Tower of Tzur
Acrylic and pastel on paper, triptych, 3.69 × 3 meters, 2024

Stories, legends and myths have always fascinated me. From biblical stories to fantasy plots and Disney films, they inspire my work and raise questions for me about reality and imagination, truth and fiction. As a child, I loved inventing stories and drawing scenes from my imagined world. In colors and sounds, I made my imagination real, as though it were alive within a dream. This passion for creation still accompanies me and guides me on my artistic journey.

The painting Tower of Tzur touches on the idea of transcendence and is divided into three parts that invite the viewer on an inner journey, as if within a dream in which the boundaries between dimensions stretch and separate. This dream, shifting between the search for something sublime and the mystery within it, presents a reality on the verge of awakening: moments when it is unclear whether they are real or part of the imagination.

On the right-hand side of the painting is Tower of Tzur, a tall, sublime tower standing on an isolated mountain. The tower is lit by a dreamlike light, inaccessible, and symbolizes the human aspiration to touch something higher and divine, but also the sense of a barrier. The name "Tzur" sometimes appears as a name for the divine, a cornerstone or a rock of wisdom, bringing out the contrast between the human desire to reach this place and the sense of impossibility. In dreams, we are always striving to reach unattainable places, and the illuminated window in the tower symbolizes the desire to reach "the good," or the light beyond our grasp.

The middle part of the painting shows a sea, an infinite space separating the dimensions. This sea, as in a dream, is both a path and an obstacle: a connection between worlds and the force that drives the journey. The sea symbolizes infinity, flowing like a stream, bursting forth in a waterfall, and holding both calm and storm within it. It is like an infinite space of time: connection and distance at once. Water is the central challenge that leads the figures to set out on their journey, and it also reflects the fears and inspiration I experience. Sometimes I feel that I have already drowned in this sea before, even if only in a dream. That feeling remains imprinted within me, as though I had truly experienced it.

On the left-hand side, the figures face the choice of whether to try to reach the sublime tower. As in dreams, this search is not always clearly good or bad: whether they are reaching a place they are forbidden to approach, or whether this is a moment of illumination and deep discovery. This tension, whether the journey is liberation or danger, creates the painting's central dynamic.

The figures in the painting look like shadows, without a defined identity or a place in time or space. They exist in darkness and oblivion, part of a story that erases and preserves at the same time. These figures are born from loss or mystery, carrying personal voices and distant myths. They move between worlds, in the bardo, like dim memories on the verge of disappearing, yet still whispering a story that cannot be fully grasped.