Birkas HaChamah Series - 20010 - 2015 (The Birth of the Sun)
This series of paintings was inspired by the occurrence of a rare ritual – the blessing upon the return of the sun to its location that it occupied when first created. This event occurs every 28 years on a Wednesday in the Hebrew month of Nissan. This event was celebrated at sunrise on April 8, 2009 in public gatherings across the globe.
The blessing states our gratitude to the Creator for continually forming the creation, specifically the sun which illuminates the world and supports our life.
These paintings portray my vision of how various special places that I have lived in or visited would appear on this auspicious day.
The integration of three categories of polarities has been a primary motivation in the development in my artwork throughout my career. The split complementary color palette system, a technique for combining warm and cool primary/secondary colors that I learned from Prof. Gene Bavinger at Oklahoma University, has been expanded in my work by superposition of colors using the stain technique.
Second, I explore the organic-geometric dichotomy of shape by interspersing areas of color washes with various sizes and spacing of color bands. The push-pull vibration animates the coexistence of the energies on the surface of the canvas. The movement generated by the spacing and the color interactions between the bands counterpoints the movement in the washes.
Third, my studies in Kabbalah, particularly Derech HaShem by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, an 18th century sage, have provided the content for much of my artwork. He states that man consists of two opposites, the pure spiritual soul and the unenlightened body. Each one is drawn toward its nature, so they are in a constant state of battle. If the person exercises his free choice and enables his soul to prevail, the soul not only elevates itself but elevates the body as well, and the individual thereby attains his destined perfection.
Light (heavenly spirituality) is unifying, the vessel (worldly physicality) is disconnecting. The upper portion of the picture plane displays celestial transparencies representing the spiritual and being in the now. The lower portion exhibits parallel bands of discrete colors representing physical material, the challenge of multiplicity and opacity. The bands and transparencies coexist and kiss in a nexus of submission and bonding. That bonding, symbolized by the color gold or white, integrates the entire picture plane.
Light is connection, darkness is disconnection. In every experience in our life, we are either connecting or disconnecting. When we align ourselves with the purpose of creation, our body and soul work together to achieve unity and produce perfection.
The blessing states our gratitude to the Creator for continually forming the creation, specifically the sun which illuminates the world and supports our life.
These paintings portray my vision of how various special places that I have lived in or visited would appear on this auspicious day.
The integration of three categories of polarities has been a primary motivation in the development in my artwork throughout my career. The split complementary color palette system, a technique for combining warm and cool primary/secondary colors that I learned from Prof. Gene Bavinger at Oklahoma University, has been expanded in my work by superposition of colors using the stain technique.
Second, I explore the organic-geometric dichotomy of shape by interspersing areas of color washes with various sizes and spacing of color bands. The push-pull vibration animates the coexistence of the energies on the surface of the canvas. The movement generated by the spacing and the color interactions between the bands counterpoints the movement in the washes.
Third, my studies in Kabbalah, particularly Derech HaShem by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, an 18th century sage, have provided the content for much of my artwork. He states that man consists of two opposites, the pure spiritual soul and the unenlightened body. Each one is drawn toward its nature, so they are in a constant state of battle. If the person exercises his free choice and enables his soul to prevail, the soul not only elevates itself but elevates the body as well, and the individual thereby attains his destined perfection.
Light (heavenly spirituality) is unifying, the vessel (worldly physicality) is disconnecting. The upper portion of the picture plane displays celestial transparencies representing the spiritual and being in the now. The lower portion exhibits parallel bands of discrete colors representing physical material, the challenge of multiplicity and opacity. The bands and transparencies coexist and kiss in a nexus of submission and bonding. That bonding, symbolized by the color gold or white, integrates the entire picture plane.
Light is connection, darkness is disconnection. In every experience in our life, we are either connecting or disconnecting. When we align ourselves with the purpose of creation, our body and soul work together to achieve unity and produce perfection.
