Artist Statement

My inspiration is drawn from my personal life and from traditional ethnic ceremonies marking milestones customary in my family. I concentrate primarily on the aesthetics that characterize these ceremonies. The series of paintings 'Jewelry Box' focuses on the jewelry gifted to me as my dowry in the Moroccan henna ceremony (my family emigrated from Morocco in the late 60's) prior to my wedding and the sights and sensations at the ceremony itself. The motivation for painting the pieces of jewelry is complex, acting as a test case for the examination of social traditions in my family in which I grew up as well as in relation to the tradition of painting. Through painting and an exploration of its illusionistic properties, I attempt to expose and understand the inner logic of those traditions, examining their necessity within and outside of the world of painting. Through being enlarged, they demand a close, searching gaze; from a tiny, precious, attractive object, they take on bodily proportions with broad surfaces. Jewelry continues to be a source of beauty and interest for me. They create worlds of order and chaos, superb craftsmanship and human error, constituting a rich source of inspiration.

 

Over recent decades in Israel, an “Israeli-style henna ceremony ‘industry’” has developed, replete with cheap materials and imitations of the “real thing,” with backdrops, fabrics, furniture, decorations, and amulets designed to provide a look of luxury and religious and traditional weight. The accessories are an imitation ready at hand instead of the valuable accessories that were customary in the countries of origin of the ceremonies. The outcome is an experience of gilded cacophony, at once warm and abrasive, as well as impressive, but always with an air of the fake. This experience has a great impact on my painting, and these are the sensations I would like to convey into my paintings. The heaps of jewelry overflowing the large-scale formats create a view full of details. At first sight, they seem heavy and complex, but a second, closer look reveals the simple, lean painting technique. The plastic metallic quality of the acrylic paint when seen up close exposes the illusion, fake glamor, and volume perceived from a distance. The illusion is formed and canceled out simultaneously.

 

Over the past two years I have been working mainly in acrylics on large-scale canvases. The acrylic paints dry fast (unlike oil colors), thus enabling physical painting full of energy. The metallic paints facilitate effects of light and form, easily creating a feeling of volume with one brushstroke. The plasticity of the material contributes to the emphasis on the images being “fake” .

 

The rapid painting involves redesigning the order of the work and the inventions, thus enabling me freedom from direct observation of any reference. The material invention in the painting is also associated with the invention of the myths about esoteric inanimate objects which have been charged with spiritual importance. In this case, the “charging” consists of creating an entire painterly system of large-scale enlargement, abstraction, materiality, creating illusion and pathos – all in order to depict tiny objects. Their narrative through painting is much greater than their size and importance in daily life. My engagement in jewelry, which is so meaningful to me, and the ceremonial aspect of my work emphasize their inner connection to intergenerational family memories and stories of wanderings, which have deep emotional importance for me.