{"id":24565,"date":"2017-06-02T03:57:36","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T10:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=24565"},"modified":"2017-05-31T16:22:21","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T23:22:21","slug":"artworks-on-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/06\/02\/artworks-on-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"Artworks on healing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gail Dodek Wenner conceived the group exhibit Physician Heal Thyself … and Others, which is at Zack Gallery until June 25. (photo by Olga Livshin)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The new exhibition at Zack Gallery, Physician Heal Thyself … and Others, includes four artists, all of them local physicians near retiring or recently retired. Regular visitors to the gallery probably will be familiar with the work of two of them \u2013 Ian Penn and Carl Rothschild, who have exhibited at the gallery before \u2013 but maybe not that of Arturo Manes and Gail Dodek Wenner.<\/p>\n

Rothschild\u2019s contribution to the show is a selection of small, colourful paintings, which look like snapshots of his garden or a street around the corner. Each one is accompanied by a poem written by the artist. Together, they represent his impression of his home city and its healing potential.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
\u201cPreventative Medicine\u201d by Carl Rothschild. (photo by Olga Livshin)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Penn\u2019s part of the show is more dramatic. It includes a video and several photographed pages from his journal, where he documented the before and after of his complicated spinal surgery in 2016. His display fits the theme of the show almost too perfectly for comfort.<\/p>\n

Manes\u2019 paintings \u2013 his method of spiritual healing \u2013 are based on Roman Vishniac\u2019s book of black-and-white photographs, A Vanished World<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Shoah has been for me a defining event not only in Jewish history but human behaviour, which I\u2019m trying to come to grips with,\u201d Manes said in an email interview. \u201cBlack-and-white photographs in Vishniac\u2019s book impressed me greatly…. I used those images of my people prior to the Holocaust as a template for my paintings. By adding colour and a free rendering, I hoped to express the feelings the photographs have evoked.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Physician Heal Thyself is the first exhibit in which he has participated, although he has been painting since childhood. \u201cI\u2019m not an artist \u2013 I\u2019m a physician who paints. I was honoured to be invited by Dr. Gail Wenner to be a part of this show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dodek Wenner invited the other doctors to participate in the show, as well. It was she who came up with the theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always loved art, but I loved science, too,\u201d she told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cI chose medicine as my career, but art has always been my hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an artist, she is very versatile. At one point or another, she has tried various media: painting, ceramics, textiles, photography, Hebrew calligraphy. In practising medicine, however, she stayed true to one direction: mothers and babies. \u201cIn the past 26 years, I delivered 2,000 babies,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I made the decision to stop delivering. It\u2019s time for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the precursors of her decision was going back to school, to Emily Carr University. In 2009, she received a diploma in fine art technique.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
\u201cWeaver\u201d by Arturo Manes. (photo by Olga Livshin)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI took a class, Business of Art,\u201d she recalled. \u201cOne of the assignments was to pitch an idea for a show to an art gallery. I chose a theme: healing, what it means to be a doctor and what Judaism says about healing. I chose the Zack Gallery, and I decided to invite several Jewish physicians to participate. All for a school assignment. I didn\u2019t actually do it at that time. I did mention it to Yosef Wosk, who is a friend, and he said it was a great idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years later, Wosk reminded her of the idea, and she finally contacted Zack Gallery director Linda Lando. \u201cI pitched the idea to Linda in 2016,\u201d Dodek Wenner said. \u201cWe brainstormed it and came up with a few names of Jewish physicians who were artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the first step. The next step was to determine what she wanted to paint for the show. \u201cI needed to explore what healing meant to me,\u201d Dodek Wenner explained. \u201cPersonally, I always went to my parents\u2019 beach house when I needed to do some healing. So, I thought, what was it about the ocean that healed me?\u201d<\/p>\n

After some contemplation, she came up with four steps of healing. \u201cThe first one is the acknowledgement: yes, there is a problem. There is a fear, and a doctor has to acknowledge that fear in her patient. Next comes compassion, which leads to the doctor assuring her patient: I can help you. The third one is wisdom. Doctors have a huge body of knowledge. They study for many years, and they share their knowledge with the patient, use what they know for healing. Last is comfort. Comforting the patient is very important at every stage of the healing process.\u201d<\/p>\n

After formulating these concepts in her head, she explored what Judaism says about healing. \u201cI looked in the siddur<\/em>, the Jewish prayer book, and found all four of those concepts of healing, both body and soul, in the first couple pages,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She knew she was on the right track but wasn\u2019t sure how to showcase her ideas through art. \u201cI went to the beach house again, walked along the shore, and I knew,\u201d she said. \u201cThe ocean represents all four facets of healing, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her paintings, two distinct series of five paintings, are all different interpretations of the shoreline. The ocean is sometimes quiet, sometimes turbulent and the colours of the waves fluctuate from light blue to deep green. The foam, created with the use of medical gauze, plays in the sand among the shells. The shells are real, collected by the artist along the same beach she loves so much. \u201cI scooped them with a cup,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy paintings don\u2019t show one particular place,\u201d she added. \u201cThey are the essence of a shoreline. Each piece is different, but they all connect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Physician Heal Thyself opened on May 25 and continues until June 25.<\/p>\n

Olga Livshin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gail Dodek Wenner conceived the group exhibit Physician Heal Thyself … and Others, which is at Zack Gallery until June 25. (photo by Olga Livshin) The new exhibition at Zack Gallery, Physician Heal Thyself … and Others, includes four artists, all of them local physicians near retiring or recently retired. Regular visitors to the gallery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[2466,7106,7105,6315,6175,40],"class_list":["post-24565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visual-arts","tag-art","tag-arturo-manes","tag-gail-dodek-wenner","tag-healing","tag-medicine","tag-zack-gallery"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}