קוצים / Kotzim
The choice to live in the north of Israel is a choice to live on the edge – on the border line between one identity and another, in a charged space where the simmering Middle Eastern reality constantly shifts and transforms.
The decision to create art in the north also arises from a life lived on the margins. It carries a kind of raw directness – a personal experience that is unapologetic, exposed, and authentic.
Shaul Tchernichovsky wrote: “A person is nothing but the image of his homeland’s landscape,” turning the bond between human and nature into a founding myth of Israeli culture. In the Upper Galilee, where I live and create, this connection is felt in every aspect of daily life – economic, security-related, political, and cultural. Here, nature is not merely a setting, but a central character in the story of life.
For me, the north is a place where everything happens outdoors – the light, the weather, the contours of the landscape, and the thorns. The natural, unpolished atmosphere of the place seeps into my work and becomes its foundation. There is a constant tension here between softness and cruelty, between the aesthetics of nature and the hardships of existence.
The thorns I paint reflect, for me, the essence of this place: simplicity alongside rugged beauty, endurance amid changing conditions, strength intertwined with pain. They symbolize my experience – both personal and collective – within the physical, social, and emotional landscape in which I live.
In this sense, nature is a self-portrait. Through the thorns, I express the encounter between the inner and the outer, between person and place, between beauty and struggle
