Image of the Week: The Jewish Eye (oil on canvas)
hi Friends,
Welcome to my new format for Image of the Week. You no longer have to click on a separate link, or visit my blog – the post is here!
However, I'm providing links to my last two blog posts here, as technical difficulties prevented these posts from reaching about half my mailing list. They are here:
Dead Sea Wadi
Joseph & His Brothers
Now for this week's post: The Jewish Eye – oil on canvas, 29" wide x 22" high. This painting has the same title as the calendar. It is the image for November.
Transparent, overlapping shapes are an ongoing theme in my work. Yet oddly, I've never been able to repeat how I do it. In every case, a pattern cuts across a larger shape . . . but since they're always different, I seem to have to invent a new technique each time. A wall of color blocks, harkening to the Kotel (the Western Wall in Jerusalem), provides the pattern for this painting. I cannot quantify how much trial and error went into each and every block. Long hours of mixing and applying different colors, different tones – first to create a common likeness among the three shapes, then distinction . . . then more likeness, followed by more distinction. The painting itself dictated my color choices, if only I would watch closely for what looked right. The bottom layer of background had to be pale yellow, I was sure of that. I am a servant, I thought as I obeyed. How ironic, to feel that way while painting an image that is so contrived, a product of my own will. Was I dabbling in a world of my own making, or was that world dabbling with me?
For me, the eye at the center of the painting – which I left as white canvas – was the most intriguing part. Like the peaceful eye of a hurricane, like the pure white that contains all the colors of the rainbow, there was no tension there, no grappling with what I should articulate. As the underlying oneness behind all Jewish tradition, this central eye has to be blank – for I imagine it as the place where the unknowable Source resides, the unutterable name that transcends language. This empty eye symbolizes something that is universal, yet can only be filled in by each individual viewer. What resides there for you?
Many a winter morning was taken up by this painting, working for short spells, stealing ten minutes here, twenty there. It was on my mind – and propped up on a kitchen chair – for many weeks. Now months later, new versions of this concept are already springing up like wild grass. A new pattern emerges, this time with mid-tone lines along each row of color . . . a deliberately discordant palette . . . new shapes with wider curves and angles. When will I ever find the time?
The Jewish Eye 5779/2019 Calendar of Art is available in my webstore and on Amazon. The painting is also for sale. Email me if you're interested!