June 18, 2020
By Ryah Cooley
It kept on happening. Even though she was a business major, Deprise Brescia continued falling asleep in her business classes. Oops.
"It was so incredibly boring," said Brescia, a Paso Robles-based artist.
So Brescia changed her major to dance, and somewhere along the line she fell in love with creating visual two- and three-dimensional art as well. Her dance-inspired art show, Heavenly Bodies, is currently on display at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles. The exhibit takes inspiration from the human form—both male and female—planetary grids, and love.
"My passion is really dance and movement," Brescia said. "I feel like the human body is divine and made in the image of God or whatever you want to call God. The body is an amazing tool that we have to go through the human experience."
Brescia describes her artistic style for this show as "old world and new world meeting." One piece, her encaustic painting titled Masquerade of Love, shows from a profile view two lovers intertwined, wearing masks. The encaustic medium itself is ancient, traditionally a blend of beeswax and resin heated to hold pigment and create a distinctive texture. At first glance, I mistook one of the lovers for the Hindu god, Ganesh. Brescia wasn't surprised.
"That piece is interesting because everyone sees something different," she said. "The piece is about love and that when we finally get to that place, we lose our masks and can be ourselves."
While Brescia was never a prima ballerina (she dabbled in all forms of dance but specialized in jazz), she has a great appreciation for ballet, which is considered the foundation of all dance. Her encaustic painting, And Then There Were Three, shows three ballerinas en pointe.
"I cry when I go see the ballet," Brescia said. "I love the strength of it. The three dancers symbolize mind, body, and spirit."
Brescia still dances, but just for fun now. Her main focus is on creating multimedia art.
"Now I'm able to be more still and do art," Brescia said. "When I was younger, I needed that five hours a day of hard-core movement." Δ
Arts Writer Ryah Cooley is dancing in the moonlight. Contact her at rcooley@newtimesslo.com.
On display
Heavenly Bodies, which features the work of artist Deprise Brescia, will be on display at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles through June 30. Visit studiosonthepark.org for more information.
