Roots Gallery

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I draw lines and circles
With latent meanings
In the plain design;
Who deciphers the veiled message
In a naïve babble
As an appeasement
Of generations's humiliation
And the wish for eternal bliss?
(1985)
 
Being second generation to holocaust survivors, until recently I shunned confronting my family's past, so full with suffering and terrible hardships. I felt an outsider. Nevertheless, I was conscious that in my individual psyche I carried the traces of generations past.
In 2005 with the encouragement of my brother I began to paint images of our childhood and family roots. This creative process, surprisingly, is opening in my psyche long sought for channels to remembering lost memories, acceptance of continuity, compassion, and belonging.

The painting "Family heritage" was the first one in the "Roots" series.
The subject matter derives from my hometown's archives, family photos and my childhood memories that are very much infused by the atmosphere of a small town in communist Czechoslovakia. 
My previous creative period deals with the symbolism of the Heavenly Jerusalem.
But for realization of the heavenly ideals one needs to deal with and clarify the assets of the past as well.
Today the aim of my creativity is the healing of ancestral wounds in my own psyche. My hope is that this healing process is passing on to the beholder of my artwork as well.