Art @ the ZEDEK // Fall 2016 Programme

125

est.1889

YEARS

Congregation

Shaarey Zedek

Celebrating Community and Culture

EXHIBIT Livingston Shalev-Minuk Whiteman

Exhibition continues until November 24, 2016

The second iteration of Art at the Zedek is a rare treat, as we are exhibiting the work of three artists in our community: Ruth Livingston, Shosh Shalev Minuk and Clare Whiteman, for whom art is a passionate expression of a soul- filled experience.

There is coherency here and also difference. Art inspires.

Art communicates values. Art provides form for notions of beauty, harmony and balance and each of the artists has been inspired by the rhythms of Jewish life- both sacred and secular.

Yet, each works in different ways, finding inspiration in specific moments, vistas, liturgies and traditions. The final works include delicate water colours with Hebrew prayer and calligraphy by Livingston, inspired land and skyscapes of the Canadian shield in oils and acrylics

by Whiteman, and Shalev-Minuk’s figuration, which has at its basis bold colour and abstraction. What a delight to see the diversity of practices work in 2.0! Thank you to the artists for enriching the visual field and Shaarey Zedek Staff and Congregation for making this initiative possible. – Amy Karlinsky

Ruth Naomi Livingston

Ruth Naomi Livingston works in and teaches beginning skills in watercolour painting, quilting, and reading Hebrew at her studio @ Temple Shalom. She has exhibited at Starbucks (River & Osborne), Temple Shalom, Cre8ery Gallery and ArtsJunktion. Her work can also be seen at the Israeli Pavilion during Folklorama.

Watercolour - After several false starts earlier in life, Ruth began painting in watercolour in 2000 and almost immediately it became a passion. At age 62, renting an unused classroom at Temple Shalom for use as a studio, actually supported her decision to retire from public school teaching. Although she has experimented with other media, watercolour remains her favourite.

Hebrew Script - Ruth added the element of Hebrew script to her painting following

her involvement with Soferet Sta”m, Irma Penn, z”l. While scribing the Penn Torah, Irma tasked Ruth with proofreading it. As Irma knew that she was dying, she decided Ruth should also learn how to scribe. Through her inspiration and teaching, Ruth began to scribe lines of Torah, blessings or prayers on vellum and superimposed them over her paintings. Usually the paintings inspired the text but sometimes the text came first and she would look for an Israeli landscape or a scene with a Jewish theme to illustrate it.

Each time she scribes, it reminds her of Irma and her incredible achievement: her Torah is the only one written in Winnipeg and the first written in Canada by a woman.

Fabric Landscape and Talleisim - While Art at the Zedek 2.0 exhibition

features images and texts in watercolours and Hebrew script, Ruth also works in other media. Inspired by the mountains of Israel and the prairie landscape that surrounds Winnipeg, Ruth creates stitched fabric pictures. She has made a series of children’s pieces which each feature vehicles, farms, animals or dinosaurs. Prayer shawls have been a part of Jewish culture for millenia, following the commandment in Numbers 15:37-39 to tie fringes to the corners of our garments. Most of Ruth’s talleisim are made by commission, in partnership with the individual who will be wearing the tallis, after meeting to discuss the significance, core values and the places in our tradition and in the world where the individual finds inspiration. The core values may be scripted in the corners of the tallis, while the design is often based in Torah. Ruth also paints kippahs with silk dyes and letters them with lines from prayers, songs or scripture, thus making them “t’filah kippahs.”

List of Works in the Foyer B’reishit, archival ink on vellum, watercolour and text, 2015 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” Al Shlosha D’varim, archival ink on vellum, 2015 “Under Manitoba Skies, watercolour on rag paper, nd ‘The world stands on 3 things: Torah, prayer & good deeds’” In the Dark Woods, watercolour on rag paper, 2010 “Hachama meirosh ha-ilanot nistalkah The sun on the treetops no longer is seen” Ma Yafeh HaYom, watercolour on rag paper, 2014 “How beautiful it is today!”

The View from Zippori, watercolour on rag paper, 2012 “in Northern Israel” Lech L’cha, watercolour on rag paper, 2011 “Go, to a place that I will show you, a place you do not know and your life will be blessed” O Jerusalem, acrylic on cotton, 2013 “Ur’eih b’tuv Y’rushalayim kol y’mei y’mei chayecha May you see Jerusalem’s well-being all the days of your life” Esa Einai, acrylic on cotton, 2013 Kol Dodi, cotton fabric collage “My beloved comes, leaping over mountains, bounding over hills” inspired by Zefat, in northern Israel All works are 11” x 14” framed.

Shosh Shalev -Minuk Shosh Shalev-Minuk, received her BFA from the School of Art, University of Manitoba. Before university, she took classes from the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and art workshops in Canada and the United States. She was born and raised in Haifa, Israel and has made Winnipeg her second home since 1981. Shalev- Minuk has been involved in Jewish Community life ever since 1981, including Folklorama, teaching Israeli Folk Dancing, and working and volunteering for Israeli Bonds and many different organizations. She currently has a studio in the Exchange District of Winnipeg.

“Growing up in a very traditional Jewish home, my work is an extension of my personality, emerging from my inner self, from my heart-felt belief and faith, it represents and reflects my passion for life— for love and happiness, for energy and spirituality —the essence of existence.”

Sharing my art is an important part of being an artist. I have been donating my art to different organizations to help with their fundraisers, such as Canadian Cancer Society, Canadian Diabetes Association and Rady Jewish Community Center, Sports Dinner, Winnipeg, MB. Influenced by her Israeli background and tradition, Shalev-Minuk’s dynamic paintings are vibrant and vivid visual renderings of sound, motion, and emotion transformed into shape and colour by her creative imagining. She has studied the work of modernist painters such as Mark Rothko and Wassily Kandinsky to learn more about their painting styles, moving from representational work to abstraction as her inspiration takes her. Colour, shape, process and inspiration are important parts of her working method. The works of art are informed by her love of life, her passion for art making, music, and dance. While the artist has a broad range of expression working in acrylic, oil, collage, digital photography, and mixed media, the small selection of her work in Art at the Zedek 2.0 highlights her figurative work with Jewish themes in paint. Shalev-Minuk also works with digital imagery- her Mezuzah is an example of this area of her practice.

Shalev-Minuk’s studio is a riot of colour. Her energy and enthusiasm is matched by her painting. The strong undercurrent of abstraction in her painting style is underscored here by pairing the figurative works with her abstract work. It is this latter that shows the vibrant expressionistic tendency in her art making. Shalev-Minuk notes that many Israeli and Jewish artists have been influential on her way of painting, including Marc Chagall, Yossi Stern, David Schluss and others.

Shalev-Minuk currently has an exhibition on at the Wayne Arthur Gallery in Saint Boniface.

List of Works in the Upper Lounge

Candles Lighting, oil on canvas, 24 x 30”, 2007

Woman with Pomegranate, oil on canvas, 21 x 25”, 2007

I Have a Dream, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24”, nd

Let the Sun Shine 1, acrylic on canvas, 22 x18”, nd

Let the Sun Shine 11, acrylic on canvas, 22 x18”, nd

Mezuzah, digital printed on archival paper, 20 x 20”, 2012

Clare Whiteman It’s late as I sit here trying to write something meaningful that will give you, the reader, an insight of what my art means to me and how art making and viewing connects me to my Jewishness. Here it goes: Art has filled my life for most of my life. The first piece I remember doing actually won a prize. It was entitled, Spring Has Sprung.

Quite creative for a 12 year old to come up with that one, don’t you think? From there I took art classes in every grade, in every school, in every province or state we ever lived - and there have been a few. Art was one of the few permanent things in my life.

When I was older, I took classes with the famous Nikola Bjelajac at the Art Forum, in the late 60s, which was situated in the School for the Deaf off Shaftesbury Boulevard. When I was in my early 20s I was lucky enough to score a coveted position at the newly opened Winnipeg Art Gallery as Assistant Curator. I worked with artists and hung shows and attended openings and was swept away by the magic and wonder of it. All the while, I was still making art with ink, pencil, felt pens, acrylic, graphite - anything that would make a mark.

One day, while living in Houston I decided to look for a cooking class in the latest adult learning magazine. My search was interrupted by a phone call. When I resumed my reading, I looked at the opened page and saw an ad for a painting class. I called without thinking twice. I realized soon thereafter after that it was a miracle, for it was a pathway to five glorious years of oil painting classes with Russian Master Efim Frumin my teacher and mentor, (may he rest in peace).

All that said, it was when I discovered the Northern Canadian Shield that I fell deeply and hopelessly in love with Nature. Its splendour and beauty took my breath away.

Its challenges are also technical - capturing the light, colour, air and dense brush of the continuously changing environment. The experience of being on the Canadian Shield with its rocks, lake, air trees and skies (a landscape that also inspired the Canadian Group of Seven) has become my sanctuary. It is where I am humbled and feel truly blessed. It’s where I pray. I paint it because it touches my soul.

List of Works in the Foyer All works are acrylic on canvas, various sizes, 2010-2016.

All works are 11” x 14” framed.

Congregation Shaarey Zedek 561 Wellington Crescent Winnipeg, Canada 204 452 3711 Hello@SZWinnipeg.ca www.SZWinnipeg.ca

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