Oral Interview with Carla Stein for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Daniella Givon via remote Zoom call. Carla discusses how her uncle’s career as a professional painter and illustrator helped to mentor her in arts at a young age, alongside classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She discussed attending post-secondary for a diploma in Fine Art and a Masters degree in education, but working in journalism and counseling before becoming a professional artist. Carla explains how she retired from these professions to pursue art full time, which includes currently illustrating her own and others’ poetry. Carla speaks about the flexibility of her work, and allowing words on a page, or pieces to speak to and guide her through the process of their creation intuitively. She discusses how she is motivated to make art by issues that are important to her and the world around her, and highlights memories of her first art show and a prominent commission that she is proud of. Carla speaks about the importance of colour and composition in her work, and how never giving up is one of the most important pieces of wisdom she could offer.

Oral Interview with Hinda Avery for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Bill Gruenthal. Hinda speaks about her family history in Poland, Russia, and immigration to Vancouver before World War II and the beginning of the Holocaust. She discusses her maternal family’s experience in the Holocaust and her immediate family’s livelihoods in Canada. Hinda talks about her childhood in Vancouver where there was little Jewish community and its impact on her and her relationship with her parents. Hinda discusses how her trip to concentration camps and Holocaust memorials in Europe influenced her decision to pursue visual arts as a form of therapy after she retired from teaching. She speaks about her style of mural illustrations of herself and women in her family resisting against perpetrators of violence during the Holocaust. Hinda talks about how she keeps her artwork, and her difficulty showing her work in Jewish institutions. Hinda speaks about artists who inspire her, how her work was translated into a film, and her previous awards and grants. She also discusses her passion for animal rights, her interest in biology, and her outlook on her wisdom in life.

Summary: Oral Interview with Pnina Granirer for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Daniella Givon as a follow-up to an interview from 2021. Pnina recalls her earliest memories of producing art at school in Romania, and learning illustration and painting home decor in Haifa. She explains how her art career truly started when her and her husband moved to Illinois as she didn’t have a work visa and thus spent her time painting and crafting. She discusses inspiration from her children, mixing medias and art genres, and the exploration of making and learning. She talks about themes in her paintings coming from universal human experiences such as identity and existentialism, and the only painting she ever did in regards to the Holocaust and its showing in Tel Aviv. She speaks about her working in galleries and pushing for galleries to be made in Jewish institutions in Vancouver. Pnina talks about the creation of Artist in Our Midst and other art crawls in Vancouver, and her experiences teaching arts on Gabriola Island. She closes with an encouraging message for upcoming artists in Vancouver and the importance of art education in the art world’s future.

Oral Interview with Sidi Schaffer for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Daniella Givon. Sidi goes over her family history in Romania, where she was born, and across Eastern Europe, and then details her immediate family in Canada. Sidi describes her artistic influences from her parents who were professional photographers after WWII, especially her mother who encouraged her to do art. Being born in 1938, some of Sidi’s earliest childhood memories are of fleeing from the Holocaust with her family. Sidi found art to be an escape from personal traumas, which eventually took her to art school in Bucharest where she met her husband, David. Sidi describes her and David’s time living in Israel, and eventually moving to Edmonton where she pursued more formal arts education. Sidi describes opportunities to show her printmaking and painted works, and teach arts across Canada. She also describes inspiration from nature, freedom of expression, and memories of the Holocaust. She outlines how the Gesher Project helped her develop as a Jewish artist, and how she produces Judaic influenced art with her sister.

Oral History Interview with Sima Elizabeth Shefrin for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Brynn Gillies. Shefrin was born in Ottawa in 1949. . She is married to Bob Bossin, a Canadian folk musician, and they live together on Gabriola Island. She spent her youth part-time in Italy, surrounded by family fabric-workers and tailors. She describes how this informed her enthusiasm for fabric as a medium, and how she aims to convey stories through sewn projects. The name of Shefrin’s studio as well as her website is Stitching for Social Change, which she explains how she does fabric arts while integrating folk art tradition with activism, including feminism, anti-war sentiments, and reclamation of her Jewish heritage. Most notably, Shefrin tells the story of the Middle East Peace Quilt which aimed to discuss what peace would look like between Israel and Palestine with participants sending her quilt squares with their visions of peace from around the world. Shefrin also shares her exploration of comic and illustrative arts working on Jewish themed children's books and comics about her own life, including her husband's cancer diagnosis and life over the Covid pandemic.