Bio of Artist Evi Bassoff

I studied art at City College of New York in the sixties.  However, after my first child was born, I put away my brushes.  Thinking that paint and mother’s milk were not a good mix, I went on to become a clinical psychologist and a writer.  My books include Mothering Ourselves, Between Mothers and Sons, and Mothers and Daughters: Loving and Letting, which was recognized by the Boulder Book Store as the best book by a local author.

Six years ago, I first became involved with a group of South Sudanese refugees known as The Lost Boys and Girls.  Their inner and outer beauty rekindled my passion for making art.  On small pieces of suede board donated by framer and artist Julie Golden, I began painting their extraordinary faces.  In 2005, at a pastel class at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, my teacher, Susan Dougherty, encouraged me to pursue my art work.  To my surprise, I sold almost everything I had painted at a Ghost Ranch art festival.  Returning to Boulder, I found other wonderful sources of support and guidance: the folks at the Art Work Space, especially Elizabeth Jenny, Claire Evans, Nancy Volpe,  and Ginny Woods; pastelist Ginny Abblett; photographer Alice Levine, the Boulder County Alliance of the Arts; and Jared Polis and Blue Mountain Arts, which produced note cards from the original portraits.  Now, thanks to the owners of Ras Kassa’s, my portraits have found a most hospitable home.

Evi was recently awarded a Boulder County Arts Alliance Addison Mini-Grant for 2007.