Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine April 2017 | Page 101

Angela Gegg
shared with Mélange . . .
About your background
Born and raised in Belize, Central America, with
Latvian and English roots on my mother’s side
and on my father’s side I can trace my Belizean
ancestors back to 1756 as being in our region
and what was then called British Honduras. I
spent the majority of my childhood on the islands
(particularly St Georges Caye where we have our
family home), fishing, swimming and netting
crab and lobster. Island life is very low key and
relaxed and probably put a visual pallet in my
brain which was a subconscious influence to
my art later on. I was educated by the Catholic
school system, all girls high school and off to
junior college then to upstate NY where I studied
art and art history. I became fascinated with
installations and screen-printing. I then moved
to Houston where I became fond of Sports
Medicine and enrolled in Baylor (this is where my
fascination with the human body can often be
reflected in my art). I moved back to Belize and
spent a decade in the arts, including wide scale
art shows and features, writing books and other
publications and was on television, consecutively.
My grandmother on my mom’s, who is from
Riga Latvia (fluent in 8 languages as she was a
translator during World War 2 where she met my
grandfather,) moved to British Honduras which
was a colony of England. My grandmother died
when I was only 2 years old but I always felt a
strong connection to her as if she was always
with me. My mom and grandfather said we were
exactly alike and our birthdays are only a day
apart, Nov 12 and I'm Nov 13, our temperaments
and behaviors and looks were uncanny according
to the family. In her honor, I took her last name
Praskevics , shortened it to PROSHKA, and this
became my second name. Any art signed by
Angela Gegg or PROSHKA is the same. The
signature depends on my mood while I’m
painting. I am a big family girl and love my family
beyond words and I'm extremely grateful for such
a loving and supportive family structure.