I miss the blue and orange leather seats, the high pitched engine whine that made any cell phone calls a nightmare and the vertiginous hike up the stairs to board them! These were buses that took me to high school and remain an iconic part of my childhood in transit. What do you miss about these trolley dinosaurs?

Bountiful

acrylic on canvas 18 x 22

Main Aviv

acrylic on canvas 24 x 26

Main Street is my cultural hub. Main Street’s chaotic, yet complimentary mash up of antique stores, dimly lit lounges, ethnic cuisine, hipster bars, breakfast cafeterias and the like is punctuated by the blazing neon signs of the bingo hall around 11th and anchored by the smoky legion at 23rd. My favorite place to watch the world go by on Main Street is on one of the picnic tables on the Reef patio on a sunny day.

For me, this funky pot pourri is mirrored in the middle east on one of my favorite corners in Tel Aviv: Dizengof and King George. This corner discerns itself from the Tel Aviv skyline with its two prehistoric looking, jagged round towers. The area is adorned with key stores, art shops, cafes, kiosks, tattoo places, spaghetti joints, thrift stores, antique stores and just down the street is quite possibly the ugliest fountain ever. Buses to Yafo and Ramat Gan careen down the street at breakneck speeds. There is no better place to drink this expressive scene in than one of the sun drenched coffee shop patios on Dizengof.

SOLD

Here are a few examples of my finished framed with Buddhas inside.

Careful

acrylic on canvas 16 x 20

I have been working very hard lately making some custom frames for art. The typical frame bought at the art store is usually a 2inch floating frame, pre-painted to a dull matte black or fake wood. I have bought a few of these over the years to accentuate my art, and have been somewhat happy with the results.

Over the few weeks, and after many consultations and even a prototype made with a friend who has an Honours Physics degree, I found a style that I feel adds to the dramatic effect of my bold and monochromatic art. This result is a 1 x4 inch frame which I paint a black gloss lacquer.

This is bold and attention grabbing. This deep frame transforms my canvases from a part of the wall to a 3d sculpture which sets itself aside from any surface.

Stay tuned to see my latest Buddha paintings in these frames, and see my attempt at making a 80 x 30 inch frame for the largest of my recent pieces.

I am currently working on painting, framing and eventually exhibiting a series of paintings called “Eastern Echoes.” These black and white acrylic paintings reflect my fascination, inspiration and reverence in both Buddhist art and facial expressions. The goal of this series is to invoke an emotion into the viewer. Frank Lloyd Wright always kept a Buddha in his studio. This series also incorporates my two fields of undergraduate study: Psychology and Art History.

The lone image of a Buddha creates a space of serenity and calmness. My paintings of different variations of Buddha’s face reflect the uniqueness and diversity found in the seemingly repetitive task of representing Buddha. Geography plays an interesting role in the development of Buddhist art, which can be seen in how Buddha’s face is represented. Buddha statues found in Pakistan and Afghanistan sometimes have curly facial hair and visible links to classical Greek sculpture which influenced the region as the spice roads opened up. These statues differ from the smooth and slender golden Buddhas found in South East Asia.

The expressions and micro-expressions found within my paintings of Buddha’s face represent the journey that each viewer must take to find a personal connection and inner meaning with the painting. Facial expression expert and clinical psychologist Paul Eckman once noted that, “The only place that will reveal the difference in a broad intense smile is the skin between the eyebrows and the upper eyelid … That will move slightly down in the genuine smile and will not move in the social or false smile. Everybody can voluntarily make their lips smile, but very few people can contract the muscle that surrounds the eyes.”

Let these Eastern Echoes take you to that genuine smile.