MALLY ELBAZ ALMANDINE
“ALMANDINE” –
A natural mineral purple gem tends to Bordeaux. The building blocks of my creations are based on the almandine gems. The gems are stones, and in some Jewish traditions, stones are metaphor for a person’s distress. I hold a philosophical concept of how to deal with human distress. It seems that the stones that I played with as a child, stones that accounted a world of images, hold a double meaning now that they constitute the cornerstones to the images of my creativity. The creation of the painting itself consists of small pieces that are weaved into a kind of chain of small colored stones.
The image of these pieces of stones stands for the pieces of life that are twined into a whole. A whole lifetime. A lifetime that consists of numerous childhood experiences and memories that have had substantial influence on my mental being. On top of that, it seems that there is also the derivative of my forefathers in Yemen. My grandfather and my late father were engaged in the sewing and embroidery crafts in Sana’a. My father was a tailor who also knew the craft of making a sleeveless pullover from goats’ and sheep wool. He sewed them for the deputy of the king in Yemen. My late father also mastered the Yemenite traditional embroidery. Before he died, he’d taught me this craft.
My perception of the world is of the tapestry. That is, life according to this understanding, is made of little bits of happiness and joy that are juxtaposed to chaos, sadness, and pain that exist in the world and affect us all. Little bits of life experiences and childhood memories undergo idealization with time and are intertwined in our lives as adults. This emotional experience gains a significant form and shape from which I draw the imagery in my current work (small pieces of stones and embroidery made by my father).
MALLY ELBAZ ALMANDINE
Website: http://www.almandineart.com/
email: almandine55@gmail.com
