mini Paper art reliefs | the way home series | 2020

The Way Home series | mini paper art reliefs | 2020

Wanderlust is in my genes. At least four generations of my family have dotted the world map – some free to travel or relocate as they wished, the unfortunate forced away by colonization and world wars. With my freedom, I wandered far from my native Netherlands, returned between trips, and for now, built my home in Israel.  

Naturally, the wanderlust genetic heritage passed to me from my ancestors was my way of connecting, enriching myself, and adopting my new Israeli habitat: history, nature, people, culture, and values. I left my footprints in soils from rural to urban, faded paths to new roads, desert sands to muddy streams.

The Way Home series is a diary of these walks. It abstracts my encounters with new colors, the desert, ruins, rock formations, streams, valleys, and new horizons so hugely different from the Dutch landscape I was born in.

Fresh insights that I gained from looking more critically and deeply at nature during these journeys stimulated personal reflections on my relocation process. Each newly discovered earth skin mirrored my layers of assimilation and absorption into Israeli society, inspiring themes of up-rooting, re-rooting, germination, blooming & decay in my paper art.

On every journey I take, the only way through is forward; no matter how challenging or difficult, it ends with my findings and my way home.

Inquiries to purchasing these paper art reliefs, contact the artist. Part of this series is specially made for the Eretz Israel Museum shop, Tel-Aviv, during the Craft & Design TLV Biennale 2020, while my Protective Blanket is being presented at the Rothshield Hall of the museum. 

Image courtesy: Marcus & Fraiman