Water Music LXIII Painting

Rhea (Bruria) Carmi was born 1942 in Jerusalem, a land that is spiritual and passionate, Searing and volatile. These words very well describe the artist as well as her works. Over the last thirty-four years she produced a body of work that celebrates with antiquity the everlasting human spirit, which survives the brutality, and insanity of war, aridity and harshness of human nature as it endures. She studied visual art at Tel-Aviv University 1974-1976, and attended Ramat-Gan Institute for the Arts, 1977-1979. She moved to Los Angeles in 1981, and resides in Northridge California with her husband of 54 years. Rhea utilizes a variety of media: oils, sand, water, treated paper, canvas and wood; which she layers, smooth’s and sculpts to create the abstract impressions, which demand tactile as well as visual interplay. Her works (over 600 paintings) are perceived as the topography of intimate landscapes, as well as the mapping of emotions and sensations devoid of familiar forms. The paintings are a personal diary of the artist as she chronicles the events that had an impact on humanity and nature. These works combine to express the feelings of introspection, conflict, human emotion, and the effects of malicious wielding of power and greed on humanity. Rhea's work has been exhibited in Israel, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, New York and Los Angeles.