Richard Borowski was born in Edmonton, grew up in Mundare, Alberta and in 1970 moved back to Edmonton to attend the University of Alberta. After completing a B.Ed. degree in 1974, he was employed as a teacher with Edmonton Catholic Schools until 1978. In 1979, Borowski returned to the University of Alberta in the Faculty of Arts. After two years of study, as a printmaking major, he returned to the classroom to spend thirty-two years with the Elk Island Catholic School Board as an art educator with students from grades seven to twelve. Upon his retirement from teaching in 2006, he has maintained a full-time home based studio practice. Besides drawing and painting, most of his efforts have gone into creating lino and woodcut prints at SNAP in Edmonton. Borowski’s work is held in numerous private collections.

Statement

My portfolio contains drawings, paintings and various types of printmaking techniques. For the last few years I’ve been working with linocuts using the positive/negative approach. That means that often I ignore lines and emphasize form through positive and negative spaces, layering several plates, each a distinct colour, to produce one unified image.

My work is based mostly on my interest in recording images of places and objects in moments in time that I consider significant. I consider these images significant because they are a record of a special part of my life and my memories of that life. The experience and knowledge of “being there” provide for a grounding, a reason and are key in connecting me to reality, the present moment in the flow of time, and my place in it.