Friends,
My blog has moved over to the same address as my website: www.mazalart.com
The blog is found at http://mazalart.com/blog-2/
I look forward to meeting you there!
Chanan
Sunday, October 05, 2014
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Ongepatchket | אָנגעפאטשקעט | נקוד וטלוא
Jerusalem Theatre Gallery, till June 11, 2013
When Jacob negotiated with his nasty father-in-law Laban, he chose the decorative spotted and patched sheep and goats as salary. He left those with Minimalist aesthetics for his in-laws. Indeed, Jacob showed talent at encouraging the flock to reproduce with even more resplendent patches.
Following our forefather’s example, I explore the world of pattern and ornament, as a vehicle of artistic, emotional and ideological expression.
I had my first encounter with patchwork when my Mom gave me some old wallpaper catalogs. My scissors and glue had always worked overtime, but the mess was more than she expected. In desperation, she cried, “Stop patchkying around!”
Patchkerei: Yiddish for making a big fuss with lots of details. From Old German patch.
Mom often dragged me to antique shops valuing my 8 year old opinion. Victorian treasures and monstrosities could still be purchased for pennies. If something was particularly dripping with poorly applied ornament, we would laugh,
“It’s sooooo ongepatchket!”
Ongepatchket: Yiddish, over decorated, fussy.
So how do all of these stories “patch” together?
I am an artist creating HERE - in our noisy, colorful, intimate, dressed-in-schmattes Holy Land.
I often work by layer upon layer of patterned patches; ripping and unraveling the image, then gently “sewing” it together. I like paintings with something missing, spontaneous, with a turbulent undercurrent, yet somehow full of joy.
Monday, February 20, 2012
I would like to share some of my recent artwork with you.
Last May, at the opening of my show at the Jerusalem Theatre, I spoke about the border between ornament and art, and about my exploration of ornament's potential as a vehicle for emotional and artistic expression. I have found this subject to be even deeper and more gratifying than I had imagined. While applying more and more layers to each painting, I alternatively create denser layers of pattern, or masks to hide or mutate them. Like a toddler building a tower of blocks, building, knocking down, and building again. At the same time, my own levels of raw emotions vacillate with a desire to return to a well behaved and pretty aesthetic. Like the naughty child in Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are".
My goal is to stop working at that enigmatic point in time, when I feel that this tug of war, has reached a perfect tie: The war is between impulsive, yet engaging "bad taste" and refined, pleasing "good taste". The moment when our tense concentration, breaks into a humorous, joyous smile.
I use the power or delicacy of pattern, to counterbalance my deliberately coarse executed of earlier layers; to correct my deliberately imperfect compositions, and to make peace with waring colors. I prefer to initially attack the canvas as quickly as possible, from my gut. Then I patiently, thoughtfully and joyfully, build up the painting to that moment of equilibrium. Perhaps we all get gratification from fixing broken things.
When artists paint portraits of others, in a sense they are always painting themselves. Likewise, I feel that even when painting the most neutral of objects, these works reflect my own search for self identity. Our teenage self definitions get redefined over time, as we mature, change our family and work roles, and re clarify our values.
I find that self humor is a great tool. Perhaps that is why so many of my works contain either a well balanced, symmetrically placed
object, over a joyfully chaotic undercoat, or impossibly off balanced bowls, about to roll off of the canvas.
If any of you folks are here in Jerusalem, please join me at the opening of my newest exhibition:
Tuesday Feb. 20 2012, from 6 - 9 pm
at the AACI Center, 2 Poalei Zedek St. corner of Pierre Koenig, 4th floor. (across from the Hadar Mall in Talpiot)
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Thursday, June 09, 2011
On June 24 I will be opening a show of my recent works. The title reflects my fascination with surface tension in painting: Painting was by definition 2 dimensional, but in reality, it is anything but that: Paint has body. Paper and canvas have texture, little mountains and crevices. And all patterns and repetitions indicate movement.
I will plagiarize a lovely comment on my Facebook page, that expresses my goal:
"Your works are so vibrant and somehow contain movement in each, I don't know if I 'look' at your paintings as much as 'watch. Very aptly named show." (Thanks Ruth)
If you are in Jerusalem, please come by!
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Self Portrait as Starving Artist
self portrait as starving artist
Originally uploaded by Mazalart / Chanan Mazal
Oil, early 2010, two short sessions
Self Portrait as the Statue of Liberty
Self Portrait as the Statue of Liberty
Originally uploaded by Mazalart / Chanan Mazal
Oil, Spring 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Gouache is the Cinderella of painting media. So versatile and so underestimated. Unlike the previous post, with works on canvas, these colors look accurate, at least on my screen.
The bowl was painted in June, and the bottles in October. The latter has since been interpreted in canvas. Both began with wild, quick yellow green brushstrokes, covering the entire frame.
Original gouache paintings by Jerusalem artist Chanan Mazal
Monday, July 19, 2010
Cypress Trees - by Chanan Mazal
Originally uploaded by Mazalart / Chanan Mazal
This painting signed the beginning of a very productive few weeks before my recent trip to the USA. I investigated approaches to this cypress tree theme, over and over. My ulterior motive for posting this again, is that it is a link to my flickr.com page. Links are supposed to be good for Google results, so I wish myself search engine success.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Cypress Trees - Acrylic on Canvas, by Jerusalem artist Chanan Mazal.
ברושים בשדות - ציור אקרילי של האומן הירושלמי חנן מזל
My first larger painting of Cypress trees on canvas. Based on my first gouache painting of this series, it was created in calmness. The trees and fields have inverted color perspectives. The trees are lighter, warmer and purer in the foreground, the fields are the opposite. This confuses our perception of depth, flattening the image. Distance is restored by both the decrease in size of the far trees and their placement on the top of the canvas.
My subsequent paintings in this series became more expressive, freely painted and layered. Even wild.
My first larger painting of Cypress trees on canvas. Based on my first gouache painting of this series, it was created in calmness. The trees and fields have inverted color perspectives. The trees are lighter, warmer and purer in the foreground, the fields are the opposite. This confuses our perception of depth, flattening the image. Distance is restored by both the decrease in size of the far trees and their placement on the top of the canvas.
My subsequent paintings in this series became more expressive, freely painted and layered. Even wild.
Old Farmer with his Date Palms
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Bronx Crossing - Original gouache painting by Jerusalem Artist Chanan Mazal.
An emigrant's childhood memory of going to visit his Grandmas in the Old Neighborhood: Carsick in the back seat of the 1956 Oldsmobile; admiring the George Washington Bridge; Mickey Mouse' water tower, and loosing my hearing, while bumping over the cobblestones under the screeching Jerome Ave El train.
ציור גואש מקורי של חנן מזל, ירושליםזכרון ילדות
46 x 61 cm (18" x 24") on 100% cotton Arches paper
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