The Elegy of three suns (2022) 绘画 由 Elena Kotliarker

Modern Israeli art has the freedom to take the historical, spiritual, and symbolic elements of faith and blur them to create a visual reflection of what they mean to us. This was my goal in my latest work, The Elegy of Three Suns.

It is a piece I find very moving and personal. The images I chose to include in the composition represent something emotional to me as a woman and artist. Overall, I want this painting to feel like it treads the waters between dreams and reality- a place I feel familiar with and think is essential in modern Israeli art.

I express the idea of blurring two worlds in several ways. First, I blended the elements of sea and sky- water and air. The painting flows seamlessly from the shimmering aquamarine of the calm seas through a dark, wave-like burst and eventually into a textured grey of a stormy sky. This dramatic setting sits starkly against the ethereal calm of the featured beings in the center of the image.

Herons and mermaids come from different worlds- yet they exist together in modern Israeli art and symbolism. It strikes me that art can depict scenes that only dreams could conjure, yet still represent such real emotions and ideas. Herons are majestic animals of the sky, while mermaids are the wise mythical goddesses of the sea.

My chosen images are symbols of positivity, yet an elegy is a lament or a poem of mourning. The three suns represent stages of life and how things change with time. Modern Israeli art often reflects on changing tides and how life can shape but never break eternal spirituality- just as the passing hours change the sun’s appearance to us, but never its true form.
There is also something very feminine about this painting. Womenkind lives on the line between dreams and reality. Our bodies do incredible things that seem impossible, and our spirits soar above struggle and pain to find the beauty in life.

We can dream of new worlds or old worlds, or a different world- but the sun reminds us that reality remains. When I was creating this piece, I found it sad but inspirational to think about how all beings- in dreaming and reality- are governed by the steady, unchanging passing of the sun- the passing of time. Through calm seas and stormy skies, the three suns continue to come and go each day, and the elegy continues.

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