Ten years later, a second animal presented himself to me. I was spending two months in a magnificent studio in the woods, a walk through the forest away from the Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta, Canada. Alone in my studio on the first day, I thought I heard…

I was in Kenya in 2006 to shoot the African segment of my film, Reading the Landscape, about pattern in nature, alphabet, language, neurology and culture. I had the privilege of spending time with a nomadic Samburu family consisting of a much older man and his 9 wives. When my…

The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA) is pleased to present: — Archaeology of Metaphor: The Art of Gilah Yelin Hirsch, 1968–2022 | Exhibition curated by Donna Stein Opening Reception: Saturday, October 1, from 6:00–10:00 pm About the Exhibition: This retrospective celebrates Canadian American artist Gilah Yelin Hirsch who is an influential professor of art and a pioneer of the Feminist art movement in California. The exhibit brings together original ideas in art, science, ecology, and human consciousness…

Cultural Contradictions and Intuitive Truths Gilah Yelin Hirsch, May 22, 2022 I like to think of Suzi Gablik as an explorer in the grand old tradition of sailing into the unknown. I see her in a 3 masted caravel, perhaps in the 1450’s, destined to find spices in someplace called…

I was ten years old in my birth city of Montreal and perplexed by the big questions of life. My father, a brilliant scholar who spoke, read and wrote 13 languages, was an invalid as his motor limbs were degenerating due to a car accident two years prior. He also…

The Yelin Family Torah: Gilah’s Story NOTE: The young man reading from the Torah is Jack H. He is preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. The woman holding the Torah is Kim B., one of his teachers. The place is the chapel of Temple Shalom, where the Torah rests in the Ark. We are grateful to Dr…

In the late 70’s I found a silver ring by the side of the road near my house. Despite the fact that it had been mangled and crushed by traffic, I could discern a Hindu female deity on the damaged surface. She carried what appeared to be a brush in…

The creative person is characterized by the ability to see potential where nothing exists. However, the hallmark of the creative person, the gift of envisioning, is fraught with its own nemesis. The detailed palpable image, idea, chemical formula, proposed city, which the artist, composer, scientist, architect advances, is, inherently, illusion…

Having read a recent story by my friends Judy and Jack, I found myself remembering well the process ­­and emotion of leaving one’s personal forest. It took weeks for me to say thank you and goodbye to all the flora and fauna I had come to know intimately in Tonto…