LIVNAT BASHARI JULI

LIVNAT BASHARI JULI

My work is based mainly on interpreting photographs, trying to portray them through my own eyes, using mostly oil paints. My creative process starts right at the stage of capturing or choosing the photograph, looking for something that will thrill, excite and evoke in me the deepest desire to express it in the painting. I work on each painting for several months, so the image I choose must be of great appeal to me.
While working, I try to let my heart and soul lead the way – I try to restrain the mind and sense from commanding the process.
When I paint, I find myself constantly occupied with feelings and contemplations about the images that I am painting.
Upon completion, I try to discover what ignited the desire in me to paint it, and why have I created it in that particular way. In my work I tread between the figurative and the abstract, between the desire and interest in portraying the image itself to my need for abstraction, which for me is an expression of the question marks, the imagination, and the numerous interpretations lie under each image.

I draw my inspiration from various sources, one of which is the landscapes and scenery of Israel, among them Jerusalem. The period I spent during my studies in Jerusalem made me fall in love with her. I lived in Nahlaot, a quiet and magical neighborhood, vivid, filled with lively narrow alleys, colorful laundry lines and fascinating people, altogether creating a most unique atmosphere that breathes life. I loved walking around the neighborhood’s alleyways, merely watching and capturing moments with my camera. To me Jerusalem has a special charm, it is vibrant, young, and colorful yet abstract, blended with a sense of holiness reflected through the millenniums old connection to the past and the history of the people of Israel. Nahlaot is quiet and peaceful yet located in the city center. Something in this neighborhood conquered me. The children playing in the alleys always reminded me of the verse from Zechariah about Jerusalem: “There shall be old men and women in the streets of Jerusalem … and the streets of the city shall be full of children playing in its street”.
My work is also deeply inspired by significant figures in my life. MY grandfather and grandmother, who immigrated to Israel from Yemen a few years after the state of Israel was founded, were people of the Torah and labour. They worked hard to support their family during a time when there was hardly any work in Israel, they strived to instill the Jewish tradition in their children, but above all, to me they are the ultimate symbol of decency and virtue.

The question of what leads me to choose the images I deal with arises every time anew, deepening and sharpening endlessly. Time, a resource so precious and elusive, each life experiences moments that encapsulate an entire world, a world that at times we overlook. In my paintings I try to capture these moments, enliven, amplify and sustain them, hold on to them and perhaps keep them alive just before they slip out of our grasp and disappear, sometimes being forgotten.
An old picture of my grandmother, with a joyful expression on her face, holding her granddaughter in her hands. A boy riding his bicycle in the alleys of Jerusalem. A girl from Gush Katif walking alone and holding onto a fence, as her home is being evacuated. A Thai boy hiding under a wooden table, cringing away from the crowding tourists as his mother reaches out to him. Moments in which each of us may find a whole world, a beautiful one, and at times, a sad one.

I studied art at Emunah College in Jerusalem, I then graduated with a master’s degree in Art Therapy. I am currently studying at “Hatachana” which is Aram Gershuni’s painting school in Tel Aviv.