On Thursday morning the Travel Media Assocation of Canada conference began with some local Saskatoon experiences.
I joined the group that went to the Mendel Art Gallery where we toured through some regional art exhibitions, the Automatiste Revolution exhibit and finished with the incredible abstract pieces of the 90-year old Mr. Eli Bornstein.
As we were wrapping up, the curator mentioned that Mr. Bornstein had unexpectedly arrived to consult on his installation. I looked around for an old man.
No such luck. I spotted a couple of worker guys, but there was no old dude to be seen.
But then…the guy with the full head of wavy hair…the guy in the jeans with a rolled up bunch of papers stuffed in his pocket…THAT vibrant man turned out to be none other than the artist, Mr. Bornstein.
We were all properly gobsmacked by this tennis-playing, art creating, enthusiastic man. After discussing his abstract works of aluminum and plexiglass (in those super saturated colours you see above) we couldn’t help but ask the secret to his youthfulness.
He was quietly modest and spoke of good genetics, a focused life of loving his art, but then he put forth that he believed life, “…becomes a great struggle if one suffers from…beauty starvation.”
It is necessary, he said, to seek beauty; whether it is through music, art, literature or nature. We must ensure that we feed ourselves with beauty.
We left for lunch after that, and though my body was still hungry, I had been fed in a different way. The truth of Eli’s words filled my soul.
Thank you Mr. Bornstein. May you continue to live well and prosper.
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What a perambulating act of inspiration Mr. Bornstein is! Do you have a photo of him, by chance? Your description makes me yearn to see him, kudos on the art of evocative description.
Beauty does feed the soul in such a gorgeous way – and I find the longer I am open to it and seek it, the more places it appears.
Laurie, I have a picture of Mr. Bornstein on my FB page – ColleenFriesen.Writer I’m glad my description enticed you. I felt so honoured to have had a chance to talk to him. He exudes warmth. Like you, I am noticing, that the more attention I pay to the beauty of patterns, detail, light and everything that I open myself to, the more I see. It’s an upward spiral of gorgeousness.