The Animals of the Bible project is an exploration of the intricacies and complexities associated with the role animals play in the Old Testament, investigating linguistic and translation influences relating to how the meaning of animal references changed and evolved, over time and across cultures.
To watch a short version of the documentary: Animals of the Bible - The Making of a Painting Series, available on youtube click here.
Born and raised in Israel, having a great passion for painting animals, it was only natural for me to draw upon my cultural heritage and create the Animals of the Bible painting series.
Researching for this project, I traveled to Israel to photograph animals mentioned in the Bible and build an extensive image library for my paintings.
The more I delved into this subject, the more engaged I became, expanding on my
original scope. What began as a painting series quickly increased in scope and developed into the Animals of the Bible project which encompasses:
"And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel."
Genesis 24:64
Out of the 54 times camels are mentioned in the bible, 15 are in Genesis chapter 24. Woven into the beautiful courtship story of Rebekah and Isaac, the camels are a key motif in this story. They serve to advance the plot, and it is through them that we get to know the central characters.
From triptych
Oil on Wood Panels
"And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:"
Exodus 8:3
From polyptych of 6
18"x12" each
Oil on Wood Panels
"The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer,
and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois"
Deuteronomy 14:5
Fallow Deer is one of the most successful in the efforts made by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority, to breed and reintroduce animals mentioned in the bible back into the wild.
Beginning with a nucleus core of only 6 Fallow Deer in 1978, today their population exceeds several hundreds and their introduction to the wild is a success. The Fallow Dear now roam different parts of Israel.
On my visit to the Carmel Hai Bar wild life reserve I got a wonderful opportunity to see these majestic animals up close.
24"x48" each
Oil on Wood Panels
"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made."
Genesis 3:1
I believe in the strong statement of polyptychs. Here, heavy, thick impasto, uniformly modeled to imitate scales. The variety is formed by multiple curves and colors to create different individuals that together (over 20 paintings) create a flowing, colorful, ever-changing composition.
12"x12" each
Oil on Canvas
Acording to the Midrash (Hebrew interpretations and commentaries of the Bible) by Ben Sira, David's life was saved by a spider:
"When he (David) was hiding in a cave from king Saul the holy blessed one sent a spider that wove a web at the cave's entrance and closed it.
When Saul came and saw the woven web he said: surely no person came in here for had he come he would have ripped the web to sherds. And he went away and did not go in."
On the fifth day of creation God created the large
Taninim.
In Modern Hebrew, Taninim refers to crocodiles, so when planning for painting, I had crocodiles in mind.
But in the different English translations (Genesis 1:21) :
So God created the large sea creatures (World English Bible)
And God created the great sea-monsters (American Standard Version, English Revised Version)
And God made great sea-beasts (Bible in Basic English)
And God created great whales (King James Bible)
Historian Anat Peri explains the complexity associated with the word Tanin: To determine the original meaning of a word is to go back to the time it was written and understand what it referred to.
Through the centuries there have been changes in both the original Hebrew language and in the languages the Bible was translated to. This resulted with the word Tanin referring to different animals at different time periods in different languages.
Realizing the complexities and the evolution related to the meaning of the word Tanin, I chose to portray all these meanings in my paintings.
The ant is mentioned twice in the bible. Both mentions are in the book of Proverbs.
Considered Wisdom Literature, Proverbs gives guidance for moral life:
"Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise"
Proverbs 6:6
"Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer"
Proverbs 30:25
In my ant paintings, I portray the puzzling sense of constant changing movement
of individual ants along a long organized path that seem to have no beginning or end.
