Artist Statement

“My Soul is in the East and I am in the West”
—Yehuda Halevi, 12th Century

These feelings of longing and desire of all uprooted people for their homeland, written by a medieval poet who lived in Spain and longed for the land of Israel, capture the ambivalence of my existence. Although I have lived in America for the past few years, I was born and raised in Israel. Living between two cultures is at the heart of my work.

More than a decade ago, I moved with my family to the South, first to South Carolina and four years later, to Boone. Since then, my art work has taken a big turn and my need for expression spiraled. The contrast between my two worlds became sharper. At the same time, dramatic political and social events taking place in my country and around the world influenced me greatly and prompted me to respond artistically. My painting has evolved from using overt metaphors and symbols to more abstract paintings — hinting at representational motifs. I use strong contrasting colors, harsh lights and rough textures to convey the feeling of a ‘landscape’. These are ‘landscapes’ of memory to which I give personal interpretations. While they are entirely personal, they express my reaction to social and political events.

My paintings express the conflict between present and past. I grapple with a broken dream. Memories and experiences fill my soul and I cover and recover my canvas until the surface is built into a tangible record of many layers. I see the purity, beauty and innocence of my childhood through a reality-testing eye and a mourning, painful heart that is almost empty because of loss. My subject matter is personal and specific, but also concerned with larger, more universal ideas. In an era of new hopes for peace, but of destructive events all over the world, I am moving between beauty and bloodshed, between building and destruction.

Orna Bentor