Land scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
MallyElbazAlmandine
Lives and works in Tiberias , Israel
An artist ' s statement
" Almandine " - a natural mineral purple gem tends to Bordeaux .
The building blocks of my creations are based on the almandine gems . The gems are stones , and in Hebrew stones are metaphor for a person ' s distress . I hold a philosophical concept of how to deal with human distress .
It seems that the stones that I played with as a child , stones that accounted a world of images , hold a double meaning now that they constitute the cornerstones to the images of my creativity . The creation of the painting itself consists of small pieces that are weaved into a kind of chain of small colored stones . The image of these pieces of stones stands for the pieces of life that are twined into a whole . A whole lifetime . A lifetime that consists of numerous childhood experiences and memories that have had substantial influence on my mental being .
On top of that , it seems that there is also the derivative of my forefathers in Yemen . My grandfather and my late father were engaged in the sewing and embroidery crafts in Sana ' a . My father was a tailor who also knew the craft of making sleeveless pullover from goats ' and sheep wool . He sewed them for the deputy of the king in Yemen . My late father also mastered the Yemenite traditional embroidery . Before he died , he ' d taught me this craft .
My perception of the world is of tapestry . That is , life according to this understanding , is made of little bits of happiness and joy that are juxtaposed to chaos , sadness , and pain that exist in the world and affect us all . Little bits of life experiences and childhood memories undergo idealization with time and are intertwined in our lives as adults . This emotional experience gains a significant form and shape " from which I draw the imagery in my current work ( small pieces of stones - small pieces of embroidery made by my father ).
Mally Elbaz Almandine
Website : http :// www . almandineart . com Photos by : Chen Levi