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Holly
Kallie stands by the 'Imagine a Day'
painting she created for
Michael Bukosky to remember his wife and unborn daughter.
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OCONOMOWOC - Michael Bukosky contacted local
artist Holly Kallie to paint a family portrait in time to be a
Christmas gift for himself. Only this was not was not a typical
request for the painter.
“Michael
asked me to paint the portrait of several family members that passed
away,” she said. “He asked me to paint ‘the family portrait
that would never be’ of himself, Jennifer and Sophia.”
Jennifer
Bukosky, a beloved associate principal at Oconomowoc High School,
her unborn daughter Sophia, and 10-year-old daughter Courtney Bella,
were killed in a car accident April 25. The driver of the other
vehicle, Mark Benson, has been charged with homicide by intoxicated
use of a vehicle among other charges in the pending case.
“Despite
working on several projects at the time, I felt I couldn’t say no
to Michael,” said Kallie, who is a founding member of the Griffin
Gallery Fine Art in downtown Oconomowoc. “I had no idea how this
painting would turn out, but once I got started, I literally felt I
was channeling the energy of Jennifer, Sophia and Courtney, and they
were helping me to visualize them.
Bukosky
said the original idea came to him based on plans for an engraving
on Jennifer and Sophia’s gravestone.
“I
thought about this for a long time, and it eventually evolved
remembering Jenn and Sophia in this painting,” he said.
Emily
Bultman can be reached at ebultman@conleynet.com.
For
full story, go to the electronic version of The Freeman. Click
here to access the electronic version.
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