{"id":28085,"date":"2018-03-09T03:56:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T11:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=28085"},"modified":"2018-03-07T17:21:39","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T01:21:39","slug":"combining-love-of-music-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/03\/09\/combining-love-of-music-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Combining love of music, art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ava Lee Millman Fisher at the opening of her solo exhibit, I See Music, on March 1. (photo by Olga Livshin)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The new solo exhibit by Ava Lee Millman Fisher, which opened at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery on March 1, seems eclectic at first glance. It includes landscapes and floral compositions, Judaica and symbolism. But all the paintings are united by the theme and name of the show: I See Music. That\u2019s how the artist perceives the world around her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see music and I hear colours,\u201d said Millman Fisher in an interview with the Independent<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s what my art is all about. I have synesthesia.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a dictionary, \u201cSynesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every one of Millman Fisher\u2019s images includes musical notations, and the compositions\u2019 colours flow like notes in a symphony. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved both music and art, since I was a child,\u201d said the artist. \u201cI had trouble choosing what I wanted to do professionally, until life interfered. After high school, I won a vocal scholarship to McGill University. But I never stopped painting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millman Fisher specialized in classical opera and lieder (songs for solo voice, with piano). She sang a lot and taught music for awhile. Later, she went back to school to become a licensed music therapist. Throughout her entire career in music and mental health, she painted. \u201cI love painting,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is my visual voice. I often think in musical terms when I paint.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has been fortunate as a commercial artist. \u201cI started selling my works when still at university,\u201d she said. \u201cFriends saw my paintings. They liked them. Someone wanted to buy. The word-of-mouth spread.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the beginning, Millman Fisher has painted in watercolours and created works with Jewish themes and images. \u201cMy paintings could be subdivided into two categories,\u201d she said, \u201cboth well-represented in this show: secular art and Judaica. My Judaic pieces are very important to me. Unfortunately, there are not many places in Vancouver to showcase them. On the other hand, people from all over the world buy them. I have a Facebook page, and it helps a lot with promotion. By now, my Judaica paintings have found homes in Canada, Israel, the United States. Imagine: they want to buy my paintings in Israel, despite there being such a wide selection [of Jewish-themed work] inside the country. And, of course, I\u2019m willing to ship anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millman Fisher recently sold a large Judaic painting to a client in New York. She couldn\u2019t hide her joy as she told the story. \u201cThat lady from New York has been following my Facebook page for years,\u201d explained Millman Fisher. \u201cShe said she loved my art but had no space in her home. When she moved to a larger home, she bought one of my paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
The Zack Gallery show includes Ava Lee Millman Fisher\u2019s piece \u201cLibretto of the Lilies.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Millman Fisher doesn\u2019t only sell her art. \u201cI\u2019m always happy to share, to give them away,\u201d she said. \u201cI like donating my paintings to Jewish causes and organizations. Some of my pieces hang in Vancouver Talmud Torah and in the Louis Brier Home.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of her most interesting Judaic pieces in the show is a large painting called \u201cMiriam,\u201d which also has a long subtitle. Its visual structure is no less complex. \u201cI needed to tell Miriam\u2019s story,\u201d Millman Fisher said. \u201cShe was the first music therapist in history. She always brought her tambourine to the gatherings and employed music to calm people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artist pointed to a dense flock of birds framing the painting. \u201cEach bird is individually made from rice paper, cut and glued to the painting,\u201d she explained. \u201cThere are dozens of them, and they are all different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The musical snippets written inside each bird are also different but, together, they could be built into a song of Miriam. The painting is representative of Millman Fisher\u2019s mixed media work.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally, I painted in watercolours,\u201d she said. \u201cI still do and I love watercolours, but, about 15 years ago, I began experimenting with mixed media. At first, I saw the technique in other artists\u2019 works and liked it. They would put anything into their paintings: coins, fabrics, souvenirs. Then I became a friend with a Jewish lady from Iraq. She passed away some time ago but, before that, we were good friends for years. When she escaped Iraq, she brought some golden chains with her, concealed in her clothing. She gave them to me and urged me to include them in my paintings. That was the first mixed media I did. Those paintings are almost all sold by now, and the chains practically gone. I have only a few fragments left. I used some of them in the \u2018Miriam\u2019 painting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millman Fisher creates her mixed media on wood panels, and the works consist of many layers and involve a number of materials, including crystals and rice paper, metal and ribbons. \u201cSometimes, I cover the paintings with lacquer to make them shiny, but it doesn\u2019t always work,\u201d she said. \u201cI would have an idea when I start a piece, but then it might change as I keep painting. The images have a life and will of their own. They often depend on the music I listen to when I paint. The pieces dictate, and I follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like everything else she does, Millman Fisher signs her name in a unique way. Her signature is her first name, Ava Lee, followed by a treble clef below. \u201cMy favourite moment is when I finish a painting and sign my name,\u201d she joked. \u201cThe treble clef denotes my connection to music. It shows my double nature: a musician and an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

I See Music is on display at the Zack until April 7, and there is an exhibit-inspired poetry night on March 15 at the gallery. For more information on Millman Fisher\u2019s art, check out her website, creatavalee.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Ava Lee Millman Fisher at the opening of her solo exhibit, I See Music, on March 1. (photo by Olga Livshin) The new solo exhibit by Ava Lee Millman Fisher, which opened at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery on March 1, seems eclectic at first glance. It includes landscapes and floral compositions, Judaica and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[6823,7928,6691,40],"class_list":["post-28085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visual-arts","tag-judaica","tag-millman-fisher","tag-painting","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\/28085","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=28085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}