Then and Now
Two years ago Chanukah time I came to
Israel after a 48-year absence. I knew then that I planned on making
Aliyah. What I didn't know was how my life would change in the
intervening two years. How I would add photographer/artist to my 2
page+ long Science and Marketing Communications CV. In a very short
time, I have been privileged to sell my work, to be recognized as a
Emerging Artist (which I called Emergent in keeping with my teaching
background). I've had three gallery shows, including one here in
Israel at the Bloomfield Science Museum, and a second show - a chizuk
for the community in Neve Eshkol and a reminder for me to be of
value, of service.
I mention these things for background
purposes. The technique I developed creates the illusion of depth –
3D-like visual illusion in 2D space – and like my photography
endeavors emerged as a direct result of my trip to Israel in 2012.
Then like anyone visiting this amazing country, like anyone coming
home, I took pictures and when I returned to the States wanted to
share my experiences, to tell a story which could convey the rich
visual and textural colors, experiences. sights and feelings...my
story.
The story become a photage - a photo
montage which differs from a collage in that the images remain wholly
intact but are juxtaposed to convey a narrative. Part of that
narrative was my first visit to the Kotel.
I visited Israel as a child in 1964, a
time when we weren't allowed to go to the Kotel, to go beyond the
fence line, to walk freely in Yerushalyim and the Old City. I
remember the fence, but those memories were replaced as I walked
through the Jewish quarter on approach to the Kotel. What emerged
from that confluence of moments reaching back across time to that
moment and the ones which followed was my first photage entitled,
REMEMBER.
This is the description I include with
the photage, part of my experience, my story and maybe yours...
There is much we are often asked to remember, but the phrase from the
Psalms Tehillim 137 speaks of forgetting, "If I forget thee O
Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning..." These are the
words written about our exile and which begin with the verse "By
the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept when we remembered
Zion..."
The phrase, "If I forget thee O Jerusalem..." is a familiar
one spoken and sung at weddings, and offered at a most joyous time
just moments before the breaking of the glass. It, however, serves as
a reminder that nothing should ever be placed above Jerusalem - our
highest and greatest of joys. As I prepared to travel to Israel, some
48 years after my first visit, I often listened to several beautiful
renditions of these verses, sung by different Israeli artists. The
song became a part of me as did Psalms 121 - Shir laMa'alot Esa Enai
"I lift up my eyes..."
As I approached the Western Wall during Chanukah, there were no
prayer books within my reach and I had to lean over those in front of
me to touch the stones. I might have spoken any number of prayers and
words, but it was the verses from Psalms 137 and 121 which seemed
most appropriate to the moment. That moment was part of the past, a
memory from my childhood as I once stood at the fence line unable to
enter the Old City; that moment was part of the present, of the
moment, and of the future - an enduring symbol of a promise yet to be
fulfilled and one which we keep close to our hearts and minds.
The REMEMBER photage includes an iconic
golden sunset over Jerusalem; the Western Wall and plaza during
Chanukkah 2012, and a view from the Haas promenade looking towards
the Old City. The images blend past, present and future - of what can
be seen and what cannot be seen, from the everlasting to the
enduring, from the old to the new, from a beginning to a transcendent
time and place without end...JERUSALEM.
I made Aliyah this summer on the Nefesh
b'Nefesh August charter. I now make my home in Yerushalyim, in
Katamon. I try to not to take for granted how lucky I am to be able
to live in Israel, to live in Yerushalyim. I put the REMEMBER photage
on a metal cuff which I wear religiously on my right wrist. I don't
ever want to forget or take for granted this amazing country and
remarkable city I call home.
I'll close with this thought, before I
left the States I gave a gallery talk at the David and Laura Merage
Gallery University of Denver Hillel House. I included a verse from
Perek Shira which is the Song of the Wind...
The photages I developed for the
Bloomfield Science Museum, the mada, are part of their new exhibit
entitled, Fly with the Wind. I gave a gallery talk at the beginning
of December and repeated the story.
It took me a long time to get here, but this daughter is home.
It took me a long time to get here, but this daughter is home.
Happy Chanukah, Chanukah Sameach, Chag
Urim Sameach...from Yerushalyim.
