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Dec. 16, 2011
Complementary perspectives
Sid and David Akselrod’s artwork is being exhibited at the Zack.
OLGA LIVSHIN
When two artists share a show, there are often similarities in theme, attitude or life story. But the case of the father and son, Sid and David Akselrod, denies that tradition. Their shared show, Seeking Sanctuary in a Perilous World, which opened Dec. 8 at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, highlights the differing perspectives of the two artists, perspectives that simultaneously serve to complement each other, creating a seamless whole.
The beginnings of their respective artistic careers couldn’t be more different. Sid Akselrod, a Richmond art teacher, never wanted to be an artist. “They didn’t have art programs at Vancouver schools when I grew up,” he joked during the artists’ joint interview with the Independent. “I didn’t know what I wanted. After graduation, I went to UBC, took some eclectic courses, and then dropped out. I traveled around B.C., worked. When the Yom Kippur War started in Israel, I flew there. I wanted to help.”
In Israel, he lived on a kibbutz. “I had a roommate, and he was drawing all the time. He was an artist. I thought it was fun so I started drawing too,” he recalled. “People liked my drawings, so I thought I must be an artist too.”
Later, he attended art classes in New York – without actually enrolling. “I went with my friend who studied art there, in an art school,” he explained. “Nobody checked attendance.” He loved those art classes so much that he decided he would become a professional artist. He returned home and took classes at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. The next year, he enrolled at the University of British Columbia again, this time with a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve. He received a BA in 1976.
“Art has been my friend ever since,” he said. “I wanted to be a poor artist; [I] got a studio.” But life interfered with his “starving bohemian” aspirations. “I received a phone call from a friend in Israel. They were starting an art school in Eilat, and he offered me a teaching job. I never stopped teaching art after that.”
From 1980 to 1991, Sid Akselrod worked in Jerusalem at the International Cultural Centre for Youth as an art teacher and assistant director of the Art Mobile Unit, “an art school on wheels.” Since 1996, he has been an art teacher at the Steveston London Secondary School in Richmond.
Unlike his dad, David Akselrod has never taught art but has been drawing from childhood. “Since he could hold a pencil,” his father said of his son, who is also a professional musician. But music came into his life later, during his teenage years. “I started playing after I got a guitar as a bar mitzvah gift,” he recalled.
Receiving a BA from Emily Carr, now Emily Carr University, in 2007, David Akselrod has been juggling music and visual arts since. “Music influences my art,” he said, his paintings on the gallery walls confirming his assertion. Vibrant and full of color, they are suffused with music in all its incarnations. Guitars thrum in “Unplugged in the Cottage Deli.” Trumpets and other assorted brass trill and honk in “The Gathering.” Jews dance joyously in “Simcha in Overdrive.” And his ink drawings feel like a metaphor of pure music, doodled melodies and visual rhythm.
While the link between his two creative forces – music and visual arts – is clear and inextricable, the interconnections between his father’s teaching and his art are more nuanced. “Teaching influences everything I do,” said the elder Akselrod. “I’m a teacher first, an artist second…. You don’t turn something like art off if you’re an artist, but making art takes time and energy. Teaching art takes lots of creative energy too, almost like making art. When I’m teaching, I’m as many artists as there are students in my class.”
Akselrod’s dedication to teaching has been rewarded. In 2010, he received an award of the Richmond City Council as the Top Art Educator. In 2011, the city council presented him with the U-Roc Award as an Asset Champion for his work with youth. But his most cherished award, he said, are his students’ creations. The walls of his school are nearly invisible underneath the paintings and drawings created by his students.
Most of Sid Akselrod’s artworks are done in the mixed media technique. He uses photos, painting and textured paper in his collages. “My camera is my sketchbook, my memory. I don’t go anywhere without it,” he said.
What his camera has recorded, he enhances and elaborates on in his images. His pictures reflect his contemplations on a number of complex questions, for example, What does it mean to be Jewish? His “Coexistence” provides a possible answer: “Everything in Israel is a mish-mash; everything belongs and everything doesn’t.” Another painting, “Teach Your Children Well,” speculates about what we teach our children and how well they are educated.
The subtle color schemes underline the depth of soul searching in many of his works. Their misty quality is a protection, a sanctuary the artist strives for in this perilous world of wars and fears.
The theme of seeking sanctuary is transparent in the father’s art, where the viewer is invited inside, into safety. The son’s art treats the theme differently. His sanctuary is obviously in his music and his brilliant imagery. But, in the end, both artists find sanctuary in their art, uniting father and son.
Seeking Sanctuary in a Perilous World is at the Zack Gallery until Jan. 8.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
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