Food for thought

At the Seder table

There is nothing like a breath of fresh art on a boiling hot summer day. I heard the local gallery, the 'Gallery on the Cliff" has a great exhibit, and on Saturday morning, picked up my mom and went to explore. It's title, "Big eyes" does not translate well into English, it's an idiom that means "you want everything your eyes see". A contemporary art exhibition about food. Brilliantly curated by Dr. Guy Morag, a fun, thought provoking exhibition, the best combination there is.

From the floating "Gefilte fish" - a traditional Jewish food from eastern Europe to a critical view at the Seder dinner - the dinner on the first Passover night, from classic portraits to sculptures made out of sponge, video art of cooking Sabih ( a traditional Jeweish sandwitch) which references Pollack and poking a bit of fun at Leonardo, yes, Da Vinci with the Watermelon eaters. Every piece by itself and the exhibit as a whole is sharp, fun, refreshing. Even my mom enjoyed :)

The grandmother brings soup to the Seder table. 

Gefilte fish :)

Made of sponge!

"My dream is to be thin and blonde. Yeah!" drawing on a flour bag!!! Loved this piece :)

"The Watermelon eaters"

Dancing all by myself

Art inspired by a song. Another first - Archival pigment print with beads embroidery. This piece will be part of a coming exhibit at Universal Art gallery in Tel Aviv next month together with other art pieces inspired by Noam's beautiful songs.

The song that inspired it (my translation from Hebrew)

Dancing all by myself, lyrics by Noam Horev

I’ll be back soon, just passing through all the continents

Gathering feelings, sensations, blurred images

Far away, beyond the sea, places I’ve never been to

I see the world in new ways, ways I do not understand yet

Gathering pieces of the sky just because

The world rests in my hands

Learning how to caress the wounds

I suddenly remember, how to dance all by myself

In the empty spaces of the heart

Drawn to the fire, to the whispers within

Getting out, burning bright again

Taking the time to get ready, to connect, to grow up

To travel and never come back

Walking the newly discovered paths of the soul

Where I never dared to venture

How can I suddenly be so complete

So breathtaking

Food for thought while listening to Miri Mesika singing this beautiful song. 

Seeing beauty

The chorus line, Tel Aviv style

"Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old". I love this quote. There is so much beauty around us, in the most unexpected places. Above the electricity lines, next to the garbage bin. In the monochromatic fashion designer studio as well as the overcrowded balcony next to the central bus station. A taste of Tel Aviv.

Life is beautiful.

Jewelry made of paper

The designer studio - a new twist on B&W

Balcony in one of the most neglected areas of Tel Aviv. 

If only

As if I could ever forget by Amy Kanka Valadarsky

Here, in Israel we have too many sad songs. One that is particularly touching goes something like that (my translation):

How should I bless the child? asks the angel.

I blessed him a smile brighter than light, seeing eyes and a feeling heart. Dancing feet and a soul to remember the tune. Hands to collect seashells and ears to listen to big and small

...

How should I bless the child? asked the angel. I gave him all I could. A smile, a song and feet to dance. A gentle hand, a thriving heart. What more can I bless him with

....and the song end with:

If only you blessed him with life.

Two days ago, 25 youngsters aged 17 to 18 were caught in the midst of a late spring flood in the Arava, the desert in the southern part of Israel. Salt of the earth, these youngsters were about to embark on an extra year of study after high school. Learning to be better people, better leaders, know their country and people better. Study and volunteer. This was supposed to be the trip when they get to know each other. For ten of them, nine girls and a boy - who died because he kept helping his friends instead of saving himself - it was the last trip. They were truly blessed with everything every parent could want for their child. They were bright, and loving, and best in their class, volunteering for years in organizations helping disabled children. They were blessed with beauty and a sense of humor and the biggest, gentlest hearts. If only they were blessed with life.

When no words can describe how I feel

Of Earth and Sun

Intertwined. Collage of Lumen print and digital images

The last few months, I have been collaging camera-less Lumen prints (prints done on photographic paper using the sun) with digital images, trying to give voice to the connection I feel with the earth. To test the waters, I submitted one of these images ( "Of Earth and Sun" below) to a call for entry that asked for images "that hide a secret". The image was accepted, and is hanging now in a beautiful gallery perched on the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean sea. 

Last Saturday, I spent few hours in the gallery, showing the art to visitors. One lady seemed to have a particular interesting way of interpreting the art pieces and after talking about a few of them, we stopped by "Of Earth and Sun" and I asked her what does she think it is about. "Well, this piece is not about logic or understanding" she said "it is about feeling and connecting." I could not hope for a better comment. Yes!!! 

Of Earth and Sun. Collage of Lumen print and digital images

Surely, the day will come

The light in the Great Mosque

A church turned mosque, an underground water reservoir transformed into a mini lake. A Titian painting, a 1300 year old aqueduct, a market bursting with color, and ah, the warm smoothness of the best 'Mesabaha' in the country. The kind light of a beautiful February day, shines on the Muslim, the Christian and the Jewish buildings, on the old and the new that make the unique DNA of city of Ramle (Ramla in Arabic).

"Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul, when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood....". Amen.

The reservoir, Ramle, Israel

The entrance to the Orthodox church, Ramle Israel

Looking up, the Orthodox church in Ramle

Unfortunately, this is real too

Maybe it's the influence of Wynn Bullock's amazing color abstractions, maybe these are lingering thoughts after yesterday's meeting were I was exposed to the reality of the asylum seekers in Israel. Anger, shame, determination, all bubbling inside. Something needs to be done. Unfotunately, this is real too.

A treat for graffiti lovers

No idea how it happened, but since the first time I saw graffiti art - I fell in love with it. it's filled with life, emotion, a truth that does not hide beneath layers of respectability, should's and politically correct statements. It's loud, kicking, vibrant, eclectic, surprising. No better place for it than the center of Israel's liofe - Tel Aviv. A city filled with a hodgepodge of architecture from Bauhaus to Modern skyscrapers, the home of millionaires and refugees, high end stores and traditional markets, Tel Aviv is an endless source of surprises. Last week, we went to see Kiryat HaMelacha, a neighborhood that used to house lots of small businesses and during the last years slowly changed into a thriving artist community, the forefront of the local contemporary art. Here is a taste of the local graffiti art that cover the industrial buildings that house more than 200 artist studios filled with all imaginable kinds of art. 

Not a place for people looking for clean, immaculate streets, but what a treat for art lovers!

If I were a leaf

"Come, said the wind to the leaves one day,
 Come o'er the meadows and we will play."

George Eliot

In a photography workshop yesterday, the lecturer said that what distinguishes photography from other visual arts is the necessity of light and the lack of total control over what will be in the image. The right words at the right time for me. The second month into playing with new ideas. Becoming an alchemist, a child and an explorer. "If I were a leaf"

Fragments of stone

Continuing to walk the path of history, ironically, a path that was here, in plain site all my life, and yet, I somehow managed to ignore it.

Last week, we spent a day walking through the remains of the Kingdom of Judea, the land where King David walked, where his descendants built palaces and fortifications. Where they wrote their version of the story, the version we now call "The Bible". For the first time I realize how much in common Archaeology and photography have. Both start with fragments of reality. Fragments that look so plain and dare I say boring, so easy to ignore. Yet when put together, a story comes to life. Maybe even a few stories, as the unknown is greater than the known, and our experience and imagination weaves the facts into different patterns. The interesting part (for me) is not what the eyes can see, but what the mind can conjure. An ancient Persian garden overlooking Jerusalem, a palace on the hill for all to see, pigeons purchased in order to bring as an offering at the Temple. 

Yet, all our eyes can see, are fragments of stone...

Growing roots

Almost six weeks since I last posted. Not from lack of events, quite the opposite: too many to choose from. Reclaiming our house and recreating the garden, Critical Mass Top 50 happened as well as preparing for a group exhibit in Boston and the first exhibition here, in Israel.

Not enough quiet time to reconnect with the land, the place, me. Somewhere I read that 'Planting flowers means growing roots'. I am growing mine. 

Jaffa - I love it so much, how come I never really get to know it?

2000 years ago, where I stand now, people lived, grew grapes, made wine

Below the surface

What's in an image? What do you see?

Roots. Are they edible? A harvest of sorts or overgrown weeds?

Hands. Presumably the gardener. Big hands. Is this a woman or a man? Is he/she proudly displaying the results of their labor?

While each viewer will create their own story, here is what this image means to me. We are back in Israel, reconnecting with our roots. for me, a big part of this is returning to the garden I left behind two years ago. It is heartbreaking to see it invaded by aggressive, out of control plants to the point where some think it should be scratched, the soil replaced (or worst yet, poisoned to kill all invaders) and start from scratch. Ten years of work down the drain. I refuse to accept, for now, while evaluating the options, I fight the invaders. I know it is too little too late, but I still spend a couple of hours the other day on my hand and knees, digging and trying to uproot the weeds. The garden was always "my place". My husband helps carry the compost, but other than that, he just takes pride in "his gardener wife". Yesterday, he saw me fighting what seemed to be small nice leaves that turned our to be connected to a carrot like root ten times their size.  Without thinking, he picked up the fork and started digging. He digs, I pull. It's the eve of Yom Kippur, people dressed in white, going to the synagogue - we are wearing shorts, dirty and sweaty, fighting the weeds. When we were done, I asked him to wait, grabbed my camera with my favorite 50mm prime lens and took a few photographs of his hands holding the uprooted plants. To me, this image speaks volumes about what's below the surface, a portrait of our relationship. 

Someone should take my iPhone away ;)

"The purpose of art is washing the dust out of life", so when I am surrounded by dust, what else is there to do than play with tiny collages when I am too tired to do anything else? Capturing moments, rediscovering the Israeli light (flooding the house through the very dirty windows ...). The "serious" cameras are still packed safely protected from dust, the iPhone is with me all the time, so iPhone it is. I am seriously thinking of naming this set of collages "Someone should take my iPhone away" :). Before someone does take it away, here are some of the "artistic" results of the last two weeks since we returned to Israel, enjoy :) 

Fragile

It is time. Closing the door on the last 3 years. It is right, which does not make it easy. Rooms filled with color, books, cats and life stand empty. Filled with memories and sunshine. How full can emptiness be.

The white bedroom

Empty and full at the same time

So fragile

Future memories and a magnolia tree

Getting lost in the shadows of a Magnolia tree

In the three years I've been photographing, there were a handful of times when I lost myself in the photographed object. I know this sounds weird, so let me try to describe such a moment in a non-poetic way ...

Yesterday, when passing by the kitchen window, I saw the magnolia tree in our front yard projects interesting shadows on the wall separating our building from our neighbors'. I grabbed the camera, went outside, and standing less than 2 feet from the wall started to compose images out of the patches of shadow and light. As there was a little bit of wind and the sun was constantly changing position, the light forms changed all the time. For what must have been at least half an hour, I moved a few inches at a time and ... created 70(!) images of a very ordinary concrete wall. A few people passing by asked if I am trying a new camera. Nope, I was not. I was getting lost in the shadows of the magnolia tree. 

A post that starts with green doctors and ends with a song

Forever living young, Venice, CA

Saying my goodbyes. To the beach, the gardens, the art and the streets. This time, I took my camera (testing the new Pancro 400 film) to Venice. About 45 minutes walk from Santa Monica and light years away. The ultimate blend of Van Gogh murals and Green doctors, public opinion on display ("f**k Trump" shorts ???) alongside "The Shul on the beach". Homeless and muscle beach. Loneliness, dreams and living art. Farewell Venice, will miss you, stay well.

Loneliness or private moments in public view?

Skateboards (with cellphone??) and art. Venice, CA

Starry night in the middle of day and one unhappy dog (he's really barking)

Shall we end this with a song?

To all the peacocks, trees and turtles

...and this seems to be one of those times when the spirits chose me ... A last visit to the Arboretum in LA before returning to Israel. Soaking in ideas, getting ready to renovate my own garden. Imprinting images in memory and on film. Gardens are always the places that's hardest for me to leave behind. To all the peacocks, trees and turtles, ponds and ducks, squirrels and spirits - farewell, I will miss you. 

Finding your own story

...Let us talk about living....

Books are my earliest and most consistent love. They provide comfort, connect me with my father, make a house my home. There was only one rule about books (besides curbing my obsession with buying them...) - you do not write / mess up books. Ever. Well, almost ever. Until now. A few month ago, I started altering one of my very favorite books, "The Secret Garden," rediscovering the story and making it mine. Something compels me to re-imagine, page after page. Snippets of text reveal a story beneath a story. And somewhere, between the two, a new door opens.

...it felt as if she understood a robin ...

...just looking ....

Looking at Heaven through a plastic lens

I've always struggled with taking pictures while travelling. On one hand it is nice to have visual memories to look at, on the other hand ....at best the photos look like nice postcards. They may show the place but do not show how I felt when I was there, so why not just buy a postcard?? So this time, when we went to Yellowstone for a week, I tried a different tactic. I took the digital camera, for the "inside the safety zone" pictures. The analog Mamiya medium format one, to  work with and see what is it's "golden spot", where will it shine the most. And .... the Diana F+ camera that was gathering dust on the shelf after the 1st film I shot with it was a disaster. With the Diana, I decided to give up all caution and just play. Whenever something caught my eye - I captured it. Piling images one on top of the other, in the hope that the resulting image will not show "a thing" but the excitement and awe of being surrounded by such an abundance of life and beauty. We returned home, and scaredy cat that I am, I sent a few of the films to a lab for development (so I will not mess them all up...) and started to slowly develop the rest at home. Three done, three more to go. And trust me, the Diana will not gather dust on the shelf anymore ;)

Paradise ...

Between heaven and earth

Between Redwoods and CNN news ...

How can one begin to understand the latest decision made by Donald Trump - abandoning the Paris climate agreement? Many people reacted with both words and acts. I am still too aggravated for words, and for now, I would like to remind the guys in the White House the words of John Muir:

“The world, we are told, was made especially for man — a presumption not supported by all the facts.”

The world, is ours to enjoy, to delight in, to cherish and to keep. So in a hundred years from now, our great grandchildren will still be able to walk in the shade of the great Redwoods, rather than jog on flood protection walls. Maybe this should have been a tweet rather than a blog post ...

Muir Woods, California, May 2017

"In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." John Muir