'I want them to be special': kite artist creates flying portraits

Ron Bohart says he was looking for uniqueChristmas gifts to give his son and son-in-lawwhen he came across a couple of kite building sets.

"I built those kits and that sort of started the ball rolling," he told CBC Radio's The Morning Edition.

That's how theOregon resident became part of a global communityof kite artists affectionallycalled "kiters,"according to Bohart who design and build their own creations.

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In the winter, Bohart and others travel to kite festivals in Asia, India and China and in the summer stickto the U.S. and Canada.

This weekendhe will be in Swift Current, Sask., flying some of his kites at the Windscape kite festival.

"It's like a big family get-together wherever we go," he said.

According to Bohart's artist biography on the festival's website, hisJapanese-style kites have turned heads around the world.

Flying portraits

Bohart is also known for memorializingpeoples' faces on one-of-a-kindflying portraits.

"I do portraits for people who have had an event they want to commemorate in their life, a marriage, parents who have passed," he explained.

"It's a way for me to get through my grief."

Recently, he created a kite portrait of his friend's wife who died while waiting for a heart-lung transplant.

"He has a kite now with his wife on it that he can fly at the beach and remember her," Bohart said.

The kites usually take two to three weeks to create. First, he starts with a photograph.After that, he breaks the picture up into colours, dyes the fabric to match the colour and sews the pieces together.

In the end, the kites are built six-feet tall, five-feet wide and have six sides, with no tail.

"I want them to be special for the people I build them for," he said.

Learn by watching the masters

Bohart said he's never been trained or attended any classes on how to build kites.

Instead, he's learned by travellingto festivals like Swift Current's Windscape and talking to kite masters competing in national and international events.

"Most kiters, most people who build kites are outgoing and friendly. They love the attention. They love the crowds, they love the kids," Bohart said.

"We're a big community."