Art with a small ‘a’

Art becomes accessible at Thomas Bosket’s studio

By TED WADDELL

CALLICOON, NY — The old Curtis Nursery building is alive with art these days, transformed into a studio by Thomas Bosket, who has replaced plants with painting lessons, with massage sessions on the side.

This summer, classes include four-week workshops on painting in the Byzantium manner with egg tempera, new techniques in acrylics, oil painting using the techniques of the Old Masters and a landscape class, focusing on exploring the pristine beauty of the Upper Delaware River.

“Art is not like cooking; it doesn’t have a linear result,” explained Bosket. “For me, it’s more of a process. Art is very fluid, it moves like an emotional feeling of fluidity or thought… it’s three dimensional, and you don’t know what the connections are until you’re done with it.”

“The small ‘a’ is what art is about,” he added. “There aren’t any rules; there isn’t any right or wrong. The flexibility of the mind involved in the creative process is like nothing else.

“What do we remember from past civilizations? Their art!”

As a kid, Bosket marched to the tune of a different drummer. While most of his seventh-grade classmates baked brownies for school bake sales, he whipped up a batch of classic French pastry, and next year chocolate mousse.

“I was just trying to fit in,” he recalled. “I was always a little kooky.”

After high school—Bosket attended 18 schools by the time he graduated—his folks said, “no way we’re going to support you in a career in art.” He headed off to Northern Virginia Community College, later enrolling at the Massachusetts College of Art studying Russian film and children’s literature/illustration. Bosket dropped out of college for a while, taking on decorative painting jobs in historic Williamsburg, VA, including a gig at a Tudor mansion brought over stone by stone from England, under the watchful eye of the manor’s owner, “Purple Lady,” a real stickler for perfection.

Bosket studied at Parson’s School of Design, and later attended Yale to further his knowledge of painting, with a minor in conservation and restoration, examining paintings under a microscope. He sums up his response to the new perspective as, “Holy cow, this is a huge world.”

Since 1996, Bosket has been working as an assistant professor at Parsons The New School in New York City, as coordinator of graphic design and general studios.

As a licensed massage therapist, Bosket specializes in injury-related massage, and offers classic Swedish massage and modalities for the nervous system through “the hard wiring of the body’s neuro-muscular system.” On Sundays, while the local farmers market is in full swing, he offers massage/health awareness days at the studio. Bosket developed an interest in massage in the wake of sustaining a neck injury as a 12-year-old child gymnast, and shortly thereafter his aunt used to pay him 25 cents to rub her shoulders. “A lot of people don’t know what massage is about,” said Bosket. “They think it’s getting on a table and letting somebody rub you… but there’s a heck of a lot more to it.

“You can work with people to re-educate their bodies to function better on a daily basis, and it lowers blood pressure and reduces stress. My mom’s Italian, so we’re used to touchy, touchy.” Bosket hopes to make his new studio in Callicoon an artist’s hangout, a place to delve into the physical side of art. Doing it, making it, removing some of the exclusivity of art, making it accessible to the community, a place where people can learn about the process of making art.

“One of my dreams is to have students create a coffee table book of all the flora of the river valley, a real community effort,” he said.

For more information call 845/887-4782, ext. 2.