Define "Interesting Times"

 Back in Haifa for already a few months, back to my old routine of going to protests when I can (can't right now; forbidden out of safety concerns) and for the rest in the studio. As nothing much has changed, and we are still in the midst of the most wicked nightmare, I can only add my voice to the diminishing choir that sings stop-this-madness, and then turn to art making by default. 
I make art because it is my way of speaking to the world about that which cannot be spoken about. 
All around here people in the art world were trying to make art and show art about the "situation". We have a "situation" for as long as I can remember. So many lives lost and for what? The same people you hate today and wish them dead, can be your best friends tomorrow. 
I say that art isn't about making comments on everyday life. That's for the columnists in the papers. 
I go back to what I care about - color, space, forms, relationships, the story, the level of involvement, of fascination and awe, then painting over and over again until I am happy. 
The first works are still about New York and vicinity:

Then I landed in Israel finally... in my mind and soul. And shortly after started to discover Haifa - as if I do not live here 15 years already.

 I take walks, climb stairs (many!), peep into private back yards and discover that nature is not that far away. In the years I;ve been living here, trees have grown, small turned into big, shrubbery bacame tiny forest, and when I walk into the wadi's, dry riverbeds (they get wet in winter), I find with a spark of imagination I can feel like it's a real forest. 

With the latest attacks reaching as far as my town, the tactics has to be modified. I take walks on seemingly more quiet days hoping a siren will not catch me somewhere where I can't hide. But it can happen, and there's nothing you can do; am I supposed to sit at home all the time until the war is over? Ridiculous! So I wave my magic wand and quiet the outside noise as much as possible, so I can still work in my studio and produce quality art. I think art can protect from all evil. 

Art and War

 

Since September 2023 I'm staying with my friend in New York. It was a hard year in Israel and I decided it was time to leave for my usual two-months-away, and then the angel of death descended upon the region and started his ominous tour de force, still going on as I am writing these words. 
So I stayed. For now. For a while longer, until they stop figthing. Which turns out to be wishful thinking. But I am still wishing. 
Here in New York, apart from some heavy rain in September, and first snow as late as mid-January, life still flows with relative ease. I am painting in the little studio I have created in the bedroom where I'm staying - a tabletop that needed to be cleared, and nothing more. Packages arrive from art stores, and I am busy painting away, in oil, though occasionally doing a quick sketch in a library or cafe. Suspended in mid-air, draped in uncertainty about the rest of my life, wondering if I can easily move to another country, or just continue traveling to wherever will have me, and hard questions about the future of that country I happen to be born in, and therefore seemingly attached to, somehow. 
But I manage to live in this time bubble, protected from all evil, and pretending I do not have a ticket to go back later in February. Painting subjects vary, I believe that my life - my worries and joys, troubles and accidents, love and passion and observation and fascination, all that goes into what I do. Always. So, the light in the tunnel, and not at the end of it, is subject of a lot of my recent work. 
Live through it, drive through it, see it all, remain myself. 

Last pair below, juxtaposed Florida (Everglades) and New York

I got into the oil business

And did it do me good! Oil painting, good old stuff.
No more papers, framing, cutting glass, just sometimes stretching canvas, and usually I find them on the street or a friend gives me some.
Soetimes it's as fast as a painting a day... and then I get stuck with one painting that doesn't want to sort itself out for a while. 
30 weeks onto the protest that shook Israel, we seem to be stuck as well. But we are determined and will not give up. 

Mostly small works; all between30x40 to 50x70 cm

The Quest For Democracy

 

Oil on canvas, 29x43 cm
scene from the road on the way to the first protest in Tel Aviv this year

That we have no democracy here is well known. Israel is a complicated case and I will not get into the details of it now. lately the new troublesome government dropped quite a game changer into the arena, and the bitterly surprised people are rushing to the streets for over three months now, before the flood destroys whatever is left.
They want to destroy the very little bits of sanity we still have, shift the power balance, ruin our economy and freedom (yes, freedom for Jews only so far, so maybe now, I hope, this will change).
I am doing my share a little bit, carrying signs against the occupation and for a better legislation, a constitution with human rights and equality for all. Nobody knows how this will end. Our nerves are stretched, it's filtering into our dreams and daily lives, while violence escalates on all fronts, inside and outside, and the Palestinians as always suffer the most. 
I have been painting the rallies and marches in this period, as well as "escapades" into another time and place. New York seems so far away now, though I am always invited, but how can I leave now? My heart will surely stay here as long as it's not over. 
I hope we'll rise once again, this time with a better understanding what "democracy" means, including the Arabs as equal citizens, freedom to Palestine, possible peace, but is it possible even within our own nation? With such a huge divide and hatred between right and left, orthodox and secular?

Oil on canvas, 35x50 cm

Oil on canvas, 40x50 cm

Oil on canvas, 30x40 cm

Even this little oil, a scene from America, somehow corresponds with the feelings of many Israelis nowadays. 
But somewhere, somewhen, waiting for me, this exists.

Oil on panel, 17x27 cm

Armon and others

Oil on plywood 89x59 cm

Please meet: Armon - or palace in Hebrew - a notorious office building on one of the main streets in the 'hood - built over the ruins of an old movie house (hence the funny name), and just standing there in front of my eyes every time I sit in my balcony, which used to be quite a lot in the first few years in this apartment. 
For quite obvious reasons I included it in many of my paintings and drawing. Recently I took it as main subject matter for a while. The above painting took me a year or two to complete - but the others were very fast.  That ray of sunlight reflected in the upper windows only occurs in winter, because in summer the sun's too high for that; and around 2 PM suddenly my back yard terrace is flooded with light, while all winter I don't get any sun in that place. The color of the sky is pure imagination. 

from top:
Oil on plywood
55x40 cm
55x80 cm
55x44 cm

Once I put my attention to Armon, things started to happen there. Now it hosts a local cultural center with various events such as movie screening (yes!) and dance parties and figure drawing and such, and it has been bought by a real estate company and some major changes are taking place after the building was virtually deserted (save very few businesses) for years. I am very curious about the next developments around this building, which after so many years suddenly got a new life - isn't it a good sign? 
Shortly after the sun ray painting was finished I packed myself to go to New York and stayed for the usual 2 months and a few more days. I painted mostly in oil, so came back with fewer works than normal, also left some behind to dry. Here is some of the work I brought with me. I am calling these "sketches" because some were done very quickly - 1-2 hours. Maybe added some touches after the paint dried a bit the next day. 

oil on canvas board 40x30 cm

oil on plywood 25x35 cm

oil on canvas 30x48 cm

oil on canvas 60x45 cm

Alas the country I came back to isn't quite the one I left. But I knew it already and did not come back earlier to vote; things have to run their course and I have little say, or so it seems sometimes. But the most important thing has to be art. It sounds shocking, given that so many grave issues are at hand, but I believe art lies in a deeper realm than the comings and goings of everyone's life. And art done right and in the right state of mind can move mountains, let alone win wars. This is the state of mind I'm in today - I guess when the time comes to raise a flag and get up on my hind legs, I will do all the necessary moves - but the studio is my world. And it is not so small a world as such. 

Let's Go for a Drive

 

Pencil on paper 35x93 cm

Almost a year since my last post. Soon I am going to see New York and my friends there once again, and apart from that was busy as hell in the studio producing tons of drawings. There was a small exhibition in a charming little venue in town (Haifa) called HQRN Art Cluster.  It's run by Guy Karlinsky, a writer/poet who  curated his first exhibition here, everything from choosing the theme out of the multi-chaotic oeuvre of the artist, :) to hanging the exhibition according to his taste and writing the text about it.
The show was about paintings or drawings of scenes from a car in motion. It went fine, and while preparing my other artwork for it I was inspired to do even more art - like this top drawing that I chose to be the centerpiece, definitely the largest work in the collection. 

So this is a decent selection of works about driving around. Since then, it was in late spring, I started working in oil again and probably my next post (soon) will have to do with that. Looking forward to the next NY trip and wondering what this time will bring.