Premio Combat Prize

Yehudit Englard- My Story ”Art can be learnt only partially, whereas the artist needs it wholly!”(Goethe) I came from Iraq with my parents in 1951 as a four years old child a fifth child of eight children family. My Father was the railway engineer (In Baghdad.In the culture where my parents came from, women had no ”status” from which they could emerge, make a statement, change, or even influence. I was married in 1974. After five years, I lost my first-born son, Navot, at the age of four . He was the desire of my life, my whole world. His birth was an expression of the essence of our souls. Until this cursed day when he died, I lived harmoniously with the world. His death was a Rupture.I could mark the period after his death , as a point when I stopped to believe sound of others – and I started to listen to my inner voice I started to learn and to explore any & every field that had a connection to health (body and soul): nutrition,medicine & Psychology . I acquired my skills independently; And I never stopped the process of learning. While I raised my kids I have learned education, philosophy of education and coped ,with the challenges of daily life as a mother, while implementing things on my own way. During the years I developed my capabilities, and I strengthened the faith in myself, as a thinking person and, most importantly as a woman, mother and educator.Today I am a wife, mother of three children, and grandmother of grandchildren. I started painting (as a ”full time job”) in my forties Through my autodidactic and totality which characterizes everything I do. I explored work of artists I liked, and learned the rules and formulas of their work, and out of that I have built my own creative language.Goethe said: ”The work of art can be learnt only partially, whereas the artist needs it wholly!” – So- auto didactically - I have built my ”foundation stones” from which I Create.I Enjoy coping and deal with the question of the connection between emotional situations in my personal life and women life as a whole, and its visual-allegoric expression.In other words, to ”translate” the mental - emotional reality and the daily life into integrative language.This is my attempt to weave into my works: childhood memories, search of aesthetic, intuition, life experiences and passion After many years of struggles, regaining sight, and learning, I feel that Art is my total and absolute stage of my life. More than anything else, painting is the place where I can catch the essence of my concept of the world: The revealed - open -known-tangible, and mystical .When I complete a work, and look at the finished painting - I cry. (Perhaps also as a feeling of: ”They that sow in tears…shall reap in joy (Psalm 126,5)The sense of liberty and joy that I discovered in painting, it is such that it does not depend on anyone and therefore it is immense. I am filled out and emptied out alone. The disclosure process that I am undergoing by creating ”the absolute beauty of mine” fills me with joy. I see the resemblance between the painter and the conductor’s gestures in front of the orchestra, or the choreography of ballet dancers.The same rules of painting I find in nature. In that sense there is no difference-in my view- between abstract painting and figurative one. From one image to another my ”internal woman within me “grows, and each time ”she” has a more and more central place. She calls out: ”I am here!”, ”I am present!” I am not figurative painter, but I insist to bring to my work the spirit of the woman. Urge- drive and creativity (In Hebrew the common root of Y.Z.R for ”desire” –”lust” and ”creation”) connected with each other, and they are integral parts in my working.Last year I had two major solo exhibitions. One : ” I’ll see, I won’t see ” at the Artist House in Tel Aviv , curated by artist Arie Berkowitz , and the second solo exhibition ” Fauzia ” at the Hangar Gallery in Jaffa Port , curated by Daniela Talmor.I presented my exhibitions in recent years , including the series ” protest ” ( large works of 200x600cm )Stimulus have started the so-called ” Arab Spring ,” but the protest turned over to be my personal protest- 40 years too late - against the fact that I grew up in a family where my late father determined the fate of his daughters with the same cultural patterns in which he grew up- where a woman has no place for personal expression and aspirations of her own.I felt under my skin the personal protest of each and every person of the masses marching in the squares as saying : ” Everyone has the right to take his destiny in his own hands , but also take responsibility for his decisions .On the other hand, the name of the exhibition at Jaffa, and the portrait ” Fauzia ” ( my childhood Arab first name) , showing that in some way I look reconciliation to the childish background..The Work ” protest 2 ” Exhibited at the Jaffa port was presented in June 2013 at: NordArt2013 in Germany Germany , and has received much praise .