“The painting for me is a form of liberation, when I put the color on the canvas I let go and then from this place allow myself to look inside of me and receive every day the beauty and love that are in everything around.”
Noemi Safir is an artist in Tel Aviv who has a flair for painting. Her paintings are world renowned, and have been displayed in art galleries all around the world. Her art is also going to be featured in a Paris exhibition soon! This is what she had to say when we asked her some questions-
Have you always known you wanted to be an artist? What ignited the spark in you to choose this career?
I discovered painting very early in my childhood. I used to sketch portraits of family and friends all the time. I somehow knew that this is to be my way. The influential people in my life thought otherwise and dismissed my dreams and desires so I turned unwillingly to other more conventional ways. It took me quite some time to discover my art back and truly believe and know that paint is really my greatest passion.
I always wanted to fulfill my ‘artistic being’ but at some point, early in life, it seemed like a dream that cannot be realized so I learned other things through university and other high studies. I spent about 20 years developing other careers, in which I felt empty and incomplete until I actually woke up and wasn’t willing anymore to give it up. When the passion woke up again there was no way back for me. It felt so strong that I just had to leave everything behind and start new with great passion, love and knowing that this is my path.
Tel Aviv is a lot like New York City- very fast paced and always evolving. What it is like working in such an environment?
I am a lot like Tel-Aviv. My mind and thoughts are running and evolving all the time and I like to keep the paste also in the manifestation phase, at least as it concerns to my ‘art life’. I live out of excitement and opportunities and create my life around what I create in my art, or maybe the other way round. I have to say although that since I fully devoted my life to my art I am keeping sacred times of tranquility and mindfulness.
You’ve done several exhibitions around the world! What do you think has led up to these events?
I am always looking ahead in my mind and dreaming. I don’t really plan things specifically but I keep my focus on my desires. I move instinctively and let the right things for me to happen. I think that every phase I lived during my life has and is leading me.
Why do you like using acrylic painting as opposed to any other method of art?
In continue to the comparison to Tel-Aviv and New-York, also the Acrylic colors are fast. In this case I use their fast drying attribute to play, change and evolve in the painting.
How would you describe your style? What is your inspiration for your paintings?
Around 4-5 years ago when I felt the breakthrough it seemed like I was breaking the existing habits and believes I lived so far and reconstructing in new ways my new life. I decided I am taking it also to my painting. I started ‘breaking’ the subjects I was painting, city views and faces, from their realistic view and reconstructing them again with my new interpretation. The way I use the colors in my paintings and the way I reconstruct the scene, whether it is a portrait or a city view comes to describe and identify the beauty that exists here and now in everything that surrounds us if we allow ourselves to experience it and feel it and put it into our lives. The brush strokes and colors are for me a language of emotions that allows me to pass on the joy of life, beauty, peace, power and the creation of something new. The painting for me is a form of liberation, when I put the color on the canvas I let go and then from this place allow myself to look inside of me and receive every day the beauty and love that are in everything around. Each color on my canvas, like any other person, is a whole world. It is full of power, so I choose to give it its autonomous place. The characters that I paint are based, in most cases, on an anonymous faces that, during the process of work, receive parts of identity that come from me, from my life, experiences, from the emotions that arise.At the same time I like to leave room for the viewer to invent or connect to his story, his dreams. The decomposition and reassembly of the painted image, the game of the stains that force me to go back and forth all the time, are like the creation of life, the creation of reality. We choose to go through experiences that teach us more, focus and improve and then choose and experience again and again.
You have a new Paris exhibition coming soon! What has the preparation for that been like?
Well, from the moment I decided on this exhibition I actually closed myself in my very intimate world of creation and painted for long days and long nights. I take breaks for my silent moments which give me inspiration and continue to paint. This exhibition is continuing my last exhibition which presented my large scale women portraits. These women portraits are telling my story and revealing my evolution as a person, as a woman and as an artist. Every exhibition I do is exciting and empowering and gives me a lot of energy to continue on. Every exhibition gives me the opportunity to connect to more people, create a dialogue and touch people’s heart.
Where do you see your art headed in the future?
There is always more. There are always new dreams evolving as I go throughout this wonderful path. From today point of view I want to reach more people all over the world, I want to explore new cultures and move it to the canvas. I want to investigate more with color, textures and subjects. I want to expand my art to many other formats. I want to elevate others with my art, with my passion and with my story. It makes me very happy and very alive.
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