Salad on canvas
Whenever I am in a restaurant (during the pandemic times it is a remote memory), first I am looking at the plates served at neighboring tables. Usually, I am not looking at the menu but rather turn to the waiter and say, pointing to a dish that looks enticing, what is this plate?
Then I tend to order what looks to me more colorful and creative.
As an artist, colors are my main tools, my favorite colors are red, violet and green.
I got a phone call from Hannah, that happened to be in charge of an elite restaurant in Tel Aviv, they wanted to purchase two artworks of mine, she invited me to meet with Meir the chef and owner, in the restaurant. When I entered the kitchen, I was delighted to see eggplants, cucumbers and tomatoes lined on the cutting board. This was the first time I envisioned the wooden cutting board as a painting and the served plates as artworks.
A salad is, first of all, a mixture of colors, then a smell, the taste comes last, because our sight is the most dominant sense, if what we see won’t suit our taste memory, we won’t touch the food (unless we are starving).
It was the first time for me in this restaurant, which was situated in a Bauhaus building in the heart of Tel Aviv. The Chef approached me, looking straight into my eyes.
Meir, nice to meet you, he finally said
Meir in Hebrew means Enlighted, then we had a weird conversation:
Do you know why I asked Hannah to connect us?
She said you want artworks for the restaurant
Well, this is Shamayin Va Aretz, he said, but before there is Bereshit Bara
I will stop here for a short explanation:
What Meir was speaking about was the first sentence in the first chapter in the Bible.
In Hebrew it is written:
Bereshit Bara Elohim at Hashamyim ve at Haaretz
The translation is:
Bereshit — At first
Elohim — God
Bara — created
Shamayim — skies
Aretz — earth
‘Ha’ in Hebrew is ‘the’ so, Hashamayim — the skies
Haaretz — the earth
What Meir meant was that before the physical there is the intention, the idea, the reason for things to materialize.
So, you want to know what is my Bereshit Bara?
Exactly, he said, I will tell you what is my Bereshit Bara and I am sure you will understand why I called you
Ok, I am all ears
If you are hungry, this place is not for you, your digestion system can do with a simple hamburger, you don’t need to pay 200$ to serve your hunger Mc Donald’s would do it for 5%, here you come for an adventure when I saw your artworks, I felt I am passing through a gate from the physical to the Bereshit Bara, do you follow?
Yes, I am, I said, I just posted something I wrote which I labeled: ‘FLY high the rest will follow’, the rest are not necessarily the rest of the world, it can be all your faculties in your body
I am here for that, said Meir, to create an unforgettable experience, a passionate sensation, we thought about everything here, the colors of the table cloths, the wooden floor, the lamps and lighting, and now we will add colors on the walls as a complimentary outstanding total experience, so, what is your Bereshit Bara?
FLY stands for Free the Life within You, I can speak hours about the meaning of Life, what is Freedom and what is the ‘You’ or ‘Me’ or the ‘I’ that we are talking about, but I will say that when I entered your kitchen, I didn’t see cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplants but tubes of green, violet and red colors from which I envisioned a cosmic dance on a canvas. You serve your food on plates, this is your Shamayim and Aretz, your Bereshit Bara is the soul elevation where the higher functions of the brain are activated so it is not eating but an over whole experience of well-being, of aesthetics, harmony, great tastes and if accompanied by the right companion it reaches perfection. For me the Shamayim and Aretz are served on a canvas, it is a different kind of salad on a canvas, inside the bowl, the cucumbers, eggplants and tomatoes mélange to form a new identity called Salad, as the colors merge on my palette to form new object that turns a white canvas into an artwork, and then this artwork can resonate with the viewer’s Bereshet Bara, if it activates its emotions or causes the viewer to broaden its thinking.
What is the cost of your originals? Asked Meir
Let’s try something different, I said, we’ll hang here two originals for a year, your payment will be that each month I will come here with a companion I will choose for dinner that you will serve; I won’t charge for my art you won’t charge for yours.
We shook hands.
I had the privilege to eat there three times before the restaurant closed. Each time was an outstanding and unique experience and deserves a separate article. Since then, I changed my attitude toward my canvases they turned to be plates on which I serve my inspiration.
