Oral Interview with Anna Lutsky for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Helen Aqua. Anna was born in Tunis in 1952. She describes her family history, mostly situated within Tunisia, where her artistic influences came from her mother and sister. She recalls going to a strict French school in Tunis until the age of 16, when her family moved to a diverse kibbutz in Israel. She discusses the beginning of her art career as a young mother at the age of 22. Anna describes how her artwork acted as diaries for the places she lived throughout her life, including France, Italy and Cyprus, where the landscapes were the common sources of inspiration. She talks about how her art evolved into a mixed-media style that included painting on objects like furniture or clothing to repurpose their form and function, but one of her largest reoccurring themes remains nature. Anna tells of her most prominent memories of galleries and exhibitions where her art has been shown; this includes turning her home into a gallery, but also participating in World Expos abroad and being commissioned to represent France and Canada with her pieces. She further discusses how her art is more secular than reflective of Jewish connections.
Oral Interview with Julia Lucich for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Bill Gruenthal via remote Zoom call. Julia was born in the Bronx, New York, but was raised primarily in Miami, FL. She speaks briefly about her family history and her immediate family including her children and husband. Julia discusses her education towards sociology and criminology in the United States and Jerusalem and her former career in public administration and as a life insurance agent. She also talks about the beginning of her interest in portraiture art which led to her artistic studies. Julia discusses her work in galleries and art shows, including a gallery in Texas and the Calgary Stampede. She speaks about her family’s relocation from San Jose, CA to Eugene, OR to Salt Spring Island, BC which allowed her to live rurally but close enough to good schooling options for her children. Julia discusses her artistic style as representational portraiture usually done with soft pastels, including her series ‘Party Animals’ which helped kickstart her art career. Julia talks about her teaching workshops in BC, showing Party Animals and the Pooka Project at the Calgary Stampede, and how she decides who she will paint. She closes discussing finding joys in art, even for those who are not artists themselves.
Oral History Interview with Nora Patrich for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Carol Herbert. Patrich was born in Argentina in 1952 and speaks about her upbringing between Argentina, Israel and the United States. She discusses her exposure to political activism and Latin American expressionist art throughout her formative years, including mentorship within her father’s politically charged arts collective named the Spartacus Movement. She tells her experience of the military coup in Argentina during the ‘70s, that forced her into exile in Israel with young children after her husband was assassinated. She explains how this led to a life of traveling activism denouncing Argentina’s past military atrocities, including anti-Semitic genocide, and fighting for human rights through art and protest. Patrich’s primary art mediums are painted murals and sculptures; she discusses their public installments into places like past concentration camps and military bombing sites, and how her art will always be political. She closes by talking about doing mosaic work, independent book printing and publishing, and how there is a documentary about her stories of Argentina.
Oral History Interview with Mia Weinberg for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Bill Gruenthal. Mia was born in London, England in 1958. She describes her life as a child of German-Jewish refugees post-WWII, growing up in England and the role this had on her life, including her art work. She discusses her transition from a materials technologist in England to an immigrant in Vancouver, going to art school in her 30s and becoming an independent working artist. Mia is known for working with unconventional materials in her works, most often sculpture and installations.
Oral History Interview with Olga Campbell for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Bill Gruenthal. Olga Campbell was born in Iraq in 1943 and immigrated to Canada at the age of five in 1948. She explains her family’s experience with both Russian prison camps and the Holocaust during WWII, where they eventually made it safely to Canada. She discusses her journey as a social worker turned arts professional, including her time spent at Emily Carr and Capilano arts schools. As a second generation Holocaust survivor, Olga discusses how being Jewish and the associated inter-generational trauma of Holocaust survivorship has informed her works. Olga is a mixed-media artist, working in digital and traditional mediums, including collage and sculpture. She also published her art in a book focused on her family’s experience of the Holocaust that has fostered connections to her story, shared herein.
Oral History Interview with Tanya Bub for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Daniella Givon. Tanya was born in Minnesota in 1969. Tanya speaks about her family history and her upbringing in Beit Yanai, Israel as a child as well as London, Ontario. Tanya discusses her life in academia while also focused on parenthood and finances, and how she transitioned into an art career in Vancouver. Tanya describes her art as part of the ‘eco-art’ genre, as her mediums are often natural, like driftwood, or recycled and/or found materials. Tanya tells stories of finding community by creating interactive sculptures, especially driftwood people and animals, shared through public art installations across B.C.
Oral Interview with Janis Diner-Brinley for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Brynn Gillies. Janis briefly describes her family history in Eastern Europe and Canada, and tells us of her immediate family. She discusses how she was immersed in artistic environments from a young age including parents who enjoyed the arts at home, and taking art classes as young as 6 years old. Janis recalls being the only girl to learn welding in school for her sculpture projects and working with the Winnipeg Art Gallery. She talks about how she uses traditional mediums like watercolours to convey messages about environment and landscape change, and how she learned to work with and teach watercolours to others. Janis talks about how her move from Winnipeg to Vancouver to Victoria challenged her, as the colour palettes and landscapes were not the same as those she usually painted. She talks about art classes, and what brought her into teaching high school, but also feats of curating exhibitions and starting the Jewish Film Festival in Vancouver. Janis also talks about participating in Judaism themed exhibits at her synagogue, her interest in archaeology, and the power of observation.
Oral Interview with Jessica Freedman for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Daniella Givon via remote Zoom call. Jessica was born in Montreal, but recalls moving around as a child to Israel and back to Canada where she grew up in Calgary. She explains immediate family history which included her mother who was a professional actor, and her father and brother who are musicians. She was primarily introduced to the arts through dance and music, though eventually was trained in visual arts at Simon Fraser University. She describes her different careers as a dancer, choreographer, accountant and yoga studio owner and instructor, but pursued arts full time after quitting her job to take care of her mother who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Jessica explains how her painting style transitioned from realism to more expressive abstracts over time, and how she is inspired by emotions and colour. She also discusses how she is motivated by nature and chaos, collaborating on commissions, and the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, having her art contribute as a light to the world.
Oral Interview with Suzy Birstein for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Carol Herbert. Suzy was born in Toronto, ON and she describes her family history within Toronto and origins in Eastern Europe. She describes growing up with artistic influences from her parents who liked classical painters and attending art galleries and her aunts who would knit and embroider. It wasn’t until college that Suzy saw herself as an artist; through working as an artist model, she was exposed to various studio spaces and art classes. Suzy speaks about her experience at Emily Carr, in learning hand building pottery, and being a full-time artist while balancing motherhood both in Toronto and in Vancouver. She also talks about her artistic style, including the influences of Kahlo and Picasso and prominent themes including feminism, resilience and expression; These can be seen in her Frida Kahlo inspired exhibition and in her Ladies Not Waiting series. Suzy discusses the highlights of her career including her work for the 2008 Academy Awards and her teaching of workshops at an artist residency in Greece. She also talks about her teaching at Arts Umbrella and within the wider community
Oral Interview with Lori Goldberg for the JMABC Artists Scribe. Interviewed by Daniella Givon. Lori, born and raised in Vancouver, talks about her family’s history in BC and abroad, her childhood, and early artistic influences in her family. She also discusses how she was introduced to visual arts through attending classes at the Vancouver Jewish Community Centre and her education at Langara and the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. Lori describes how she struggled to find her footing and artistic identity in college and how it affected her mental health, but prompted her to return to Vancouver and get her own art studio on Granville Island. Lori talks about her development as an artist, becoming a teacher at Emily Carr, and continuing art education as a single mother. Lori discusses how travelling to Bali and seeing the country’s spirituality concerning objects inspired her future art projects that addressed meaning and memory in kept things, but also offered her a new outlook on the mundane, like using dryer lint as an art medium. She also talks about being able to do charity in Cambodia through art, and how observing discarded objects influenced the creation of a new exhibit centering environmentalism. She closes with talk about her work with galleries and experiences with commissions.
