By By KATHIE HEMPEL / Niles Daily Star
NILES – A self-portrait in bright acrylics welcomes visitors to the Buchanan Art Center.
Niles Art Association President Jorge Bosque, opened a retrospective show of his own work last Sunday.
Bosque's colorful works attracted both art lovers and buyers as he opened his six-week run in Buchanan. The show will close June 3.
Bosque said his love of art began in Brandywine's middle school with a ceramics class. He had a great interest in woodworking and architecture to which he attributes his preference for a more geometric style of art. While at Brandywine High School, he continued his art classes.
"After graduating from Western Michigan University with a degree in interior design and with a minor in art, I left for California. I got a job working in graphic design and the money was good. After a couple of years, however, the pace of the California lifestyle burned me out," Bosque said.
In 1995, he returned home to Niles. He said he was rather reclusive and did little with his artwork for several years following his return.
"I didn't produce a lot of work until in 2000 when a relative gave me a set of colored pencils as a gift. That spurred my interest again. In 2005, I joined the Niles Art Association and now I've been the president since January," he said.
Influences on Bosque's work include Piet Mondrian, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky and Gerrit Rietveld. Alexander Calder, famous for his works of mobiles and stabiles, inspired Bosque to create his own mobiles included in the show.
"My favorite medium is acrylic and latex on either wood or canvas," he said.
Visitors to the show said these works were also among their favorites with clean, crisp lines and brilliant colors. Other works include ink drawings and colored pencil geometric designs. A new digital creation done on Photoshop Illustrator was not done in time for this show.
Bosque said he plans to have the sleek sports car framed for the next Niles Art Association exhibit at the Fisher Gallery in June. The exhibit will be titled "Art Cafe" and will open in June.
He has a self-made collection of Reitveld miniature chairs and has been working on model car kits and small die-cast racing car restorations.
The new president has goals he would like to achieve for the local gallery.
"I would like to see us have bigger openings. I would like to see us start to sell more art. We are going to begin to feature an artist of the month and will be sending out mailers for our shows," he said.
The Fisher Gallery's current show "Cinco de Mayo" runs until June. The Niles Art Association Website is www.nilesart.org.
Bosque was born in LaHabana, Cuba in 1960. A year later, his parents moved to Venezuela due to political unrest in Cuba.
The family moved to Miami, Fla. a couple of years later before finally settling in Niles in 1966.
This is not the first cooperative show between the Niles and Buchanan art groups. Last year, Niles Art Association members showcased their works in another Buchanan show and several take part regularly in the Buchanan Art Center's classes.
Buchanan art Center is a non-profit organization located at 117 West Front St. in Buchanan and house a Main Gallery, a smaller ShowPlace gallery, a gift shop and offers classes and workshops for all ages. Registration for summer classes will begin in May. For information the website is www.buchananartcenter.org.