Moral Compass: Artists Respond to Crises

Temple Judea Museum exhibition January – March 2021

For me, over the years, the letters have been a pathway to creating.   It is as if they are doors which, when opened lead to different ways of seeing them and the spaces they create.  The areas around the letters are as important as the letters themselves in the composition, and actually create movement and a dynamic quality.  As I learned from my teacher, Franz Kline, every area of the canvas is of equal importance to the creation. The loading of the letterforms with design is something new for me, and I find it exciting and fulfilling.

For over forty years my work was known for the use of color and bold composition.

This year, after Rosh Hashanah, I began to create a series of paintings in black and white.  The decision to use only black and white was not a conscious one, and I have no reason except to believe that the effect on the world of the pandemic had become a place of little color and joy.  By the fourth painting and the arrival of vaccines and a feeling of optimism, I felt the need for color as we will again be carried “On Eagles Wings”

Mordechai Rosenstein

ON EAGLES WINGS

…I have borne you on eagle’s wings…

Exodus 19:4

LOVE

Love thy neighbor as thyself!

Leviticus 19:18

TIKKUN OLAM

Repair the world on an individual level: Lurianic Kabbalah