My mother's mother, my grandma Yetta, definitely had "artistic genes"! She opened a shop selling materials for sewing. Customers would buy cloth and then discuss with my grandmother what they planned to make. Without hesitation, grandma would pick up her scissors and cut, "free-hand" whatever pattern was needed!
My mother, a very talented painter, inherited those genes and passed them on to my sister and to me. We both studied at "The Tyler School of Fine Arts" of Temple University. The education offered there was amazing. All students, regarless of their preferences, were required to work in every medium. We studied life drawing, painting, sculpture, wood carving, jewelry, graphics and ceramics. We were taught to cast our sculpture, stretch and gesso our canvases, even grind and tube our oil paint.
It was World War II. I became a "war bride". My husband, a Navy officer, returned from overseas and was stationed in Washington D.C. I joined him and transferred to "The Corcoran School of Art".
When the State of Israel was established, my husband volunteered for the Israeli Navy. I followed a few months later with our baby son. It was October 1948. On the day I arrived, rain clouds were forming as the sun was setting on the sea. I will never never forget that first view from the Carmel. It was "love at first sight",
After getting settled, I started my "Israeli genre" period. Everything looked "exotic" and fascinated me. Oriental cities, women balancing jugs on their heads, sheep grazing, children holding bunches of wild flowers, our chickens, our hieghbor's gees, children dressed for Purim, all became pastels, woodcuts, enamels and oil paintings.
After five years, we returned temporarily to the U.S. I was able to combine my various credits and complete my art degree (B.F.A.) at "The Cleveland Institute of Art".
In 1962 we returned permanently to Israel with our three teenaged children. I set up a studio / workshop on Mt. Carmel. There I painted, made enamel plaques and "Roman Glass" jewelry.
We moved to an apartment where our neighbor "collected" cats. Our front garden, literally, "bloomed" with them. All day long, pussycat faces blended with flowers. It didn't take long before I started to paint them! Our three teenagers soon joined the army, married and had babies. My "mother and child" paintings began to appear. Gradually, I went on to flower studies and landscapes.
I once went to a "psychic" who gave me a very accurate "reading" on my life. When I asked her what work I do, she said, "Oh yes, I see you are an artist and your paintings are your children!" I think she got it right. "Creating" is like giving birth.
One very old memory, that has been spinning around in my head still waiting to be "born", relates to my other grandmother. "Bubbe" was a very pious woman. Her "Shul" meant everything to her. One day my father presented a Torah to her congregation. There was great excitement on the street. Grandma sat in our car as she was too old to go on foot. Her Rabbi, holding the new Torah, danced with his Hassidim around and around us as we drove slowly to the Synagogue. They were ecstatic. As they danced, their beards flew in all directions. Her Rabbi's beard was bright red!
I still remember it clearly and one day, I am sure, my memory will come to life on canvas.
