Every day I am astounded by the perfection of Creation: the world, nature, humans, all that was, that is and that will be. Creation is a combination of the hidden and the revealed. We are occupied with the revelation of the hidden and thus contribute minutely to this wonderful world. It is this need that drives me to paint. At times, the expression is complex and at others minimal – but always a deep expression of emotions.

Facing a white canvas poses a special challenge. As an artist, I am not a substitute for a camera. I draw from nature – seek through painting that which is granted by Nature in order to discover the hidden elements not detected by the ordinary eye. My tools of quest are observation, color, shade, and composition. My means are the endless variations of light and shadow, atmosphere, and emotion. This massive wealth I translate to the canvas and present to the viewer. Every being of creation sings its unique daily praise; so too, through the paints and the canvas the artist within me reveals the wonders of creation, the “visible” and the “invisible”. In every object, I see Nature speaking to me in a language that only I understand.

I am an abstract artist. Painting is my speech. In my unique language, using the tools and techniques that I have perfected, I observe and explore and create works whose source is rooted in Creation. The end result conveys to the world an emotional experience. The language of abstraction allows me to express without words – words are the expression of the finite. The richness of nature is infinite. Abstraction aspires to the infinite; the dwelling of perfection.

Facing the work is the observer whose vision and feelings differ from mine. This observation perceives in the painting a unique narrative, not necessarily that which I intended. This too was created directly by the influence of creation. I am simply a tool.

Binyamin Basteker, 2019

Every day I am astounded by the perfection of Creation: the world, nature, humans, all that was, that is and that will be. Creation is a combination of the hidden and the revealed. We are occupied with the revelation of the hidden and thus contribute minutely to this wonderful world. It is this need that drives me to paint. At times, the expression is complex and at others minimal – but always a deep expression of emotions.

Facing a white canvas poses a special challenge. As an artist, I am not a substitute for a camera. I draw from nature – seek through painting that which is granted by Nature in order to discover the hidden elements not detected by the ordinary eye. My tools of quest are observation, color, shade, and composition. My means are the endless variations of light and shadow, atmosphere, and emotion. This massive wealth I translate to the canvas and present to the viewer. Every being of creation sings its unique daily praise; so too, through the paints and the canvas the artist within me reveals the wonders of creation, the “visible” and the “invisible”. In every object, I see Nature speaking to me in a language that only I understand.

I am an abstract artist. Painting is my speech. In my unique language, using the tools and techniques that I have perfected, I observe and explore and create works whose source is rooted in Creation. The end result conveys to the world an emotional experience. The language of abstraction allows me to express without words – words are the expression of the finite. The richness of nature is infinite. Abstraction aspires to the infinite; the dwelling of perfection.

Facing the work is the observer whose vision and feelings differ from mine. This observation perceives in the painting a unique narrative, not necessarily that which I intended. This too was created directly by the influence of creation. I am simply a tool.

Binyamin Basteker, 2019

Beginning in 1985, while living in NY, Jared was a very successful photographer of celebrities, and deeply engrossed in the art scene of the period. He frequented art exhibitions, most notably those of Basquiat’s work and was intrigued by his unique use of symbols and text to portray his personal narrative. He would visually discuss his family heritage, social topics of the period, police brutality, slavery and other issues of importance to his people. “He had this unique ability to access everything that was in his mind and memory bank… and put it on the canvas”.

To better grasp Jared’s work, we need a minimal understanding of the visual language used by Basquiat. Jared has adapted several symbols that are characteristic of Basquiat’s language: However, Jared uses these symbols not with the same meaning that Basquiat would, rather he adds his own meaning and expression.

For example, Basquiat would make use of human form or distorted form to emphasize his point. In the painting entitled The Beating of Michael Stuart the police officers were portrayed as non-human rectangular forms, while the victim, Michael Stuart was painted as a solid black, human form.

Jared portrays our inner spirit, one of conflict, concern, hope, etc. He is less concerned with the outer aesthetics rather he attempts to portray the inner. It is for this reason that he chose the chicken, a colloquial expression for one who is afraid. The form is tangible and approachable. “Anyone can paint that!” The painting Inner Chicken perhaps best illustrates this concept. Here we see our inner voice, a beautiful, pure, innocent chicken. The blue image on one hand has a huge smile, yet his hands are raised as if to say ‘I’m giving up”. The viewer is challenged to address the conflict between our inner voice (yetser hatov) and our exterior desires (yetser hara). 

"One of the main obstacles that a novice painter encounters when he comes to paint from observation is a conceptual conflict. This is because everything is actually made up of two things: meaning, and substance. The mind, refers to the word through its meaning for us, and not through its materiality. And therefore the painter gives an iconic interpretation of what he sees, which is not compatible with reality. It takes a lot of hours of training to teach the brain to separate these two things and pass on to the painter the relevant information for the painting, which is the material interpretation only." (From the artist's talk)

Raquel Sanchez: The surreal within the poetic real

Raquel Sanchez creates within the levels of Nature—some real and some surreal. Her work emits a sense, a feeling, a moment in time. It may be the moment capturing the momentum of landscape, of waterscape, or even the binding of the observer into a reliable frame of a moment. In the words of Picasso, “Ideas are simply starting points.” (from Brassaï “Conversations with Picasso”). Sanchez’s art captures spaces in spaces of time. It maintains a connection with archetypal moments and poetic renditions within and about landscapes. It is a “dance of moments”through the use of reflection and light, it is the previously seen and the not yet seen.

Sanchez begins with the canvas itself as spaces simultaneously relating to her inner space. She breathes, connects to a moment of time and so, this is where she breaks the canvas.” This is the first brush stroke.”  Then there is light. She works to perfect the act of seeing and capturing light. Light is the glimmer within each moment that connects to the brokenness of space; shadows express the time within that moment.  

Sanchez utilizes color as well as reflection to emulate movement and time.  As light affects Nature, so too the light Sanchez interacts with, renders and illustrates her unique process to instil inspiration.  The painting, creating an almost spiritual feeling, utilizes light to achieve is seemingly kinetic effect. Her art, by nature, is not making a particular statement rather it is a statement of the particular. Its message is of the inner self as it awakens, changing as this change occurs.

Yet the intuitive nature of her work at times transcends the kinetic. The art of intuitive nature is a process of painting whilst openly experiencing knowing without knowing... it is the present with all the permissions of the present to be the painter’s relationship with its development and its continuously developing conversation. The canvas speaks to, for and about the artist, and vice-versa,yet at times its subject matter may actuate distinctions. This relationship continues even once the brushes have been cleaned.

Intuition is an un-definable continuous comfort connected with the ambiguity we wear during moments of each day. We live this intuition undefined, with and without our active consciousness. It necessarily is connecting its subtle active process. It is this powerful drive that contains us within the un-containable. Intuitive painting is the amorphous and structure-less finding of place. 

“When I was asked about the Intuitive Nature of my painting, I responded by speaking about capturing the surreal and placing it into the poetic real by allowing the canvas and paints to be particularly present in a dancing moment. I don’t create.  I simply become part of creating.”

Uri Rosenbach

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