Artist for the month of January at the New Tampa Regional Library is Magda Barsoum-Homsy.
Butterflies, is Magda Barsoum-Homsy’s new series, inspired by her granddaughter, light, fragile and colorful. Born in Cairo, Egypt, Magda has been drawing since an early age into a family which supported art. Both her aunt and mother were painters so it came very naturally to Magda. With summers in Alexandria, her subject matter included some of the most beautiful scenes in the world, sunsets on the beach, feluccas going down the river Nile, as well as the calm desert sands by the pyramids.
As time to decide on a field of study approached, Magda applied to both the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Medicine, and got accepted to both! But as her father was an ophthalmologist, he shared a poem about a blind boy not being able to see the birds and the trees, and the decision to become a pediatric ophthalmologist was an easy one.
Magda completed her undergraduate medical education at the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University. She then immigrated to Canada where she completed her post graduate residency in Ophthalmology at the University of Montreal and Toronto. This was followed by a Fellowship in Pediatric Ophthalmology in Washington DC. She practiced pediatric Ophthalmology at Ste Justine Hospital for Children and was Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Montreal from 1975 to 1998. She moved to Florida in 1998 where she has established her practice and is a Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of South Florida.
Magda has continued to paint through out her career working both the right and left brain. Painting is a form of regaining energy and clearing her mind, a form of meditation. She paints when everything is quiet, with a little soft background music, in the evening, late at night, or on week-ends.
Injustice is reflected in her art, whether it is famine, abused women, violence or war. Her recent work is inspired by the beauty of nature and by the resilience of mankind. Embracing all cultures she is deeply affected by her experiences through her travels.
“ I collect pieces of wood, pebbles, fabric and assemble them in a harmonious fashion so that each insignificant item plays an important part of the whole composition. What I see is registered in my mind and soul, and then interpreted by my subconscious. It takes shape in vibrant colors that reflect my nostalgic memories of flaming sunsets on the Mediterranean shores where I grew up.”
Working in media from oil, watercolor and acrylics, Magda is also proficient in encaustics. “Encaustic is nothing else but pigmented wax and resins. It is a technique first used in the 1st and 2nd century discovered in the Fayum Mummy portraits in my native land. It has been popularized by famous contemporary artists such as Jasper Johns, Diego Rivera, and Tony Scherman. The pigmented wax is melted on a heating plate and applied by brushes to the surface of a ridged support such as wood. It solidifies very rapidly. It then has to be fixed and fused by reheating each applied layer of wax. It is a beautiful medium that has depth, texture, transparencies, and lends itself to collage as well.”
Magda is mainly self taught, and has also studied art under Pierre Archambault, Pierre-Leon Tetrault, Kitty Bruneau and Ming Ma, all renowned Quebec artists. She has participated in several Art Exhibits over the past twenty years both in the Province of Quebec and at exhibits in San Francisco, Orlando, Columbus and Tampa.
Magda likes the dynamics of the North Tampa Arts League, its focus on the arts and making it accessible to the public. All the members come from such different backgrounds and disciplines in art where ideas and discussions are shared. If you would like to see some of Magda’s work, it will be on display at the New Tampa Regional Library for the month of January. You may also reach her at: 813-767-5495, email : magdahomsy@aol.com or check out her web page at :www.ntartleaugue.ning
Interested in meeting other artists? Visit the North Tampa Art Leagues website at: www.northtampaarts.com , the club meets the 4th Wednesday every month at the Compton Community Center, 7:00 pm. The North Tampa Arts League is a group of talented diverse artists whose mission is to develop, nurture, and support the arts and artists of North Tampa and to work in tandem with the community leaders to make North Tampa a vibrant artistic community. For more information about the North Tampa Arts League, visit www.northtampaarts.com or write to NTAL, P.O. Box 49034, Tampa, FL 33647.
