Main Street Program Director

(Seguin) — Sometimes, things that seem very remote and far away from our own personal reality hit home in an unusual way. The Seguin Main Street Program has had the benefit of having Marika Bordes serve on the board for the past several years. As an artist, Marika was instrumental in moving one of the Main Street Advisory Board goals forward during the past year: the development of an Arts Commission in Seguin. She and her husband, Dennis Martin, are also friends of Seguin’s efforts to preserve and tell the story of its rich history, having renovated their home and received approval for placement of a Texas Historical Marker on the property.

So, when disaster struck Haiti, Seguin was struck by just how close to home Haiti seemed since Marika is from Haiti. Her artist friends wanted to show how much they value her and agreed to host an Art Auction to benefit Haiti. The Seguin Oakwood Art League contacted members and artist friends from surrounding communities including San Antonio, Austin and Staples and organized the Haiti Benefit Art Auction which is being held on Saturday, February 13 at the Silver Center located at 510 E. Court Street. There is a reception with refreshments from 5-6 p.m. and Texas State Representative Edmund Kuempel will then serve as auctioneer for the event.

Art from the MJC Gallery located downtown will be included in the auction. Photographer Matt Chase is donating two photographs taken in Central Park. One features the bandstand and fountain and one the statue of Juan Seguin. Both are framed and ready to be hung. Kris Kelso, also with MJC Gallery, has donated a colorful painting of a girl in traditional Mexican dance wear. Other art that has been displayed by members of the Seguin Oakwood Art League in the downtown vacant window “Phantom Galleries” is also being donated for the auction.

A crowning jewel of the auction will be a wood sculpture created by our Haitian-born Main Street friend, Marika Bordes.

All proceeds will go to Save the Children, Doctors without Borders, or The American Red Cross.


New Arts Commission in Seguin

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Seguin Daily News Monday February 1, 2010

By Mary Jo Filip, Main Street Program Director

On Wednesday, Jan. 27 Mayor Betty Ann Matthies swore in the new members of the Arts Commission as required by State Law for those serving on municipal boards and commissions. New members are Stella Ozuna representing Teatro de Artes de Juan Seguin, John Masterson representing the Mid Texas Symphony, Ann Leithead representing the Oakwood Art League, Sheila Bailey Lucas representing Seguin Art Center, Stephen Anderson representing Texas Lutheran University, Sharon Amman who is a Citizen representative, and Dana Overstreet who is also a Citizen representative on the Commission.
The Arts Commission will meet the week of February 1 for the purpose of adopting By-laws and electing officers. A networking gathering of artists is being planned.

The development of an Arts Commission resulted from the strategic planning process of the Main Street Advisory Board. The ordinance passed by City Council stated:
—The visual, performing, and cultural arts organizations are growing in Seguin.
—The interests of each of the various arts and cultural activities may be better coordinated and supported by an organization dedicated to promoting and supporting the arts.
—The City Council of the City of Seguin desires to establish a Commission on the Arts for the purpose of promoting and supporting the arts.
—The purpose of the Commission on the Arts will be to encourage, stimulate, foster, and promote programs that will enrich the cultural environment of the City, thereby contributing to the quality of life in Seguin to the general attractiveness of Seguin for the purposes of economic development.
—The Commission on the Arts will work to help Seguin become an arts destination for the region in the belief that growth in the arts will enhance quality of life, economic development, and revitalization of Seguin.

The board members were appointed for staggered, two-year terms and can be reappointed for up to two additional terms.
The Commission is tasked with establishing, maintaining and publicizing a community-wide Arts Calendar; creating and maintaining an inventory of artists, arts organizations, events and available venues; communicating about and promoting the arts and artists; recommending policies to promote the arts; serve as a resource; look into establishing a volunteer network to assist artists; encourage networking; encourage the development of additional arts and cultural events and artifacts to the city; and to pursue funding for the support of arts programs.

John Masterson has spearheaded the development of the Arts Commission along with local artist and Main Street board member Marika Bordes. In a presentation to City Council, Masterson said: “The arts are a reflection of the highest and most noble aspirations of humanity. A vibrant arts scene is a sign of a culturally enlightened community. Establishing a Commission on the Arts will signal our City’s commitment to aesthetic values and how such values enrich us all.”