Francesca Borgatta

Francesca Borgatta Bio and Artist's Statement for EBOS

My parents were artists and teachers. My mother taught me papier mache' and ceramics, and my father taught me to draw. My favorite medium as a child was puppetry. I liked to used the figures I made to tell stories. When I was 19, I apprenticed with the Bread and Puppet Theater to make large puppets to perform in the anti-war demonstrations in New York. In college I began to make plays with puppets and dance. Then I studied Indian Dance, and I had a performance group, the Drum, Song, and Dance Company, that I formed with other students. As a teacher of art for thirty years, I made plays and puppets with my students, and I began to explore re-cycled materials.
I offer my work as a sculptor to exhibit, and I have produced six solo shows with inter-active elements. I make single figures, large and small. To make a diorama, I put several figures in a landscape and use the sides of the box to tell the phases of the story. I often add text descriptions or dialogue. I make wall tablets to play with the relationship of text and image, and explore the tenets of belief. In the last twelve years, I have been experimenting with narrative video using my puppets and sets.
My art technique involves papier mache assemblage using re-cycled materials. I build an armature using wood and wiremesh. I incorporate natural and industrial materials as I paint on layers of glue. My hope is that my artwork will cause people to look more closely at their environment, and see its creative potential. I believe that art is for everyone.