Who? What? Why?
I was born and raised in Timrat, a small town in the northern part of Israel. I was surrounded by flowers, trees and lots of attractions for me to paint. Even though, looking at my repertoire of paintings, it's pretty clear too see that I have always been interested in people. I wanted to understand expressions, wrinkles, skin textures and everything that defines emotion. I always went to drawing classes, took part in artistic activities and walked around with paint under my fingernails.
It was natural for me to continue to a high school that specifies in art and design. After this I served the Israeli army in Battalion 96 where I continued to paint in my free time and for different uses of the unit I was part of. After two years as a soldier, I chose to turn to study music in "Rimon School of jazz and contemporary music". Music is another major part of my life and for the past few years I've been dividing my time between all these: music, art, design and writing. Care to see some more?
Artists that have influenced me and sources of inspiration
If you ask me, art is a form of communication. During a workshop I took part in a few years ago, one of the participants claimed that theoretically, if an artist that should find himself left alone on the planet, he would never paint anything for there will be no one to see it. I'm still not sure whether I agree with him or not.
Allow me to share with you some of my favorite artists and what they mean to me.
Vincent Van Gogh | Starry night
In my graduation performance in music school, I was asked to perform an acapella song, with no additional musical instruments. I chose to sing the song "Vincent" by Don Mclean which was written about the tragic and beauty in Vah Gogh's life and how he "suffered for his sanity"
Van Gogh was born in Holland but lived many years in France. He belongs to the post impressionism genre of artists which were active mostly in the late 19th century. I think that the impressionism was an important change point in the history and that since that era we witness a breakthrough of creativity in the world of art. Van Gogh was deeply influenced by these changes. He started painting at a rather mature age (around 25) and created for about 10 years. In this short time he made over 800 pieces of art! The thing that amazes me most about his style is the raw Irreconcilable existence of emotion. You can almost smell the wound out of which he creates.
Frida kahlo | Thoughts about death
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican painter. In her childhood, she suffered from polio disease and when she was a teenager she was in an accident that left her handicapped and crippled. The implications of her disease and accident found expression later on in her works.
There's something about Frida's paintings that I find very sincere. I like the blunt ruthless way she expresses herself, not sparing any roughness from her viewers. I'm also fond of the vivid colors with which she paints. I even like the fact that her eyebrows are connected. I find it brilliant how she managed to turn that into a sort of trade mark that resembles her. She's is beautiful, powerful woman and I find her inspiring as an artist and as a human being.
Fernando Botero | The beach
Botero was born in Colombia and his first illustrations were published when he was sixteen. in 1951 he moved to Bogotá and in a few months he managed to display his works in important galleries in the city. After this he moved to study in France.
I was exposed to his work as a teenager in the Tel Aviv museum of art. I loved the massive characters and the fact that they were presented as beautiful even though they didn't fit the common model of beauty. I remember reading an interview with him in which he said that he doesn't see his characters as fat but as massive and powerful.
Quentin Blake | an illustration out of the book "The twits"
Quentin Blake is a British illustrator born in the suburbs of London in 1932. During my childhood, I spent three years in the states. Among the children's books I read during that period, My favorite books were those created by the brilliant cooperation of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake. I think that each of them is a genius in his field- Roald Dahl in his writing and Quentin Blake in his drawings. I still enjoy reading those books and admiring the illustrations in them which are unbelievably precise. He manages to say so much in so little and his simple lines just burst with personality. I consider Blanke one of my major inspirations in the way he captures humor and endless emotion with what seems to be an intuitive scribble.
Joni Mitchell | painting on her album cover "clouds"
Yes... I know that Joni Mitchell is a singer. But I have decided to present her here, among my other inspirations because she is absolutely worthy of this title. I had times in my life in which I concentrated on music. I loved it, of course but the funny thing is that it made me really miss listening to music. Because, obviously, you can't enjoy a beautiful CD in the background of your work when you're singing... Now that I'm back to focusing on art, I'm back to enjoying music as a listener and one of my favorite artists of all time is the great Joni Mitchell. She herself was also a half singer - half painter and her cover of the album "clouds" is an example for that.