The City Lives in a Dream

 

On the Road



Capital Wrecking on Crosby

It's been a strange year no doubt. As we are beginning to wake up, here at the eastern end of the Med, and look around us - Europe is still struggling to keep head above water, The US has reason to be a little more confident and I am not planning any more travel for the time being. 
But New York keeps calling me. First there are dreams, every now and then, of suddenly being in New York and then having to take care of paperwork and flights and insurance and where to stay - some upside-down schedule  - and even letting people know I am already there, which they did not expect at all. Funny. Then I started a series of watercolors and drawings based on New York and America at large - scenes from my visits there and beyond. 
And THEN -  I had been contacted by the New York Times Jerusalem office.  No kidding, true story. 
Patrick Kingsley, a very talented journalist, head of the Jerusalem bureau, decided he needed to have a chat with me, of all people in Haifa City,  to hear my take on the issue of --- wild pigs. Yes, Wild boar has been spotted closer and closer to where I live. They walk the streets looking for food and the whole tribe follows - 8 or 12 young, very cute striped hogs. Read all about it. 
(I actually once made some drawings, but that's not why he wanted to talk to me. It's the tigers of 2010 that caught his attention). 

So pigs

So back to New York watercolors and color drawings.

Two images around Times Sq

I then went into a very intense period of just pencil drawings and produced quite a bit of those, and this is just a sample, all USA or NYC-related:

Inside the Ai Weiwei Installation Central Park South 2017

Jerome Avenue bus station 

The Village

This last one is a pen drawing. I am alternately back to that as well. 

Park in Yonkers

Hey, New York. I will see you again. In your dream or mine. 

Broken Visions

Two of the last images I made in France before I left there in September:

Yes I know, it's been a few months, summer turned to autumn turned to winter and broken glass does not leave my mind, even here and now in Haifa.
I still work from the old sketches and images of Bourbonne but I also started to integrate BG into the local scene. It just pops up here so very often inviting me to take a look, take a picture and see the world differently.
Haifa is beautiful sometimes with its unintentional coloring against clear blue skies, such as here:

But I do prefer it in the darker corners, like the market place that still needs a lot of cleaning and seems to me always in total chaos, set aside its liveliness and raw beauty in places; or a half abandoned office building where people still come for their shopping,  bored doorman at the entrance, a surprising slow elevator to nowhere,  and a church for the caregivers who come to work here all the way from the Philippines or elsewhere.
This is the square just before that building, drawn with glass markers on - well - glass.

I did this scene a few times, this one is pencil

But it is still new, the idea of Haifa broken glass, and I am studying it and contemplating it and making space for new ideas.
Another take - on plexiglass - of the scene in France, by now I may have painted it 100 times or more from various angles.

The above work is oil paint and scratch/sgraffito, again that place in France as well as all of these recent watercolors.

Still and Troubled Waters

Artist residencies may be required for most artists' CV but are hard to come by. In my somewhat short career I haven't been accepted to many. Still I get the chance, every few years, to stay and work in a place that has a studio, and at least enjoy my vacation, or even discover new ways to enhance my art making (like that summer in Trelex, Switzerland, I told about it here and here).
This year it's France, assisted by the honorable Daniela Belinga Agossa, artist and - since last year -also owner of Espace d'Art Contemporain Les Thermes, in the distant town of Bourbonne-les-Bains.
I spent a magical two months working mainly on one project.

Daniela's crazy colors
watercolor

The general theme was abandoned houses, of which there are many in the neigborhood as well as adjacent villages and towns. France seems to be in the whirlwind of abandonment while everyone is fleeing unemployment and boredom and recalculating destination Paris.
So there I was. Apart from admiring the natural beauty and serenity, I didn't have a clue. It started with some difficulties; I felt I did not get the spirit of the place; was walking every day for hours looking for ideas and wondering if I will forever make cute sketches of green pastures.

Park near the studio

Staircase, residency/house entrance hall

And then - I saw it.
It was a shattered glass in a bus stop, that remained intact and was not replaced; through it I could look at the residency itself, as well as - just opposite - a beautiful old abandoned hotel owned by the city.
I sat there to sketch, then took some photos and got back to it every other day, inspired more and more to understand this breakage as a focal point and a key to the life in this small town.
The following weeks I did a lot of drawings and watercolors of the scene with and without broken glass.
The glass already was present in my life and it continues to fascinate me, and now comes the time to make friends even further.

pastel



charcoal

Eventually I made a small wood panel too:

color pencil

On the longest day, June 21, I went out and saw a vision - beautiful setting sun rays hitting the glass with blinding splendor.

pencil

The last drawing below, as well as the first one, I made on glass. It happened that I miraculously found two glass shelves in the trash somewhere, took them to the studio and made two drawings with glass pens I brought with me. They are about 20x44 cm. 

Daniela is planning an exhibition to mark the first summer of residencies (four artists, all women), on August 24 and I will be there.
There's a lot more happening and I will keep you posted, the journey is not over yet and Haifa too is starring in this extraordinary year.

No Fool on The Hill

New watercolor,  a back yard that no longer exists 32x51

The world is busy with its foolish business, but since my return from New York, six months ago, I no longer turn on the radio or read the papers. This leaves me with a great many gaps in my knowledge and a whole new world of firsthand experiences, untainted by the rage and regrets of the bigger scene.
I am watching winter turn into spring  in my homeland doing my own. For days I am indoors and suddenly the urge or necessity overcome me and I am amazed to see yet another season in the flow. I was preparing, sketching and so on with one major project, then a few smaller works, but in winter I tend to hibernate more - days are short - so I didn't really get much work done.

Three versions (markers, markes, & below - oil 60x40 cm) for "The Fool on the Hill"

Some New York scenes in watercolor or markers - all done after I returned home:

Some Tel Aviv (marker) scenes:

This fascinates me recently, what you can do with a sharp tool scratching oil-painted surface. The round panels I found on the street, where I always find things, pick them up and then spend years wondering why the house is crammed with things until - suddenly - the idea comes from nowhere. There is a time (and place) for everything. It is a small series of engraving on painted panel, all between 38-40 ⌀. Two of them below.