“Flamenco Attitude” is an expression of form and friendship.

I met Daniela through social media. Immediately I connected with her because of her warm, positive and welcoming personality as well as our common experience as teachers. Daniela is a flamenco dancer and has a dance studio in Orlando, Florida. We were both struggling to maintain our passion to our art during the pandemic. From the videos and imaged she posted on social media I could tell that she is a talented dancer and a successful teacher.

Our short virtual relationship during the pandemic time inspired me to pull out my watercolors and paint “Flamenco Attitude”. Although I often paint with acrylic, I felt that the gentle flow of pigment through the water as well as the “splash” of energy would be a more appropriate media for the dance pose.  The photograph that inspired me the most was an old black and white image of Daniela that focuses on her face and hands. Although the face in the artwork resembles Daniela’s, my painting is about the expressive movement and energy of the flamenco dance.

While painting this portrait, the song Mr. Tambourine Man was playing in my mind. Here is a quote from this Bob Dylan song.

"And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow".

“The Path” is both a spiritual and historical painting. The painting depicts a place in “Ship Mountain” (Phnom Sampeou) in Cambodia, which is lined with Buddhist shrines and a temple. The temple, Wat Sampeou, is approached by 700 stairs that you can see through the bright opening in the cave on the left side of the painting. 

Ship Mountain also has 3 natural caves that were used as killing locations by the Khmer Rouge when they took power in Cambodia in 1980s; a sad and grim genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot.

This painting was inspired by a photograph that my daughter took while serving in the Peace Corp in Cambodia. Originally, the photograph had a monk wearing a bright orange cloth, walking down the path into the cave, possibly on his way to the stairs leading to the temple.

I chose to convey the spirituality and meaning of this place in a universal way, rather than from a religious perspective. I replaced the monk with a bird of prey to symbolize the concept of simultaneous beauty and savageness.

In this composition, the yellow path descends into the dark cave and emerges in the bright light and ascending stairs. This symbolizes the journey of life, when we often have to struggle through dark times to emerge later in a better, brighter place.

This painting is the largest canvas I painted to date--40x30 inch. I hand-built the frame and stretched the canvas myself. 

A couple of months later, I decided to start this painting again because I was not happy with the composition and there was no way to fix it. The new composition does not have an owl at all. It was hard to cover it because I loved the way the owl turned out. At least I know that under the layers of paint--it is still there.

My short experience with belly dancing landed me a 1^st place in a local competition.

I painted this piece at the start of the pandemic. Like many of us, I was searching for ways to distract me from the confused and uncertain situation we were all thrown into. My daughter was forced to return home from her job in Cambodia and our nuclear family had to learn to live with each other under the same roof again, as adults. My daughter loves to dance and was spending a lot of her time taking on-line free lessons in various styles. It connected me with my love for dancing and the idea for “The Belly Dancer” came up.

As a child, I took lessons in ballet and modern dance. As an adult I became more curious and adventurous and took lessons in Latin, African, tap and belly dancing. At one point, I got enough courage to compete in our neighborhood “Gong Show”, with a short belly dance performance. Well....I won 1^st place!!

In this painting I honor the belly dancer. I chose the colors and the pose of the dancer to express the beauty and the difficulty of this ancient dance form. Belly dancing is common in many cultures around the world. It is believed to have been created for women only, to prepare them for fertility and marriage, not to entertain men. I bring the dancer closer to the viewer to feel the difficulty and strain of this pose.

Ever wondered how/why artists choose to paint a specific subject?   

I just completed a series of action seascapes. As summer was approaching and the pandemic was still forcing us to stay away from public places, I started yearning for places I would rather be and combined with nostalgia, I came up with the windsurfing theme.   

Years ago, before the responsibilities of parenthood and family, I loved windsurfing and went out whenever the conditions were right--and often when they were not. I loved the exhilaration of harnessing the power of the wind to move me.  It was water, wind, sun, and I all alone. I cannot lie; there were many moments of fear and exhaustion when I felt that the wind was getting too strong as my muscles felt too weak to keep me going. But that is what made it fun: being part of nature and using its power to move me and then safely return me to my everyday life.   

In these 3 paintings I tried to capture the speed, the physical aspect of the activity and the interaction between nature and human. In Wind Speed (left) I focused on the tension between the surfer, the water and the wind, not so much on the sea. In Hanging On (middle), it is more about navigating through a rising sea and the interaction between a fellow windsurfer, the wave and the increasing wind speed.  In The Groove is all about extreme conditions of surfing through huge waves, a situation I can only dream of since I never achieved such technique.   

I hope these paintings will carry your thought into exciting places. I would love to hear where my art took you.

Ever wondered how/why artists choose to paint a specific subject?   

I just completed a series of action seascapes. As summer was approaching and the pandemic was still forcing us to stay away from public places, I started yearning for places I would rather be and combined with nostalgia, I came up with the windsurfing theme.   

Years ago, before the responsibilities of parenthood and family, I loved windsurfing and went out whenever the conditions were right--and often when they were not. I loved the exhilaration of harnessing the power of the wind to move me.  It was water, wind, sun, and I all alone. I cannot lie; there were many moments of fear and exhaustion when I felt that the wind was getting too strong as my muscles felt too weak to keep me going. But that is what made it fun: being part of nature and using its power to move me and then safely return me to my everyday life.   

In these 3 paintings I tried to capture the speed, the physical aspect of the activity and the interaction between nature and human. In Wind Speed (left) I focused on the tension between the surfer, the water and the wind, not so much on the sea. In Hanging On (middle), it is more about navigating through a rising sea and the interaction between a fellow windsurfer, the wave and the increasing wind speed.  In The Groove is all about extreme conditions of surfing through huge waves, a situation I can only dream of since I never achieved such technique.   

I hope these paintings will carry your thought into exciting places. I would love to hear where my art took you.

A couple of summers ago I built 3 dog sculptures from wood, paper and acrylic paint. I wanted to capture the profound emotional affect that dogs have on me. The idea for 1 sculpture came to me a couple of years prior but the concept achieved momentum last summer when my dog got sick and the process of making sculptures gave me a way to relieve some of the stress. I also set a goal to repurpose all materials in which I did.

The pandemic's social distancing reminded me how powerful art is, in allowing the mind to escape from stress.