People ask me all the time — why Jerusalem? Why do you keep coming back to the same stones, the same walls, the same golden light?
Honestly, I do not think I have a choice.
There is something about this city that gets into your bones. I have lived here long enough to know that Jerusalem is not just a place. It is a feeling. It is the way the light hits the old city walls at four in the afternoon, turning everything this impossible shade of gold. It is the sound of the shofar echoing through the narrow streets. It is walking past a wall that has been standing for thousands of years and feeling, even for a moment, like you are part of something so much bigger than yourself.
When I stand at my easel and try to capture that — I know I will never fully get it. Nobody can. But I keep trying, because every attempt brings me a little closer to that feeling. And I think that is what art is supposed to do. Not to perfectly replicate what we see, but to capture what we feel.
My Jerusalem paintings are not meant to be photographs. They are memories, emotions, prayers. The soft, moody tones I use — those are the colors I actually see here. Not the bright, postcard version of the city, but the quiet, soulful one. The Jerusalem you experience when the tourists have gone home and the stones seem to breathe.
I paint the Kotel because every time I stand there, I am overwhelmed by the beauty of so many different Jews coming together in one place. The mixture of colors, the textures of different clothing, the tears and the joy — all happening at the same wall. That energy is what I try to put onto the canvas.
Sometimes people tell me they have one of my Jerusalem pieces in their living room and that it makes them feel connected to Israel even from thousands of miles away. That is probably the greatest compliment I could ever receive. Because that is exactly what I hoped the painting would do.
If you have ever walked through the old city and felt that tug in your heart — that is what I am trying to paint. Not the city itself, but what it does to you.
Interested in bringing a piece home?