Contributed by Kalamazoo Valley Community College
Photos: (Below) Doet Boersma recently finished this landscape painting. She calls it “Gaasterland.” (Headline photo) Doet Boersma is shown standing between paintings in her studio at home.
KALAMAZOO (MICH)-For the first time ever, Kalamazoo Valley Community College is hosting an artist in residence. Painter Doet Boersma, a landscape artist from Leeuwarden, capital of the Dutch province of Friesland in the Netherlands, will be at KVCC from April 1 to June 30. Her studio will be located at the Center for New Media in downtown Kalamazoo.Boersma, an internationally recognized artist who often shows her work in European museums, has been an artist in residence in Hong Kong, Ireland and Portugal. She said she’s very excited about coming to the U.S. for the first time.
“It’s the land of hopes and dreams,” she said. “It will be very nice to be the first artist in residence at KVCC. It will be nice to see how students react. I’m sure my work will look different to them.”
Boersma is known for her creative and mixed media artwork. She enjoys experimenting with diverse mediums. To get ready for her visit, she has begun to order some materials for her Kalamazoo studio from an art supplies website.
“It looks different,” she said. “There are different colors and different sizes of canvas. It’s very exciting to do this. It’s already exciting and I’m not there yet. People around me are laughing with me about all these strange, new things.”
KVCC art teacher Linda Rzoska, who serves as chair of the Art and New Media Department, met Boersma in 2006 at the Burren College of Art in Ireland. Boersma was an artist in residence and Rzoska was there leading the Midwest Institute’s annual study-trip.
“We got to know each other because we are both artists and our interests are the same regarding visually communicating the presence of landscape.” Rzoska said. “Doet invited me to exhibit in her gallery in 2009. Because I was on sabbatical, I was able to visit the exhibit and work with her and five other artists on the island of Ameland. I have been invited back to this island artist session the last two years to work with these same artists.”
Rzoska said she thinks the benefits of international collaboration are immense.
“It will definitely be a wonderful benefit for students to have a working artist here, especially one from another country,” Rzoska said. “Hopefully Doet will give students more of a global view. Someone who’s been educated in a different country has a different world view.”
Boersma will be available to meet with KVCC art students for two hours each day. She will also conduct workshops, critique student work and be a presence at both the downtown and Texas Township campuses.
“Students will visit me and I’ll tell them about my work and also my impressions of their work,” Boersma said.
Boersma was educated in teaching arts and crafts at the Ubbo Emmius Insitute in Leeuwarden. In 1985 she graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts Minerva in Groningen and went on to become an arts teacher in secondary education. In the early 1990’s, she started her own Frysk Skildershûs, ‘The Frisian House of Painting’ in the heart of the Frisian capital Leeuwarden.
Throughout the year, several exhibitions are held in her art gallery. Boersma has been commissioned to create paintings for both private and corporate clients. Boersma said she’s interested in exploring new landscapes. She’ll spend some time outside and will return to the studio with sketches and photos that she’ll use to capture detail for her pieces.
In addition to being intrigued by art supplies and landscape, Boersma said she’s curious about American cuisine.
“I’m curious about food,” she said, “I’m sitting here in my kitchen with these onions and I’m wondering how different the food will be there. I think three months will be a delicious amount of time to learn and explore.”
In the June 3 Art Hop, Boersma’s art will be exhibited in the Arcus Gallery, South Gallery, and Central Gallery in the Center for New Media on KVCC’s Arcadia Commons Campus. A book by Boersma that includes much of her artwork may also be reprinted and made available here. The date of a reception to welcome Boersma will be announced soon.
For more information, contact Linda Rzoska, lrzoska@kvcc.edu or 269-373-7923.
