Image of the Week: The Ancient Land
Here are two paintings in acrylic and ink that I did about a decade ago. I was studying my own ancestry at the time, and had arrived at new territory: my ancient heritage. Previously, I had explored the immediate past generations of my grandparents and great grandparents, who took me back to Eastern Europe. Before that, I had tapped into my most primal roots as a human being, tracing my origins all the way back to Africa, and finding deep wellsprings there for my art. In between lay my unfamiliar "middle" heritage, a vast new territory to explore. It was centered in Israel, whence came my Jewish ancestors two thousand years ago, and who dwelt in that ancient land going back almost five millennia.
This was the first time I cast my eye in that direction. I found myself wrestling with a whole new concept of myself as not only a North American, not only a far-flung child of Eastern Europe, but now also as someone with roots in the Middle East.
As in life, so in art. The land of Israel – Eretz Yisrael in Hebrew – came alive in my imagination. I saw my roots reaching back through time, across the ocean (actually skipping it entirely), mingling with that ancient land – the birthplace of monotheism, where not only three continents but three religions meet. I tried to weave that land of Mediterranean light and white stone together with the dark green forests of the Catskills – not just on the surface, but underground. It was a crazy undertaking as I strove to knit them together – as if weaving mycelium through which the two lands could intertwine. In the image above, they are side by side. In the smaller version below, one land is framed by the other, assembled as a painted collage.
My ancestors sleep there, nestled among those silent roots.
A good and healthy week to all –
D Yael Bernhard