Olive Grove Print

I'm a little over 30 years old self-taught artist, living in Israel for the past 25 years. I was born in St. Petersburg Russia, and immigrated to Israel a little after the collapse of the soviet union. As a young kid I was greatly inspired by a small art book my father brought home from one of his trips with their orchestra (Violinist for the Israeli Camerata Jerusalem for 25 years). I never knew true art before that, the best mumbo jumbo I created was macaroni pictures when i was in kindergarten and my parents hung it on the fridge, proudly saying it was incredibly vivid and realistic, but what does a 5 years old know about realism, not much I can honestly say now judging by an old photograph I've found in the attic, showing my endeavors as the Picasso of macaroni art. However, It was that tiny book which contained the amazing surrealistic visions put to canvas by great artists such as Dali, René, Ernst and many others, it fueled me to try to be more like them. Disastrous as it was for a time being, I didn't give up on my dream of becoming a great painter like them. It was just about several years ago, after I finished my military service, when I realized that I was going all wrong about my approach to art. To me, being an artist means to express something, that words simply cannot, no matter how much of a poet or a novelist one may be, the mind of an individual will always interpret words and create a picture of each's own design, and as much of an inspiration as many artists had on me, I decided to take the best from each's experience and talent, and to fuse it into my own. Life is too short to be somebody else other than yourself, and the following chapter of myself, is what you see in front of you when you view my works. Everything I create has a story behind it, but I believe the best way to connect to one's art, is to see it with your own soul, your past, your personality and your aspirations and dreams, because we are all different, but the same, and some experiences may be shared among millions of others, or a selected few. I will gladly share the story behind every painting if one would still like to ask for it.