Artist Statement
My family's history, and my own, has been one of constant change. The countries in which my family has lived during the past seventy years include Russia (Moscow as well as Siberia), Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Israel, Romania and both coasts of the United States. I was raised by Holocaust survivors. Like theirs, my life has also turned out to be one of nearly constant nomadism. This transience has been partly responsible for connecting me so deeply with the history of my family, which is embodied by the worn and dependable objects and books which have followed us from country to country. These objects present a solid stability where life otherwise was anything but stable, and a connection to both the myths and realities of the experiences of my family. In these past few years, as I have made my own transition to motherhood, I have also lost most of the members of the family into which I was born. These inherited objects have consequently become that much more precious and poignant to me. As time passes, I have added my own books and objects to those which I have inherited, and all together, rich with both symbolic meaning and the potential for visual poetry, they have become the building blocks of the mythological language of my inner life. My work is heavily influenced by the ideas of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. I hope, through the embodiment of my personal mythology in these still-life paintings, and in the quest for a particular vision of beauty which they represent, I can touch upon something deep and universal—a felt experience that can be communicated to others.
My family's history, and my own, has been one of constant change. The countries in which my family has lived during the past seventy years include Russia (Moscow as well as Siberia), Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Israel, Romania and both coasts of the United States. I was raised by Holocaust survivors. Like theirs, my life has also turned out to be one of nearly constant nomadism. This transience has been partly responsible for connecting me so deeply with the history of my family, which is embodied by the worn and dependable objects and books which have followed us from country to country. These objects present a solid stability where life otherwise was anything but stable, and a connection to both the myths and realities of the experiences of my family. In these past few years, as I have made my own transition to motherhood, I have also lost most of the members of the family into which I was born. These inherited objects have consequently become that much more precious and poignant to me. As time passes, I have added my own books and objects to those which I have inherited, and all together, rich with both symbolic meaning and the potential for visual poetry, they have become the building blocks of the mythological language of my inner life. My work is heavily influenced by the ideas of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. I hope, through the embodiment of my personal mythology in these still-life paintings, and in the quest for a particular vision of beauty which they represent, I can touch upon something deep and universal—a felt experience that can be communicated to others.
