Tomas Belsky
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Tomás Belsky, painter, print maker, teacher, political activist and wordsmith, was born on July 4, 1938, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the seventh of nine children to Russian/Polish immigrant parents. "Mama said I was making pictures on the crib walls, so I've been at it awhile."
After High School, there was some eye-opening factory work that inspired higher education, with degrees in History, Painting and Spanish. Belsky went to Brazil (1965-68) with the U.S. Peace Corps, where the love of painting became paramount, largely due to the influence of naive artists working in favelas [slums] under adverse conditions lacking adequate art supplies.
Belsky has worked with young people in public schools, jails and half-way houses. Using creative processes to liberate students from numerous forms of anti-social behavior. "What art has done for me, it can do for others." Tomás Belsky's paintings and prints are collected from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, Japan and beyond.
Block print making is an essentially primal method of pictorial expression, and so fills a need for premeditated creativity as opposed to the more intuitive spontaneous aspects of oil painting. It also has the advantage of allowing the common citizen to own original works of art at reasonable prices.
His prints are silk screened by hand in limited editions, signed and pinky-printed. They are enlargements of the original blocks (wood or linoleum) that are smaller in size. All prints are on 60lb (90 gsm) brown paper with off-black ink. Special editions on white paper are possible upon request. Subject matter is essentially related to the Spirit of Aloha 'Aina -- Love of the Land. This is the philosophy of Polynesia, that it would do America much good to follow. "We Have much to be thankful for in Hawaii, and through my work I try to spread the appreciation for Nature and God's blessings."
Tomás lives in Hilo with his lifelong partner Moanikeala Akaka. They have a daughter who recently made them grandparents of Keali'ikaho'oneiaina, a girlchild.
