Gouache and various point media, 20 x 20 cm on paper (8″ x 8″ for you Yanks)
Experiments in color and gouache techniques, perhaps studies for bigger works on canvas.
My wife Adina has a healthy sense of humor. Thus, she declared the earliest of these scribbles to be Mapiot/Napkins, due to their being the exact size of fancy paper napkins. To be honest, the birth of the series was equally domestic: A great sale on small square watercolor paper pads. (Us ex-New Yorkers can’t resist a bargain.)
After 25 years designing and publishing greeting cards, and painting on a tiny scale, a few years ago I felt a need to work LARGE, with BIG arm movements. I jumped to 40 x 60 cm formats, and by last year, I had moved on to wall sized canvases. It was exhilarating, and released an explosion of creative adventure. But the down side of my afore mentioned thriftiness, is my fear of wasting a perfectly good $40 canvas on a loony or ugly experiment. Even worse, is my fear of wasting 2 weeks of hard work, compounded by the headache of storing dozens of monster canvases of questionable quality.
Working small:
Abruptly changing the size of my formats, was once again liberating. In this new reduced size, I can quickly try an idea over and over again, with different approaches. I dare to be “ugly” while free from thinking, “But who will buy this?” I’ve been burning through those pads in a creative frenzy!
As I have written often before, I am attracted to both the ornament and the kind of conventional “prettiness” which is accessible to most viewers — and to expressive work with deep, dark secrets. For the past 3 years, I have been working on ways to engage the two together. Often, the outward subject is simple and easy to live with, like a bowl of fruit. But none of us are really that simple and live easily with ourselves… And heck! Painting my wild undertones, is a lot cheeper than psychotherapy! Anyway – I just enjoy painting these spontaneous squares.
A second goal has evolved during the process; exploring the border zone between drawing and painting. So far, I have used point medias to create a delightful chaos on the page, and more serene, brush applied gouache in ornamental patterns. Layer upon layer. I plan to pursue this further.
A video prepared for my summer workshop “Diving Into Colour”
וידאו שהכנתי עבור סדנת היצירה “צלילה לעולם הצבע” קיץ 2013
Interview about my 2013 show “Ongepatchket” Part of CultureBuzz project of the Foreign Ministry of Israel, by Aviad Ivri
CultureBuzz is a wonderful online video project sponsored by the Foreign Ministry of Israel. Many thanks to Aviad Ivri!
Sneak Preview of the exhibit “Ongepatchket” at the Jerusalem Theatre, open till June 11, 2013
מבט חטוף אל התערוכה “אָנגעפאטשקאט | נקוד וטלוא” בתיאטרון ירושלים, עד 11.6.2013
Ongepatchket | נָקֹד וְטָלוּא| אָנגעפאטשקט
When Jacob negotiated with his nasty father-in-law Laban, he chose the decorative spotted and patched sheep and goats as salary. He left those with Minimalist aesthetics for his in-laws. Indeed, Jacob showed talent at encouraging the flock to reproduce with even more resplendent patches.
Following our forefather’s example, I explore the world of pattern and ornament, as a vehicle of artistic, emotional and ideological expression.
I had my first encounter with patchwork when my Mom gave me some old wallpaper catalogs. My scissors and glue had always worked overtime, but the mess was more than she expected. In desperation, she cried, “Stop patchkying around!”
Patchkerei: Yiddish for making a big fuss with lots of details. From Old German patch.
Mom often dragged me to antique shops valuing my 8 year old opinion. Victorian treasures and monstrosities could still be purchased for pennies. If something was particularly dripping with poorly applied ornament, we would laugh,
“It’s sooooo ongepatchket!”
Ongepatchket: Yiddish, over decorated, fussy.
So how do all of these stories “patch” together?
I am an artist creating HERE – in our noisy, colorful, intimate, dressed-in-schmattes Holy Land.
I often work by layer upon layer of patterned patches; ripping and unraveling the image, then gently “sewing” it together. I like paintings with something missing, spontaneous, with a turbulent undercurrent, yet somehow full of joy.
Ongepatchket | נָקֹד וְטָלוּא| אָנגעפאטשקט
יעקב אבינו בחר כשכרו את כל העזים המקושטות, והשאיר ללבן הארמי את אלו בעלות האסתטיקה המינימליסטית. שנאמר ״הָסֵר מִשָׁם כָּל-שֶׂה נָקֹד וְטָלוּא וְכָל-שֶׂה-חוּם בַּכְּשָׂבִים, וְטָלוּא וְנָקֹד, בָּעִזִּים; וְהָיָה, שְׂכָרִי״.
פירש רש״י: וְטָלוּא – לשון טלאי, חברבורות רחבות.
בינקותי חיסלתי קטלוגים של טפטים בעבודות טלאים, patchwork בלע״ז. מספריים ודבק עבדו אצלי שעות נוספות ופיסות נייר מילאו את חלל הבית. מחברות הלימודים היו גדושות בשרבוטים גיאומטריים. אמי ז״ל כינתה בלגאנים ויצירות אלו ״פאטשקעריי״, ונהגה לקרוא בייאוש “!Stop patchkying around”- די להתפצ’קר!
פאטשקעריי: מילה משעשעת ביידיש, עבודה עם המון פרטים, שלבים וטירחה. שורש פאטש – טלאי בגרמנית, דומה לpatch בלע”ז.
בילדותי אמי נהגה לסחוב אותי לחנויות ענתיקעס. היו מציאות ויקטוריאניות חמודות, והיו מזעזעות עם הררי קישוט וקצפת מתוקה, שהביאו אותנו להתגלגל מצחוק,“!It’s soooo ongepatchket”
אנגעפאטשקעט, לשון ״פאטש״ – טלאי: מקושט ומיופה מדי. עמוס בטעם רע.
אז מה הקשר בין טלאים לעבודותיי המוצגות כאן?
אני אמן שחי פה, בארצנו הססגונית, הקדושה ,הלבושה בשמאטעס, בוויכוח עם עולם האמנות הגדול והנאור.
אני מרבה לצייר טלאי על טלאי, בקרעים קשים ובתיקונם ברוגע ואהבה. אני אוהב ציור שמשהו חסר בו, ספונטני, סוער, ובכל זאת משרה עדנה;
וכמובן, טלאים מבטאים את אהבתי הגדולה לקישוט ולדוגמא.
Chanan Mazal | Israeli Artist 