ART OF A LIFETIME
magazine
artists & designers who have a lifetime to share
A R T I S T S
Jenny Lustygier Painter
Yudit Roobicheck Jewelry
Design
Flora Jakob Painter
Moshe Aharon Sculptor
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ART OF A LIFETIME MAGAZINE is an open platform to experience and inspire art, and the art of living. WE INVITE YOU to share your stories, photos, videos or artwork with our readers.
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Jane Aharon, Managing Director of ART OF A LIFETIME
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A RETROSPECTIVE JENNY LUSTYGIER painter
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Jenny answered the door inviting me in, she tilted her head and smiled. Her eyes looked up with a shy flirtatiousness that must have been captivating when she was young. She was refined and spoke with a soft Belgian French accent. We both agreed that you don’t choose to be an artist, it chooses you. She led me into her studio to view her work. While looking at the portraits she had painted in the 60’s, I mentioned that it was as if I knew each person. They were alive and I wasn’t looking at a stranger. “ There is a point when someone is sitting for their portrait, and they forget that they are in front of you. They go off into their own private thoughts and it is then that you can capture who they really are.” I suggested that we create a retrospective of her work. The fallowing week she arranged the portraits from the sixties and a series of oil paintings from the seventies to be photographed for her exhibition. Her work from the seventies expressed intimate and internal emotion. “ I didn’t use models for these paintings. I would begin the painting’s composition but it could change as I worked on it. Some mornings I would awake to see my work from the day before and as I looked at the canvas, it had taken a new direction. Each painting emerged through an interplay of dreams and inspiration, between the canvas and myself. “
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I asked Jenny who the people were in her portraits. “ I studied under the painter Marcel Hastir, in Brussels, Belgium. The atelier was in an old building with sky lights. Some of the portraits were painted in Marcel’s atelier from models. The portrait of a young woman in orange, is Agnes. The very sophisticated looking young woman, was a Swiss girl who had come to Brussels to learn how to make violins. In the day Marcel taught painting and in the evening the chairs were rearranged and the room was turned into a performance hall for young artists in music and theater.
I saw Marcel on Belgium television a couple of years ago and he was over 100 years old. He was fighting to keep his home and atelier. It seems that real estate developers wanted the property.” From what Jenny had told me, I was curious about Marcel Hastir. When I got home I did some research. His atelier was a center for artistic and cultural activity, starting in 1935. When the Nazis‘ invaded Belgium, Marcel’s painting school became a cover for resistance activity and place where young people could gather to speak. After the war the atelier became well established as a cultural platform for young creative people in art, music, theater, literature and philosophy. Artists such as Jacques Brel, Barbara, Marcel Beiart, Lola Bobesco, Carlo Van Neste, and Narciso Yepes passed through its doors. Activists Lanza del Vasto, Father Dominique Pire , and Abbe Pierre spoke in open forums in Marcel's atelier. www.artofalifetime.com
The building was saved from developers and Marcel remained in his home and studio until his death on the 2nd of July 2011, he was 105 years old. Today the building is a historical monument and continues in the tradition established by Marcel Hastir, as a creative platform for art and culture. Learning about Marcel Hastir opened a window of understanding into Jenny. My visits with Jenny have always been lively and engaging on an artistic, intellectual, and philosophical level. As a student under Marcel Hastir, Jenny was surrounded by the things she loves, creativity and thought, on the highest level. At 83 she is a woman who is timeless.
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“ There is a point when someone is sitting for their portrait, and they forget that they are in front of you. They go off into their own private thoughts and it is then that you can capture who they really are.� Jenny Lustygier
Artist Jenny Lustygier Title Portrait of Agnes www.artofalifetime.com
P O R T R A I T U R E
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Artist Jenny Lustygiesr Title Swiss Girl Who Made Violins “ She had come from Switzerland to Brussels, to learn how to make violins. She worked as a model to earn extra money, in Marcel Hastir’s studio.” Jenny Lustygier, June, 2012
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Artist Jenny Lustygier Title She Was a Very Nice Girl “ She was the daughter of the building supervisor of the apartment building we lived in, in Brussels. She really was a very nice girl. “ Jenny Lustygier, July, 2012
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Artist Jenny Lustygier Title Girl in Blue Sweater
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Artist Jenny Lustygier Title Self Portrait - Biography I asked Jenny, “ What do you want to call this painting?” “ It’s a biography .” she replied. July, 2012
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Artist Jenny Lustygier Title A Secret and Sadness “ I didn’t use models for these paintings. I would begin the painting’s composition but it could change as I worked on it. Some mornings I would awake to see my work from the day before and as I looked at the canvas, it had taken a new direction. Each painting emerged through an interplay of dreams and inspiration, between the canvas and myself. “ Jenny Lustygier, July 2012
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D R E A M S & I N S P I R I T I O N www.artofalifetime.com
Artist Jenny Lustygier Title Young Man Playing a Flute for Two Women
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Artist Jenny Lustygier Title An Empty Cage
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Artist Jenny Lustygier Title Now He is Too Old
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Artist Jenny Lustygier Title A Conversation
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Artist Jenny Lustygier Title A Fan and Two suitors
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Artist Jenny Lustygier Title Lovers in Still Life
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On the road to Ezuz, Photo by: Jane Aharon www.artofalifetime.com
Yudit Roobicheck Jewelry Design
From Jerusalem to Ezuz Ezuz is considered one of the most remote villages in Israel. It sits near the Egyptian border on a hill looking across the desert. On a clear day you can see the mountains all the way to Jordan.
Yudit took me into her studio to show me her jewelry designs. I had never seen hand beaded jewelry at this level before. Each piece is unique. Her jewelry fuses her creative talents into intricate designs of form, color and texture. “ I like creating jewelry that is elaborate and colorful. I find modern designs are often too empty. I love the richness of antique jewelry and drawing upon the inspiration of Jewelry from different cultures. I have always painted and made sculptures. Jewelry design seemed to naturally fuse these talents together.
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“ The photo is of me and my family, in front of our hose in Katamon, Jerusalem. I am the little girl sitting on the stoop, third from the left. My father is the man with the glasses and my mother is the woman standing next to him.� Yudit Roobicheck
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“ My mother and father came from Hungary, before the war. Things were becoming very bad for Jews in Hungary and my parents knew that they must leave. They got onto a ship headed for Palestine, during the period of the British Mandate. It was a very dangerous time to try to enter Israel. The British were not allowing Jewish refugees into the country. When the ship arrived, it sat off the coast of Tel Aviv. The passengers waited for the right moment to try to enter the country, as the shoreline was being watched by the British. They knew that they ran the risk of being shot as they tried to swim ashore to Tel Aviv’s beach. On night they got into the water to swim to the shore. My mother placed my sister in a basket next to her, to hold her as she swam. My parents made it along with my sister. They moved to Jerusalem, first living in Mea Shearim and later in Mamilla. My mother was a chef and had a restaurant with her brother in Mamila. My father was in the cavalry, in the British Army. Jerusalem was really like a little village in those days. I still love Jerusalem and the special feeling of the city. When I grew up I moved to Kedron and later lived in Gederah. After my husband and I retired, we moved to Ezuz. It is a very unique life experience to live in the desert. The sunsets and changes in the desert seasons are amazing. It is a great place to live a creative life. “ www.artofalifetime.com
Moonlight in Ezuz Photo by Jane Aharon
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN “ I like creating jewelry that is elaborate and colorful. The designs come to me naturally. I find modern designs are often too empty. I love the richness of antique jewelry and drawing upon the inspiration of Jewelry from different cultures.”
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN
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YUDIT ROOBICHECK JEWELRY DESIGN
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Flora Jakob painter
Photo by: Jane Aharon
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Flora’s paintings have strength and vibrancy in color, form, and composition. She has succeeded in infusing traditional images of Judaism and Israel within a contemporary context . In her painting “Pomegranates”, the fruit is no longer passive. It posses the space of the canvas, as the richness and fullness of the Pomegranates reach out. The religious and historical symbolism of the fruit becomes significant in the present moment. Flora’s painting of Jerusalem, “ View from Nachlaot”, is innovative in her use of a monochrome color scheme, incorporating the style elements of a black and white photograph. “I created the painting from a snapshot I took of Nachlaot, from the top of the Ministry of Justice building, in Jerusalem. I wanted people to feel and experience Jerusalem as we live, work, and move in it today.” As we worked together choosing and photographing the paintings I began to understand the power and strength behind Flora’s work and in her life. This is a woman who bicycles in Jerusalem, something I wouldn’t dare to do, out of fear of Israeli drivers. After 6 hours sleep, because she was up late reading, she is ready to get to work photographing her paintings. www.artofalifetime.com
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She moves through the house in her robe and without makeup, effortlessly arranging the paintings to be photographed. I can’t help but think how great she looks and how engaged she is with life. Later while sitting in Flora’s garden we spoke about her life and her experience in the Holocaust. “ I forget everything around me when I am painting. Painting is a place that I go to and have the freedom to create something completely new in life. When I give lectures on my experience in the Holocaust it empowers my life and honors those who have perished.” Her garden is a tranquil oasis in the city. “Isn’t it beautiful now with the flowers in bloom?” she says while pruning the flowerbeds and pointing out the details of the blossoms. “ The garden and the birds often provide the inspiration for my paintings. I love watching the birds come to eat, nest and raise their families in the garden.” Our conversation slowly turns to the Holocaust, “ In 1940 the Czechoslovakian Nazis came to our home and took my grandmother and grandfather away. I never saw my grandfather or grandmother again, they were sent directly to Auschwitz and murdered. In 1943 we went into hiding in an underground bunker in the forest. We had no food and my father and I would take the bark from Birch trees to eat. I remember chewing the leather from my shoes, just to keep the hunger away. Other times I would fantasize about the wonderful cakes my mother used to bake, until the hunger pangs disappeared.” www.artofalifetime.com
“ One evening a man had parachuted into the woods and the Germans went to search for him. Unfortunately the Germans had brought dogs with them. The dogs smelled us and the other 120 people hiding in the bunker. We were all caught and sent to concentration camps. I was five years old. My mother, three brothers, and I were sent to Tereisienstadt Concentration Camp. My father was sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. It is a miracle that my mother, brothers and I survived, and my father returned from Buchenwald. ” “ How did you did you manage to go through so much and create a life that is so full and positive?” I asked. “ I think because of my grandfather,” she replied. “ I was one girl between three brothers. When my youngest brother was born he was very sick and my mother didn’t have time to give me attention. My grandfather saw this and took it upon himself to give me the love and affection that my mother couldn’t give me. He told me how special I was, how I could do anything and be anything I wanted to be. My mother had been an only child and I think that for my grandfather, it was his chance to have a little girl again. I was very fortunate to have had my grandfather, he was everything to me. When the Nazis took him away, I was devastated. As a child you do not understand such things nor can you ever forget what you have experienced. But the power of his love gave me hope, belief, and purpose to build my life.” www.artofalifetime.com
Flora’s Garden
Photo by: Jane Aharon
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Artist Flora Jakob Title Pomegranates In Flora’s painting “Pomegranates”, the fruit is no longer passive. It posses the space of the canvas, as the richness and fullness of the Pomegranates reach out. The religious and historical symbolism of the fruit becomes significant in the present moment.
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Artist Flora Jakob Title Eretz Yisrael
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Artist Flora Jakob Title The Hurva Synagogue, in the Old City of Jerusalem
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Artist Flora Jakob Title A Snapshot in Time
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Artist Flora Jakob Title View From Nachlaot
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“ I created the painting from a snapshot I took of Nachlaot, from the top of the Ministry of Justice building, in Jerusalem. I wanted people to feel and experience Jerusalem as we live, work, and move in it today.� Flora Jakob
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Artist Flora Jakob Title Circle of Life “ The garden and the birds often provide the inspiration for my paintings. I love watching the birds come to eat, nest, and raise their families in the garden. “ Flora Jakob
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Moshe Aharon Sculptor
“ I was born in 1948, in Baghdad, Iraq. Our family immigrated to Israel in 1950. Creating sculpture has always been my language for speaking and expressing what I see, think, and feel. As a small child, in a refugee camp, I would take clay from the ground and create small figures. In 1971 I moved to Amsterdam, Holland, to further my career. In 2004 I returned to Israel. I do not have a line in my creativity; the style and form that each sculpture, object, or piece of furniture I design, is defined by the elements that best convey the meaning and feeling of the piece. “ Moshe Aharon
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There are some people whose lives and creative talent can not be separated. Moshe Aharon is one of those rare people. When you walk into his studio you sense that he and his studio are one person. There is no separation.
When he first came to Israel, the most Important thing he brought were his chisels. Sitting in the chair with his heavy leather bag filled with his tools he said, “ What am I going to do here? � I immediately knew that we had to find him a work space and materials. Any material would do, but it had to be fast. Benzi took him to a dry riverbed where he knew there were good stones. Moshe came back pleased with two larges stones that they had found. Under the terrace he went to work sculpting. He was happy. When the lift arrived from Amsterdam, he set up his studio in a small room that had been built outside of the house, until the real studio was ready. Coming back to Israel was his dream of returning, not just to his country but to his first love of making sculpture.
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Moshe inside his studio
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T R A N S F O R M A T I O N O F B U D D H A
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L O O K I N G T O
T H E S K Y
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Amsterdam - two careers sculpture and fine art restoration “ When I moved to Amsterdam in 1971, I hadn’t planned on being an artist and working in fine art restoration but I had the abilities to do both. One of my first art exhibitions was with M. C. Escher. The irony was that the Yom Kippur war broke out at the same time as the exhibition's opening. Instead of attending the opening, I flew back to Israel to fight in the war.
Though I had the natural talent of an artist, the skill of working with chisels, I learned from a very old man in Tel Aviv. It was through him that I also learned how to make and restore furniture. He had a large atelier in Czarist Russia that made and restored the furniture for the Czar and the nobles of Russia. When the Russian revolution broke out he immigrated to Palestine, during the period of the British Mandate. He made furniture for King Abdullah I of Jordan, the great grandfather of King Abdullah II, the present king of Jordan. I went to work for him when I was 12 years old. You have to understand that Israel was very different then it is now, and many children went to work at a young age to help support their families. I was very fortunate to have met him, he was very strict and serious in the manner that he taught me. In many ways he was like a father to me, I worked with him until I went into the army at 18.�
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Moshe in his studio in Amsterdam
Photo by: Jane Aharon
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M o s h e A h a r o n F i n e A r t R e s t o r a t i o n
restoration of 18th century, English, terracotta sculpture www.artofalifetime.com
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M o s h e A h a r o n F i n e A r t R e s t o r a t i o n
restoration of 18th century, English, terracotta sculpture www.artofalifetime.com
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“This was a special commission piece for a woman in Israel. She asked for a unique candle holder, for the Shabbat candles.
I designed it in the form of a miniature 18th century table. Under the table is small bowl for an oil lamp. It is made of silver, wood, and copper. Everything is hand carved and formed � Moshe Aharon
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“ When we first came to Israel, my daughter Rachel was very sad. I went into the container to look at the materials I had brought from Amsterdam. I found some triplex and I made her this desk. It’s a reproduction of an English 18th century writing desk. I do not use nails in the construction of furniture, they split the wood. I use pin wood and rabbit glue instead. This is the old method of making furniture.
Rachel asked that the feet be made like shoes.” Moshe Aharon
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Woman in Her Fullness
S c u l p t o r m o s h e
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S c u l p t o r m o s h e
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S c u l p t o r m o s h e
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Birth
S c u l p t o r m o s h e a h a r o n
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S c u l p t o r m o s h e
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Relief Sculpture
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Zipporah Painting
Photo By: Jane Aharon
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