![[Untitled] (5)_edited_edited.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/40a3fc_1011f0776370499882fcd8908cfb75e5~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_272,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/40a3fc_1011f0776370499882fcd8908cfb75e5~mv2.jpg)
Abstract + Handlettering
For the first 30 years of my life, I lived in the American Midwest. That meant that 50% of the year, the sky was overcast, the trees were leafless, and the ground was frozen. For half of the year, the only colors were brown trees, grey snow-clouds, and white piles of melting snow.
​
And then - I moved to Israel. And I started traveling internationally. And suddenly my life was an explosion of color: the bright teal waves in Haifa Bay, the rich red dirt in the Ngorogoro crater of Tanzania, the oversized green leaves of the Coco de Mer palm trees in Seychelles. Each place had its own color profile - and I became *obsessed* with it.
​
This collection - created with water lovingly gathered from oceans, bays, and rivers all over the world - is my celebration of those colors and locations I'm so lucky to see with own eyes.
The Colors of Aqaba
Back in the summer of 2020, Ido, myself and some friends of ours managed to squeeze in a long weekend together (between Covid lockdowns) in the vacation city of Eilat at the southern tip of Israel.
​
It's the first time I got to see the Red Sea - the one that Moses so famously parted in the flight from Egypt. And I was captivated by the vivid tropical colors.
​
Honestly, when I pictured Moses parting the seas - I didn't picture the waves being a flourescently-bright tropical teal, and ringed with beaches of palm trees! (Painted with the saltwater from the Gulf of Aqaba / The Red Sea)
Mediterranean Shells
When I first moved to Israel in the summer of 2019, I attended a Hebrew school for new immigrants called an "ulpan", located right on the beach of Haifa Bay - a part of the Mediterranean Sea.
​
I would often walk barefoot in the surf to recover after a day full of lessons (learning a new language from scratch in your 30s is no joke). And usually end up scooping up a jar of saltwater from the bay and a handful of shells, sit on the beachside bike side, and use both to paint.
The Colors of Timna Park
_edited.jpg)
I grew up in a cold wet city where 140 days a year (nearly 50% of the year) rain or snow falls from the sky.
​
And then I moved to a country that has a climate that straddles the line between Mediterranean and Middle Eastern. Which means, between April and October, there are cloudless skies and zero rain. This was a HUGE adjustment for me.
​
But I have fallen in love with the alien new desert vistas and colors here. Back in the summer of 2020, we woke up at 3:30 in the morning for a pre-dawn hike in Timna Park in southern Israel, and it was something special to watch the stars fade and the sun come up over those desert mountains.
​
(Painted with the saltwater from the Gulf of Aqaba / The Red Sea)
The Colors of
The Sea of Galilee
I grew up in a Baptist church, hearing all the stories you've heard, too, from the Old and New Testaments. So, of course, the account of Jesus walking on water on the Sea of Galilee was at the forefront of my mind when I caught my first glimpse of it on my first trip to Israel in 2018.
​
Since then, I have visited and swum in these waters many times (it's a popular weekend getaway here in Israel). I even saw it from the Jordan side in 2022, during one of my trips with Ido when we hiked Petra.
​
And even after years of living here, I have to admit that being there still carries a touch of that otherworldliness to me.
(Painted with fresh water from the Sea of Galilee)
![[Untitled] (6)_edited_edited.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/40a3fc_3e596959941e4db8820c62ef7e8e01d8~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_470,h_346,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/%5BUntitled%5D%20(6)_edited_edited.jpg)
![[Untitled] (1).jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/40a3fc_70cee0347dc84381b7fd789793d79dee~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_338,h_480,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/%5BUntitled%5D%20(1).jpg)
Three Waters of Israel
I moved to Israel in the summer of 2019 - and since then, I have traveled this tiny country from the mountains up north to the southernmost point of the Negev desert on the Red Sea.
And, just like any other country, it's impossible to take a single snapshot (or a single color profile) and say "This is Israel". The lush forests on the Carmel mountain in the north are vastly different from the bare desert mountains around Masada in the south.
​
So, everywhere I go, I always keep my eyes open - and carry a small empty water bottle. And at every beautiful place, I fill my eyes, I fill my bottle, and relish getting to know every angle of my new home.
​
That's why this piece has 3 different waters + 3 different color profiles - to create a more complete picture.