Art Category: Flights Of Fancy Exhibit @ AJU

Bornstein exhibited these works at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California in 2008, in a show entitled “Flights of Fancy.” Here the curators perceptively thought to incorporate both her paintings with her children’s books: Little Gorilla and Rabbit’s Good News. Bornstein has consistently and deftly balanced the world of illustration with her fine art. We see how the two genres play off and enhance one another. As always, Ms. Bornstein employs her array of imaginative and witty creatures, and themes into both story and image. Here perhaps the painting, “Deep Child,” offers a key in this personal and imaginative process. The child reaches down into the void below, the dark loam, while the moon illuminates the process of searching, becoming, and being. The child is lost in his own process of individuation, which both Bornstein’s stories and art explore so poetically. In her children’s books, something happens – a baby gorilla grows up, a rabbit discovers rebirth and springtime – these narratives woven with a sense of wonder and discovery. Time seems to unfold slowly with allowance for development, curiosity, and integration. There is a revelation, but not without this deep sense of one’s core. This is why children are so drawn to Ms. Bornstein’s characters. They bring not only a deep attunement to the imaged and real world, but also, a sense of wholeness and affirmation that children innately crave and understand. Her paintings reveal the same presence – a hand reaches sensitively for a bird, or a child moves in perfect rhythm with a dancing bear. The membrane of Ms. Bornstein’s imaginative powers between illustration and fine art is a luminous and porous one with light coming in from both sides. Rebecca Gabriel