Biographical Sculptures
| Grand
mother hood |
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Jonathan
April 2003
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On July 16, 2013 Jonathan "came out
of the closet" as a fantastic thinker and writer
His mother's
pride
 In
the post that followed this one,
Ronnit shared info about
a kind of college in Israel,
that makes me happy,
though, to my regret, it's all about "good people",
who lack the understanding, how evil comes into the world
and therefore - what must be done
to truly heal the world
Jonathan's
girlfriend Shir 
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with his post on
Facebook about Tish'a be-Av and Yitzchak Rabbin
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See about
Jonathan's 11th birthday in Succah-in-the Desert, April 2002
November 25, 2009, Towards Jonathan's
recruitment to the Army on November 29, 2009
April
15, 2010, a letter and gift which should had reached Jonathan
on his 19th birthday.
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In July and August 2002, Jonathan
was still ready to join his siblings, when I took them all to
Neve-Shalom.
The reason was, maybe, that then also AL, his cousin, did still
care about this friendship and joined us too. AL at present
is far from any of us, though living 5 minutes from both of
us, Jonathan and grandma. |
In the sequence below - a moment
of grace is captured, between grandma and grandson |
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2003_06_19
In bringing this site to an incomplete
completion,
I want to dedicate a sculpture to Jonathan,
the grandson who cannot cope with me nor can I cope with him.
I've three memories, one joyful, one painful and one peaceful.
When I
visited my daughter's family in Boulder, Colorado, in 1995,
where they spend the 2 years of Uri's study leave from the
army,
I was once left as babysitter for Rotem and Jonathan, then
age 4.
I celebrated with him my version of "Qabalat-Shabbat",
which is based on holding the 2 candles together to make One
flame,
and then I took him with me on the journey of "the Little
Prince"
The little boy's wide open ears and eyes brought about a different
ending:
The little prince didn't need to leave his body behind to
go back to his rose.
I don't remember the solution, but this I know: He took his
body with him!
 
Maybe 2 years later, when the family lived
back in Israel,
Jonathan once asked me to make a Knight's cloak for him.
I endeavored for many hours, to respond to his quest.
When he tried it one, a tiny detail disturbed him.
I was just about to fix it, when he tore the whole thing apart
in utter impatience and unfathomable fury.
The beauty of his head, face and body is breathtaking.
But breathtaking is also the burden he brought with him to
this life.
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September 2001 (with Elah
behind him), photo by his uncle, my son Immanuel |
I'm
going to present the photos of the two memorable journeys,
which I suggested as birthday presents last year and this year. |
2003_07_03
on the day, on which I'm bringing Healing-K.i.s.s. to a closure:
When I worked on this sculpture,
I got absorbed in the second, the "Water Journey"
with Jonathan.
There were interior obstacles to complete this sculpture,
but when it was finally done,
there was no inner space nor time to sculpt the Desert Journey.
And now lo and behold!
Today, when I was working on "illustrating" the pages
of RUOW,
two of them (p40,
p50).embedded
themselves in Jonathan's desert path! |
I feel, that these were more gifts from him to me than vice versa.
And it hits me now, that both his names mean just this: "a gift":
"Jo-nathan"= "God has given", "Shai",
his family name = "gift".
Jonathan Shai was born in 1991, on April 15,
which is also the day of my and Immanuel's immigration to Israel in
1964.
The journey to the desert brought about
the first breakthrough in the defensiveness of Avi,
which laid the foundations for beginning the
peace-process with Gadi, later in the summer .
This process, in turn, matured me into healing much pain, connected
with my desert creation,
and also helped me to let go of that part of the vision, which had
only the purpose of learning.
The journey to the desert waters,
both the SaltSea, and the sweet springs which merge in it,
had some mystical aspects to it, which I cannot yet fathom, or even
describe now in English.
Right after our return, I sculptured the sequence of experiences in
a long e-mail to his mother.
Since they had just changed to time-table of the Modi'in
bus,
we missed the connection in Jerusalem to the Salt Sea, so we
had time to stroll through the town, which is not what it was,
when I studied there in 1960/61. But we discovered this orange
tree with blossoms and fruits at the same time, in a small old
lane, |
To Ronnit Shai, April 24-26, 2003
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We came to Jerusalem's
Garden of Roses,
in which many nations have their unique section.
We liked the German garden with its cedars and its opening gate.
Then we traveled down the road of Jericho to the SaltSea, to
Ein-Gedi
We came to the entrance of the Nature Reserve Nakhal David,
one of the two major mountain creeks which run into the SaltSea.
There was my enemy, another Avi, right away, as I had hoped.
But despite Jonathan's presence I couldn't open Avi's heart.
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Jonathan has visited Nakhal David
several times before.
And I, whenever I reach this most spectacular "David Fall"
among the several falls in the David Wadi,
I feel elated beyond description.
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