In the movie Words and Pictures, the literature teacher, played by Clive Owen, starts a “war” with the art teacher, played by Juliette Binoche, in order to excite their students (and each other) about their respective subjects. At the beginning of her first class, the art teacher says to her students:

“The trouble is in the words. Don’t trust the words. The words are lies, the words are traps. We’re gonna look, we’re gonna feel, we’re gonna see, we’re gonna learn, until you can show me what fine art is”.

I have always loved both words and art, and indeed, sometimes they waged a kind of war over my time, my attention, my passion. This has been going on ever since I was a child in a Kibbutz in Israel. But really, why should one choose? When I came to the US with my American husband, looking for a way to make a living and express myself, I tried to make peace, and even love, between words and art. I used calligraphy to write my favorite excerpts, poems, quotes, and verses, and I used colors, patterns, and various, changing styles to illuminate them.

I started making illuminated manuscripts, especially ketubot – Jewish marriage contracts (which you can see in my other website www.ketubotbynaomi.com ) – in 1983. At that time, I had a B.A. in comparative literature from Tel Aviv University, but no art education whatsoever, so I took some calligraphy courses and a few art workshops, I asked questions in art stores, and worked constantly, using mostly gouache paints on paper or parchment. My main sources of influence have been old European manuscripts and Persian miniatures. Whenever I had doubts about anything, I remembered what I read in a book about Persian miniatures, where the author had pointed out the pleasure and delight the artists took in painting blossoming trees and bubbling fountains, using the brightest colors, made from lapis lazuli, jade, gold, crimson, and the most harmonious, intricate geometrical patterns and images. That made me relax and put the emphasis on taking pleasure and delight in what I was doing.

The modern printing technique called giclee reproduces my work in a most faithful and vivid way. The colors you see on the screen are as vibrant and intense on the printed page, and they last for over 85 years without fading.

I have participated in group shows at the San Francisco Jewish Library, the Judah Magnes Museum, the Platt Gallery at the University of Judaism, the Jewish Museum, San Francisco and others. My work has appeared in the Calligraphy Review competition issues 1988-1991 and 1998 and in various books about ketubahs and Judaica. I have completed over 300 private commissions for clients across the US. My commercial clients include the Marcel Schurman Card Company, The Jewish Museum San Francisco, and Chronicle Books.

Born in Kibbutz Maagan Michael in Israel, I came to the US with my American husband and two daughters in 1979 and we now live in Oakland, California.