Hollister resident promotes art with foundation
Bernadine Belaski-McGee and her late husband Bobby McGee shared
a lifelong passion for the arts.
”
We always stayed true to what our passion was,
”
Belaski-McGee said.
”
He mainly was not doing it to get recognized or for fame, but
just for himself, his passion. It’s what really made him happy.
”
Belaski-McGee is launching the Bobby McGee Art Foundation in her
husband’s honor as a way of promoting arts in the local community
and the greater Bay Area, starting with a month of workshops are
Blak Sage Gallery in August.
Hollister resident promotes art with foundation
Bernadine Belaski-McGee and her late husband Bobby McGee shared a lifelong passion for the arts.
“We always stayed true to what our passion was,” Belaski-McGee said. “He mainly was not doing it to get recognized or for fame, but just for himself, his passion. It’s what really made him happy.”
Belaski-McGee is launching the Bobby McGee Art Foundation in her husband’s honor as a way of promoting arts in the local community and the greater Bay Area, starting with a month of workshops are Blak Sage Gallery in August.
McGee started drawing as a young child, around age 6, Belaski-McGee said. He dabbled in a variety of paint mediums, pen and ink, pastels, charcoals, videography and still photography – both film and digital. He studied at the Art Institute in San Francisco and had a chance to study at a Maine art school one summer.
Belaski-McGee also showed an interest in art at a young age. She had been working as a photographer and was working at a gallery in Colma, near San Francisco, when the couple first met. McGee had an art show up at the Friends and Family Art Gallery, which is no longer open.
“He was the artist displaying his work and we became friends and it developed from there,” Belaski-McGee said.
The couple married at San Francisco City Hall on Oct. 12, 1990.
“I had the privilege of being his wife,” she said.
They moved to Hollister in the early 90s when McGee took a full-time job with PG&E as a systems operator.
“The thing that was unusual about Bobby was he used both sides of his brain very well,” Belaski-McGee said. “He loved math. He was a fine artist who loved math.”
Belaski-McGee described the couple as struggling artists. The two continued to work in the arts with their part-time business Creative Alternatives, which allowed them an outlet to work as photographers and graphic designers.
Belaski-McGee was heartbroken when McGee got sick.
“Without the Lord, I couldn’t be talking about this,” she said, explaining that he had diabetes and congenital heart failure, and died in September 2008 of complications from it.
Another thing that helped her along was working at the Blak Sage Gallery, owned by Jim and Deborah Wood. At the gallery, she helps with installation, marketing of the shows and selecting the various artists who display their work, as well as coordinating the artists’ receptions.
“That itself was a healing process,” she said, referring to the gallery as a tranquil place. “Keeping busy with art has helped me heal. Working at the gallery, along with counseling and family and friends helped.”
About a year ago, Belaski-McGee started thinking about starting a foundation to promote the arts in honor of her husband.
“I was basically picking up where he had left off over 20 years ago,” she said. “He was working with friends in San Francisco on an artist community.”
She started talking with local artists and friends in the area more than a year ago about her idea to launch the foundation with a series of workshops and demonstrations. The Woods offered up the use of their space. When Belaski-McGee started asking artists for a commitment to give a workshop a couple months ago, she said everyone she asked agreed to it. The result is a month of workshops, sponsored by the San Benito County Arts Council and Creative Alternatives, which will be free and open to the public. The workshops start on Aug. 3 and run through Aug. 31, and include everything from photography to watercolor to block printing, ceramics and dance.
Belaski-McGee said no one she asked to participate turned her down and many of the teachers are those who are active in the local art community such as high school art teacher John RobRock, and others.
Working with a friend from Oakland, Belaski-McGee filed paperwork to start the foundation and apply for grants. The goals of the foundation are to offer self-enrichment workshops to children and adults; use art as a way to promote self esteem; promote education in the arts, especially fine arts; allow aspiring artists a chance to shadow successful artists; and to establish programs in the creative arts.
Belaski-McGee said part of the focus will be in offering financial support and supplies to low-income artists of all ages. She said the foundation will work with artists in San Benito and the greater Bay Area, since McGee knew so many people outside the county as well.
While the focus of the foundation is to promote the arts, Belaski-McGee said it also allows her an opportunity to share McGee’s work with others.
“He left so much stuff,” she said. “His art is a treasure, a legacy. I could not do anything. I didn’t want to see it go to the wayside. That wouldn’t be respectful of him and the art itself.”
Celebrating Art in Life
Bobby McGee Art Foundation’s “Celebrating Art in Life” (see www.pinnaclenews.com for full schedule)
Blak Sage Gallery of Fine Arts, 727 San Benito St., Hollister.
Open Tues.-Sat., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Opening reception, Aug. 7, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Photography workshop 4 kids, ages 9-12, Aug. 3, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Photography workshop 4 teens, ages 13-17, Aug. 3, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Relief printing demo, Katherine Stutz-Taylor, Aug. 6, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Printmaking, Rachel Zuniga, Aug. 12, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Watercolor, Dale Yarmuth, Aug. 13, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Historical calligraphy, Evelyn Powgrowski, Aug. 13, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Collage art demo, Pauline Lepera-Price, Aug. 14, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Block print demo, Sylvia Nichols, Aug. 17, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Charcoal and pastel demo and workshops, Bob Wilkinson, Aug. 18, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Drawing demos, student artists: Christina Gonzalez, Misael Diaz and Sienna Robrock, Aug. 19, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
“Alternative Canvas” acrylic demo and workshop, Eddie Dobson, Aug. 20, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Oil demo, Shannon Grissom, Aug. 21, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Portrait drawing fundamentals, John Robrock, Aug. 21, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Painting demo, Carole Bellieveau, Aug. 24, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Art framing basics, Heatherly Takeuchi, Aug. 24, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Ceramics, Jane Rekedal, Aug. 25, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Hip-hop dance, Sammy Ramirez, Aug. 26, 3:15 p.m.
Pastel demo and workshop, Rhoda Bloom, Aug. 27, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Photography workshop for adults, Chaz (New York Master in Photography), Aug. 27, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Belly dancing, Louis Roy, Aug. 27, 5:30 p.m.
Hula dancing, Louis Roy, Aug. 27, 6:30 p.m.
Childrens hands on, Evelyn Powgrowski, Aug. 28, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Hand-carved folklore toys demo, Edwardo C. Ramos, Aug. 31, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Open mic poetry (dates and times to be announced.)
Open mic poetry (dates and times to be announced.)
For more information, call 636-9100 or contact Bernadine Belaski-McGee at 801-6037.
