{"id":42658,"date":"2023-11-10T01:37:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T09:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=42658"},"modified":"2023-11-09T15:20:27","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T23:20:27","slug":"culture-crawl-starts-nov-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2023\/11\/10\/culture-crawl-starts-nov-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture Crawl starts Nov. 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suzy Birstein is one of the many Jewish community artists taking part in this year\u2019s Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival, which runs Nov. 16-19. <\/em>(photo by Britt Kwasney)<\/em><\/p>\n

The 27th annual Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival takes place Nov. 16-19 and features almost 450 artists, including many from the Jewish community. Among the community members opening their studios to visitors are Suzy Birstein, Olga Campbell, Hope Forstenzer, penny eisenberg, Robert Friedman, Lori Goldberg, Lynna Goldhar Smith, Ideet Sharon, Stacey Lederman, Shevy Levy, Lauren Morris and Esther Rausenberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the public to dive back into the Culture Crawl this fall to experience and be inspired by our artists\u2019 growth and discovery. [The pandemic] has been a time of change for many of us and I believe art is a conduit for moving forward together,\u201d says Rausenberg in the event\u2019s press release. Rausenberg is a photo artist, as well as artistic and executive director of the Eastside Arts Society, which puts on the Crawl.<\/p>\n

The Independent<\/em> spoke with a few of the participating Jewish artists about what visitors to their studios can expect to see, and whether creativity is a place of refuge or if it is harder for them to create in times of conflict, including but not limited to the Israel-Hamas war and the war between Ukraine and Russia.<\/p>\n

Visitors to Birstein\u2019s studio will see her \u201cfigures from fired clay infused with aged and lustred surfaces, which inspire paintings in oil, cold wax and collage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artist is currently working on two series, which will merge into the solo retrospective at Il Museo Gallery, curated by Dr. Angela Clarke for 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth series evoke my art\/travel adventures to Europe, Mexico and Cambodia,\u201d said Birstein.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Ladies-Not-Waiting\u2019 reference the gazed-upon women by old master painters \u2013 Velasquez, Fouquet and Manet \u2013 alongside self-portraits painted by masterful female artists, Frida Kahlo, Leonora Carrington and Leonor Fini,\u201d she said, while Tsipora<\/em> (her Hebrew name, meaning Bird) is a series of loose self-portraits, which \u201cembrace an exotic earthiness living within my poetic imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both bodies of work, she said, \u201cspeak to nesting and transcendence, the mirror and reflection and celebrate the individual and universal.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Birstein, in times of conflict, \u201cbe it COVID, warfare, personal challenges \u2013 the only thing that centres me, coming directly from within me, is the creative refuge of my studio and making art. As I say this, I must stress that the love and compassion I feel for and receive from my family, friends, students and peers is the other half of that equation. I can\u2019t imagine one without the other and I am extremely grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friedman describes himself as \u201ca muralist-styled stained glass artist.\u201d He has worked in stained glass for more than 40 years and has recently added a blown glass dimension to his work, according to his website, which is also a recent addition.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy studio is a great place and haven for creative thought and output,\u201d he told the Independent<\/em>. \u201c[T]hese troubled times just [add] more impetus\u00a0for me to have it reflected even more so in\u00a0my artwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldberg also finds herself more driven.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy work is about vitality, life, vibration forging connections and bringing two opposing energies together as a way to find potential for resolution,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a responsibility as an artist to respond. I am more motivated. Expressing \u2018Heaven on Earth\u2019 is one way I respond to pain and suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldberg had a three-month residency on the North Shore, which she spent painting the forest \u2013 work that studio visitors will see.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was recently reading the book Speak for the Trees<\/em>\u00a0by Diana Beresford-Kroger about how the roots of the trees, the\u00a0mycelium\u00a0and plants and trees talk to each other,\u201d said Goldberg. \u201cBy painting in the forest, I learnt how to listen, experience the tranquility, vitality and interconnectedness of the forest and to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the spring, Goldhar Smith has been \u201ccreating\u00a0minimal colour-field style landscapes based on the idea of the shape of light and\u00a0the colour of shadows,\u201d she said. \u201cThe paintings are rendered in soft blues and pastels or deeper mysterious\u00a0tones and suggest\u00a0memories\u00a0of places real and imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

She acknowledged, \u201cThe conflict in Israel has, of course, been enormously upsetting and I find myself in despair for both sides of the conflict. My paintings do not yet reflect these emotions, but they will in coming months. I don\u2019t yet know what I will be painting\u00a0but I will be exploring more difficult terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Forstenzer \u2013 a glass artist and director of the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery \u2013 creativity can be a place of refuge, but also more challenging in times of conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking work when I\u2019m feeling the stress of all that\u2019s going on personally and globally is truly healing,\u201d she explained, \u201cbut when I\u2019m feeling overrun with those things, it can be a lot harder to fully concentrate at times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lately, Forstenzer has been making glass clocks, something she describes as \u201cincredibly fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can experiment\u00a0with colour and pattern in the glass, and I\u2019ve learned a lot about clockwork mechanisms, which is also an exciting thing to dive into \u2013 I\u2019ve been down many\u00a0rabbit holes online about clockmakers,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll have a bunch\u00a0of clocks on display and for sale at the Crawl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also have spent a lot of the last year generally playing with colour and pattern,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2019ve made vessels \u2013 vases, bowls, cups \u2013 that experiment with a particular colour or look or pattern or stripe in glass. Once I have a colour process in place, I often go on to use those colours, patterns and processes in sculptural pieces. Since I\u2019ve done so much experimenting this year, there will be a lot of pieces on display and for sale at the Crawl as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to opening their studios, Forstenzer and Birstein are part of the Crawl\u2019s juried exhibition, which has the theme \u201cOut of Control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when we start to celebrate our freedom from pandemic restrictions, it\u2019s an opportunity to reclaim experiences that were denied for so long, a chance to think outside of the box and just let go,\u201d says Rausenberg in the press release.<\/p>\n

The exhibition features the work of 80-plus Eastside artists and takes place at multiple venues: Alternative Creations Gallery and Strange Fellows Gallery (both until Nov. 19), the Pendulum Gallery (until Nov. 24) and the Cultch (until Nov. 25).<\/p>\n

For more information, visit culturecrawl.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suzy Birstein is one of the many Jewish community artists taking part in this year\u2019s Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival, which runs Nov. 16-19. (photo by Britt Kwasney) The 27th annual Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival takes place Nov. 16-19 and features almost 450 artists, including many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[21909,8862,19900,20391,5136,4635,1492,6691,9017,22743,1633],"class_list":["post-42658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visual-arts","tag-creativity","tag-david-friedman","tag-eastside-culture-crawl","tag-glass","tag-hope-forstenzer","tag-lori-goldberg","tag-lynna-goldhar-smith","tag-painting","tag-sculpture","tag-stained-glass","tag-suzy-birstein"],"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\/42658","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=42658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}