As the “Common Ground” project teams continue working toward our April exhibition, partners are discovering not only the commonalities in how they deal with the challenges of life, but how creating a work of art collaboratively can stretch them out of their comfort zones.
Take for example the team of Nancy Hielscher and Rima Ghalieh. Nancy, a resident of Sarasota since 1979, is a trained professional artist, with a degree from the American Academy of Art-Chicago and further studies at the Ringling College of Art and Design. Her paintings, often still lifes or lush foliage, are generally done in oil, with a realistic rather than an abstract approach.
Rima, a member of the Academy at Glengary, is not formally trained as an artist and has almost exclusively created her previous artwork on a computer.
“Picking up a brush was a big adventure for her,” says Nancy, who shared a book of drawing “prompts” with Rima to help in converting her thoughts to art and also taught her how to gesso a canvas and mix colors.
They settled on using house paints, which are more forgiving than oils and dry quickly, allowing them to paint over or modify when necessary.
On a recent afternoon, as they worked on three different canvases, a plastic tub of colorful paints sat on a table nearby. Rima didn’t hesitate to pick a big brush dip it in a bright red paint to create three huge roses front and center on one of the canvases.
Nancy, on the other hand, realized she was rather intimidated to explore creating in an abstract style, something she has never previously done. After studying Rima’s roses, she picked up an oil pastel (“Crayola’s are the best”) to sketch in the background.
“This is very different for me,” Nancy said, looking at two colorful abstract paintings she and Rima were initially experimenting with. “I’m very focused, very scheduled. It’s interesting how I’ve become the uncertain one, the anxiety character and she feels completely uninhibited.”
Nancy and Rima’s conversations led to them talking about their mothers and the influence they’d had on their lives — both the irreplaceable mother/daughter bond and the expectations and disapointments mothers can project.
“The way they want you to be and the way you’re supposed to be…” says Nancy, whose mother died in 2014 at the age of 94. “She’s still with me every time I talk. You never appreciate your mother as much as you should until they’re gone.”
Rima’s mother died much younger, in 2020, and the loss was huge for her daughter. She was used to spending a great deal of time enjoying the beach and movies with her mother, whom she considered her “best friend.” (She never got along with her father.)
Their memories — Rima of her mother’s love for roses and gardening; and Nancy’s of the Czechoslovakian food her mother cooked, often with cabbage — ended up playing a role in the paintings they are working on together.
Wintry tree leaves that morph into blue skies and palm fronds signify their mothers’ movement from the north to Florida. (Rima’s mother was from New Jersey, Nancy’s from the Chicago area.) Roses and cabbages make an appearance, as do some disks from the bingo games Nancy’s mother loved to play.
Stepping back to look at their work, Nancy smiles at Rima in admiration.
“You’re just so fearless about the whole thing,” she says. “I wish I could feel that free.”
All participants in “Common Ground,” including the collaborating organizers, are donating their time to the project. If you’d like to help with the expenses involved in art materials, promotion and exhibition costs, we welcome tax-deductible donations to the SPAACES Art Foundation (nonprofit EIN 84-500-4237). You can donate online at the SPAACES website (https://spaaces.art) or you can send a check to SPAACES, at 2087 Princeton St., Sarasota, FL 34237.
Please share your feedback and stay tuned for more stories and photos of our works in progress.
Really enjoyed reading how they worked together and liked both paintings that were a result of their collaboration