My Ceramic Keepers of the Secrets

These clay "bottles" hold and guard treasured secrets.

Secrets are a huge responsibility. If you are given one to keep, sometimes you might be tempted to give it away at a crucial moment, buying a moment's grace and losing trust forever.
People might like to own a keeper of secrets so that they can better contain and hold those secrets entrusted to them, or those moments they hold dear and do not wish to share or lose.

These guards of the bottles are not necessarily scary monsters, frightening away secret snatchers.They are reminders of innocent trust and therefore a little primitive and somewhat childishly wide eyed.

Stormy, bleak election day

The storm that blew through election day yesterday, hailed, hammered and rained - the only storm we have seen this winter. The universe warning us of things to come . The storm knocked over more than my sun umbrella and hailed on more than my pot plants, ruining any hope we had of change . It blew in, (along with the broken branches, garbage and mud) Bibi .

Today the sun is shining with no sign of yesterday's stormy weather aside from the windswept surfaces. Blue skies. Wiped clean. Just like the collective memory we have of Bibi as prime minister the previous time.

What other explanation is there for him being voted into power again?

Early morning Sundial

These are the sun spots that hit this wall in my bedroom when I wake up with the blinds partially closed, at various times of the early morning during the 4 months that I have been here.
The sun strikes that wall between 6 and 8 am with a slightly different shape each time. From the day I first woke up in this bedroom, I couldn't resist grabbing a pencil and marking the spots - thinking that it would be a sundial to tell the time as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning. The variety was so great that a difference of a few seconds meant a whole new shape and placement.
Sometimes they had moved by the time I could mark the row from top to bottom.
When the sun got too low in the winter , I painted the ones already marked.

The sculpture is simply on an existing screw in the wall but I like her there with her imperfection

Bottled Up

These over-sized bottles suggest undefined origins and mystery surrounding their purpose and use. They could be giant perfume bottles, or used by healers and medicine men. They have no obvious tradition and no known religious symbolism.

They are inspired and evolve from a memory, a dream, a recognition that they have deep meaning for me. A watcher of the treasure. Keeper of the secret.

Leonie's art is enlisted: Can we Start Over

Castra and the old road to Haifa

Driving to the Castra mall in Haifa on the number 4 road, is like taking a chunk out of the past and jumping back to the sixties, when living at Alonei Yitzchak. The old road to Haifa was the only way to go and it hasnt changed much. Going past Ein Ayala, Kerem Maharal, driving through Feradis, oh what memories this brings back of the hope and dreams when Israel was so uncomplicated and so untrafficked, that the single lane to Haifa was fine for us.

Well its fine for me again. It reminded me of the way things used to be, and revived the hope that perhaps we havent lost our way completely.

I took some pieces to the Castra Gallery which has just reopened today, and discovered the beautiful Castra mall. The ceiling of the dome is gorgeous and its been a while since I have seen such a lovely commercial building. Its situated right next to the grand mall of Haifa so I am not sure how many people are there on a daily basis, but Friday morning is pretty busy. There are galleries and inependent stores rather than the regular chain stores and I do recommend it!!

Make art not war

Trying to penetrate, infiltrate and subvert the consensus.
All I am using is this slogan: END WAR.
Things will not improve as a result of this war. We will only have worse on our hands, and I dont mean only blood. vvvv