Boelke is a painter and sculptor.  He shrugs and says, "You go through different artistic phases because different feelings come up, and what's great about teaching is that your students help you.  You can experiment together with them, it keeps you fresh."

Boelke's work includes the use of mixed media in Large Reliefs which are built up using acrylics, oil and steel figures.

Boelke attended New York's Art Student League at the age of twelve, and did not return to formal art training until he'd finished a Political Science degree at Queens College and joined the Air Force. "It was in Roswell, New Mexico, of all places, where they had a museum with an art department, ' he says, then a retired sergeant saw the talent in him and, after giving him lessons in painting, sent Boelke south to Mexico.

"The only two words I knew in Spanish were 'dark' and 'light'; I painted landscapes and portraits and I loved it.

When he returned to New York, Boelke returned to Queens College as well, where he earned a second undergraduate degree, this time in Education.

After completing a fellowship there, and embarking on an MFA program across the East River at Columbia, Boelke went to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, where he began experimenting with sculpture for the first time.

On the strength of the new work that he was doing, Walter received a Fulbright Scholarship and went to Munich, where he ended up staying six years, picking up a Master's degree in Sculpture from the University of Munich and tremendous memories from the trips he took to Russia, to Egypt, to Italy, and to Spain, where, on the walls of the caves at Altamira, he saw some of humanity's earliest artistic expres­sions.

Walter has not forgotten what he saw on these trips, and the memories are refreshed every time he teaches Art History, but he particularly enjoys this course not for the familiar but for the novel: each time he gives this class, he finds new approaches and ideas in the works of past artists.  A knowledge of this history, however, holds importance to the non-artist as well.  'It's our heritage as human beings.  My feeling is that it would be a shame not to know about it," he says.  "What's an education for except to open yourself to what is out there?"

To see more of Walter Boelke's work, go to page 2 or visit him on his website at www.walterboelke.com

He can be reached at professor@walterboelke.com

Rondo, 14" x 77" 2002