November 26, 2004/Kislev 13 5765, Vol. 57, No. 13
J.A.V.A. show energizes arts scene
JENNIFER GOLDBERG
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 "Festival of Lights" by Lynn Rae Lowe. Photo courtesy of Bobby Harr |
She is a Jewish artist.
David Overby uses the delicate technique of airbrush painting to express his fascination with Asian culture.
He, too, is a Jewish artist.
The secular sculpture of Galit Druker is inspired by the multiculturalism of Israel, her native country. Like Lowe and Overby, she is also a Jewish artist.
These three, along with more than 20 other artists, will display their work at the first "Art of J.A.V.A." show Dec. 4-5 at the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center.
The diversity of their work is a delight to J.A.V.A. co-founder Bobby Harr, who envisioned the Jewish Artists of the Valley Association as an all-encompassing home base for Jewish arts and culture in the greater Phoenix area.
"Every different medium" is represented, notes Harr, including visual artists of all types, musicians, storytellers and more. "We're getting people who just like to play at art ... to people who are internationally known and do it full time."
And Jewish artists don't create just Judaica, Harr stresses. "The public only thinks of Jewish artists as someone who paints a rabbi picture. ... But the way we see it, if you're Jewish and an artist, you're a Jewish artist, because your heritage and your soul goes into your work."
J.A.V.A. reorganized earlier this year after a temporary hiatus. Since then, there have been monthly meetings of the main group and a related visual arts group led by J.A.V.A. co-founder Susan Pinkus, as well as J.A.V.A. music nights at the JCC. According to Harr, the group's e-mail list has grown to almost 100.
The Art of J.A.V.A. show will be the group's first big event, and Harr says the show is a way to let the public see "the talent that's in their own community."
Harr began soliciting works for the show by putting calls out to artists through various arts organizations throughout the Valley and the state. Artists submitted works to the jury, which comprised local members of the arts community, and 25 artists were chosen to participate.
The show opens Dec. 4, with a private preview event during the evening, including hors d'oeuvres and musical entertainment from the Chaitones of Temple Chai. Tickets are $100 per couple, and the ticket price can be applied toward the purchase of a work of art.
Lowe hails from Tucson and is the only non-local artist to be included in the show.
She creates primarily Judaica, and has won several awards for her work, including the 1998 Niche craft art award for her menorah "Festival of Lights."
Lowe works in bronze, aluminum, steel and paper, and "aspires to illuminate the Absolute by bringing the sacred into physical form," she writes on her Web site. The graceful human figures that characterize her work appear on many Judaic ritual objects, including menorahs, matzo plates and tzedakah boxes.
She declares her work is "very much about the ritual and the celebration of the different holidays."
While Lowe works out of Tucson and is a member of the Jewish arts alliance down there, she says she heard about the show from Harr. The two have done national shows together and both artists exhibited at the Hadassah convention in Phoenix in July.
She will be bringing mostly Judaica to the Art of J.A.V.A. show, and has high hopes for the event. "I believe that the people that support the JCC in Scottsdale, just like the people who support the JCC in Tucson, are very involved in the community and committed to what seems to be a very strong Jewish tradition - an appreciation of the arts," says Lowe.
For Druker, the Art of J.A.V.A. show is an opportunity to get her name out to the community. She was born in Israel, and spent several years as a graphic designer and illustrator of books before getting into sculpture and ceramics. Druker and her husband moved to the United States in 1995, and settled in the Valley more than three years ago.
"We called the JCC in Scottsdale; as an artist, I wanted to know if they had anything to help me promote myself. They let me know about J.A.V.A." she recalls.
More than her Jewish heritage, Druker reveals, her work is influenced by "being Israeli. Everything in Israel is kind of multicultural because people came from all over. Me as an artist, I took something from here and something from there and mixed it."
Druker's work comprises mostly sculpture, although she will be bringing some wall pieces to the Art of J.A.V.A. show.
Overby's artistic inspiration comes from overseas as well. Growing up in a small Midwestern farming community, he says, didn't give him much exposure to other ways of life. But when he moved to the West Coast as an adult, he developed a passion for Asian culture, a preference that reflects itself in his work.
He says his detail-oriented nature drew him to "the incredible drive for perfection that is incorporated in Asian art, whether it's sculptures, lacquer boxes, scroll- work ... and especially the costumes of the geisha and the costumes of the Kabuki actors."
A delicate art requires a precision instrument, and Overby worked hard at the airbrush technique of painting that characterizes his canvasses.
"I like the almost photographic quality that you get from it, but it was a tough, tough instrument to master, and there were a lot of times I didn't think I was going to get it," he recalls.
Overby, who has lived in the Valley for about four years, became an artist about 10 years ago after a career as a Hollywood cameraman. He discovered the Art of J.A.V.A. show through another exhibiting artist, and says he plans to bring mostly his art inspired by the Japanese geisha and Kabuki actors.
Harr has big plans for future J.A.V.A. events, including an artist's retreat, a mentoring program that would match members with budding young artists, and a Jewish arts and culture festival.
Before that though, he looks to the Art of J.A.V.A. show to make a splash with the Jewish community.
"They've never seen anything happen like this in the Valley before," he says. "People need to expect the unexpected."
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Details
- What: Art of J.A.V.A. show
- When: 6-9:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, and 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5
- Where: Valley of the Sun JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale
- Cost: $100/couple Saturday; free Sunday
- Call: Bobby Harr, 480-688-6470