Coming Home Print

I have memories of my upbringing in Israel, a nation entrenched in a state of conflict—a condition that perpetually demands the nation's reconstruction due to the persistent state of war. Israel is a place where modern life creates modern living spaces that stand side by side with the country’s deep, ancient history, from its archeological sites to crumbling ruins. My paintings exist in a realm of abstraction. The actual act of clipping images from magazines or my own photographs are very important to my art making, a process that involves both creation and destruction. By doing it I am extracting my memories and memories of others, into shapes, lines, and patterns. I build them up layer by layer to form places where I see, smell and feel myself once again. The small, delicately drawn motifs feel at time decorative in places but they are flashes of scenes and experiences. They don’t make much sense in the beginning, where the first tone may be chaotic, but recognition and familiarity may emerge for the viewer. The texture brings about an interplay between the beatific and the aggressive. I want to make paintings that are vague at first glance, but to grab and hold the audience’s attention. The more the viewers look at them, the more satisfying I want their experience of them to be. The more time they give to the painting, the more they will get back. I see the paint as a living thing with its own inclinations and so I open myself up to conversation with it. I am very excited when I get closer to the end. I feel butterflies in my chest like I have brought life to something that will belong to others. Working with my Jewish cultural and histories as sources for art making has drawn me deeper into investigating my Jewish heritage. In exploring Judaism and Israel in my work, the prayer shawl (tallit) and its fringes (Tzitziyot) has become a focus for some of my projects. The shawl is a garment that wraps and shrouds the body both in birth and death, and also creates a sense of personal space during prayer. Since I have been moving frequently from the Middle East, to Europe, to the USA and back, the tension and conflict of tradition and religion become blurred. I am weaving blue and white threads through my painting, installation and video which address authority, gender and the burden, pride and comfort in religion and tradition. My artwork is pasted in layers and create a map that trace a trail of memories.