Print featuring a group of Orthodox Jews walking through the Kerem Hateimanim neighborhood to Shuk HaCarmel on a Friday morning
Hand-painted in watercolor and ink and reproduced on premium fine art paper
Ships unframed with a 0.7 cm white border
Original available upon request
Friday in the Kerem Print
When I was on my way home from the Shuk one Friday morning I took a photograph of this group of men and decided to paint it when I got home. This is in the historic district of Kerem HaTeimanim, or the Yemenite Vineyard, which was established by Yemenite immigrants in 1906, 42 years before the establishment of the State of Israel.
I loved the wires and vines combining into one, it’s something I notice all over the city and think is very symbolic of how we live here, that the old coexists with the new as a way to continue, so I’ve always wanted to paint this area.
For me, the most interesting part of this image is the graffiti on the right side. This writing is all over Kerem Hateimanim and I always assumed they were random symbols or words written in Amharic. Nevertheless, I wanted to check what was written before including it in my art. It turns out that it’s actually Paleo-Hebrew, the ancient language used by the Jewish kingdoms of Judea and Samaria (1200 - 930 BCE) and what was written was a famous Israeli children’s poem called The Sixteenth Sheep about trying to fall asleep.
There’s so much that we miss when we dont really take the time to look around
