Tanya Preminger

Photo is courtesy of sculptor Tanya Preminger who wrote to me:

In Passover, the feast of freedom, appeared in the fields of Arsuf-Kedem [ 2 km north of Herzelia, Israel] a huge Star of David made off chrysanthemum, which fills our land with its flowers in spring. This display was made by a group of environmental sculptors lead by Tanya Preminger. After WWII the ;became in our consciousness a symbol of suffering and death. By creating it from flowers in the field these sculptors want to renovate the original symbol which means flowering, blossom, life, independence and freedom.

It reminds me of the verse from Jeremiah 33:11

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first,' says the LORD.

But since every day our enemies try to make us disappear I’m afraid that the end of times is delayed. Anyhow I think that this enterprise is full of good vibrations and it is a right movement in the right direction.

Tanya Preminger was born in the Soviet Union in 1944. Since 1972 she lives and teaches in Israel. She is married and has 4 daughters. Tania works in various art media: sculpture, landscape art, installation and photography.
photography of Shlomi Waserman.
Copyright: Tanya Preminger 2007

Judith Weinshall Liberman

Photo is courtesy of Judith Weinshall Liberman who sent me the following caption:

YELLOW STAR is a wall hanging - a work on fabric - and is part of Judith Weinshall Liberman's Holocaust Wall Hangings series. Forty-five of the Holocaust Wall Hangings, including YELLOW STAR, are in the permanent collection of the Temple Museum of Religious Art of the Temple Tifereth Israel in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A., where these works are on permanent display in continuous rotating exhibitions. During the Nazi occupation of Europe, Jews were compelled to wear a badge to distinguish them from non-Jews. The required badge, which varied from region to region, was usually a yellow star on a black ground or a black star on a yellow ground, often with the reference to "Jew" in the local language indicated at the center of the star. This wall hanging, which is 51" by 51" (130 cm by 130 cm) and was created in 1994, treats the badge not as a badge of shame but rather as one to be worn with pride. The image here is that of a regal coat adorned with stars. The yellow stars edging the front and sleeves of the coat suggest a garland of flowers, or lei, a symbol of hospitality and farewell.

Born in Haifa, Israel, Judith Weinshall Liberman came to the United States after completing high school. She earned four American university degrees in social studies and law.

All rights reserved to Judith Weinshall Liberman 2007 

Reality In The Mirror Of History

"Reality In The Mirror Of History" photo is courtesy of Ori Raz , Israeli post modern artist, poet and writer.
Ori wrote to me that this work is titled “reality in the mirror of history” and it is quite different from works of others who deal with the yellow badge. Ori explains that the background is like a children’s world, like a garden of Eden. In the middle of the work there are two Palestinian prisoners and an Israeli soldier. The red dots on the hands of the Israeli soldier remind us of the suffering of Jesus. The yellow badge reminds us of the times when Jews were victims. Message: we, Jews, should have learned our lesson from history and not inflict suffering on others.

In the last few years I have opened the door for creation with colored Xerox photographs. I have used these to create compositions of four creations under a single new frame-creation that created a new composition. At times I have added color with my brush. I have always taken an interests in textures of peeling walls and the graffiti - I have taken pictures of both. In abstract-realistic backgrounds I would find images - to this day I do not know if these images were the creation of the all mighty or the fabrications of my own imagination. I would create contours around the images, limiting their area, and then set them against the abstract backgrounds that I have photographed. After a while I have begun creating with abstract backgrounds while doing spatula creation on paper with different texture. I used expressive spatula strokes, once again discovering images. These images - the figments of my imagination -I would once again define with contours that would differentiate them from the background.

Copyrights: Ori Raz 2007