If you expect this artist to be an elusive type, isolated from the world and silently churning out paintings, you’d be pleasantly surprised to meet Bob Borel. Although his abstracts, on their own, are highly regarded, he is equally admired for his outreach efforts on behalf of the Acadiana arts community. We sat down with Borel at the Citè des Arts in downtown Lafayette, where his paintings hung in the lobby, awaiting an upcoming Art Walk.

Borel, a Lafayette native, has lived “spitting distance from Johnston Street” his entire life. He was born to Cajun parents, whose first language was French, and he eagerly embraces his heritage. In addition to being a self-taught artist, he has also learned several traditional crafts of his ancestors, like leatherwork, bushcraft, fibercraft and trapping, and he enjoys imparting that knowledge to others. “I’m an introvert,” he admits. “But I push myself to do extroverted stuff deliberately.” He has been an artisan at the Vermilionville Living Museum for years, on and off, where he also gives presentations on Acadian history.

Borel doesn’t remember that day he woke up and decided he wanted to be an artist. “It was always just a part of me, rather than a realization,” he says. In addition to being a painter, he’s also a professional video editor who is not afraid to experiment with his creative disposition. Early in his career, he did mostly photography and digital art, which is how he got into the Acadiana Center for the Arts. He’s also produced a documentary (“Boucherie: The Edible Spectacle”) and says, “I have come to the conclusion that I cannot die without making a horror movie.”

Paint Goes on the Canvas

Today Borel is a talented abstract artist, whose acrylics hang in various venues and private homes around Acadiana. He completes “somewhere between one and one hundred” paintings per month, but is quick to point out his 10-year-old son is his greatest work of art. “My main goal is to be a good dad. Everything else is just me expressing myself.”

In discussing his art, he is decidedly in formal about his process and approach. He doesn’t get caught up in the rules of artistry or in understanding every nuance of what he’s created. “Paint goes on the thing,” he jokes. “That’s it.”

He’s color blind, which he sees as just a uniqueness to the way he perceives art, no different than anyone else’s individual perception. “Everybody probably sees different art when they are looking at the same piece. Whatever is brought to the piece influences how the artist makes it and how the person views it.”

When he first started with acrylic painting, he did a series of self-portraits, one per day for a year, at Basin Arts. The popularity of that exhibit brought about his “Unflattering Abstract Portraits” street painting, which involves a quick abstract sketch of a person topped with a thick layer of paint squirted from the tube directly onto the portrait.

The nuance of Borel’s art has evolved over the years. Most notably he spends time now texturing the paint and actually pulling it from the surface. “I like the way it comes off of the canvas, literally,” he says. “It’s almost like it’s a very flat sculpture.” For the most part, Borel likes his works to fill the entire field of view. “That’s when you can really experience the painting.” Although, he admits with a laugh, the size of his painting is regulated by the size of the car that will transport the canvas.

For those people Borel meets in the community who are unfamiliar with abstract art, he explains it like this: “Before photography, paintings were supposed to literally represent what a person sees. When photographs came around, it was less about the literal and a little more about emotion. Then whenever abstract art arrived, it really became only about emotion.”

Permission to do Art

Two groups in Acadiana feeling the positive influence of Borel’s passion for the arts are Lafayette inmates housed in local transition facilities and domestic violence survivors. For each group, he facilitates tailored classes that allow participants to be artists, even for a little while. “I mainly want to give people the permission to do art,” he says. Most recently via web conferencing, but with hopes of returning to in-person classes soon, he leads the sessions differently based on the size and make-up of the group. One group might focus on some simple pencil drawings on paper, while another may experiment with collages. Based on recent requests, he’s planning to let one of his classes “throw paint at things,” á la Jackson Pollack. He’s also looking into the possibility of offering a class to the homeless. “People may not have the fundamentals, but if you give them time and permission, the stuff they come up with is amazing.”

Curating The Hallway

Tucked away inside the Warehouse 535 building on Garfield Street in Lafayette is a not-for-profit art venue called The Hallway, where several local artists have studio spaces and where Borel now serves as curator for the artwork on display. It’s a small gallery that has participated in Art Walk in the past, but Borel is planning to do quarterly shows outside of Art Walk that are more curated and thematic, as well as offering online showings and sales.

See a Painting, Take a Painting

One of Borel’s most recent outreach efforts borrows its philosophy from Free Little Libraries and will feature several miniature, community-curated art galleries around Lafayette. Made possible by an ArtSpark grant from the Acadiana Center for the Arts and the Lafayette Economic Development Authority, the kiosks will be decorated by local artists and will include one side reserved for graffiti. “If anybody feels the need to tag the boxes, hopefully they’ll do it on the back,” Borel says. Three locations are confirmed so far – Freetown (Acadian Superette), Fightingville (Victory Garden) and McComb-Veazey (Pontiac Point Park) – with the hopes of adding a fourth at the Horse Farm near the Lafayette Farmers Market. “People can come and see the art or they can take a piece of art and leave a piece of art.”

A Richer Community

In thinking about his immediate future, Borel sees the merit in taking things with stride. “There are two stages for any artist,” he explains. “The stage when they’re making stuff and the stage when they’re out in the world getting saturated with ideas and whatever they can get into their head.” For now he is doing more of the latter in order to continue his outreach efforts – something his colleagues notice and appreciate. He was recently awarded the Acadiana Artist Alliance’s championship belt, a recognition designed and presented by muralist Brett Chigoy for artists that bring a special energy and spirit to the local arts.

“I like making my community a little bit richer, whether that’s at Vermilionville or in the art community or in the horror community,” he says. “I want to be the person putting myself out there, looking silly, in hopes that someone will just see art a little differently.”

Look for Borel’s art on display around Acadiana and visit bobborel.com for contact information.