10 Questions with Dana Manor Cohen

Dana Manor Cohen an Israeli artist, living in Kibbutz Tzivon. She started studying painting at Rachel Avni's studio. In 2009 she graduated from the Animation Department of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem.

@dana.joz.painter

ARTIST STATEMENT

“I live and work in Kibbutz Tziv’on in the distant north of Israel. It is a hilly, lush, and verdant area in the heart of an oak forest inhabited by robin redbreasts, garrulous (jays), foxes, mushrooms, and many other species. Early in the morning, while the kibbutz is still sleeping, I set out for the forest, where I document and gather impressions from the surrounding nature.
Over recent years, I have been painting on old book covers that I collect. These rigid rectangular surfaces accumulate the evidence of many years, and on them, I draw and paint the landscape in which I live. Many of my paintings are of landscapes with mountains rising up to touch azure skies in which light clouds float. In these pastoral views, I attempt to express my love and closeness to nature.
My creative process focuses on observation of the here and now as I seek the tiniest moments of movement and changes over time. The clouds and the colors change, providing a narrative, broad horizons, and a new life to the old book covers.
As part of my process of documentation and visual creation, I also engage in photography. I created a series of “selfies” of my landscape paintings set against the scenes they depict, creating a visual connection between mediums, a “line” drawn between the time the painting was made and the cyclical time in nature.
Since last year, I have been drawing intensively as well. The drawing process allows me to focus on specific tiny elements I collect from nature, such as rare bird feathers, stones, and acorns, as well as readymade objects I find to be enchanted.
I also use photos from the family photo albums of my children and partner. I pick mostly childhood moments that I am fascinated by and draw them as well, creating my own interpretations of past times, long gone.”

— Dana Manor Cohen

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. Who is Dana Manor Cohen in three words? 

Sensitivity, motherhood, and belonging.

What is your background, and how did you start working with art? 

I was raised on Israel’s northern periphery in a small town surrounded by wild nature and agriculture. Nature gave me strength and calmness even as a child, a “go-to” place where I could escape, simply be, and receive energy, meaning, and inspiration. I studied in the studio of the artist Rachel Avni from childhood to teenager: there, I grew up, matured, and went deeper in my artistic skills and motivations. Years later, I returned to that studio as an instructor.
I am a graduate of the Animation Unit, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, and was awarded the Asif Animation Prize and Honorable Mention at the 13th International Student Film Festival, Tel Aviv. I participated in various animation festivals around the world and was selected to exhibit at the Fresh Paint Contemporary Art Fair art incubator, for young artists, in Tel Aviv in 2021. After exhibiting in several group shows, I recently had my first solo show at the Tel Aviv Artists’ House.

You live and work in a kibbutz in the north of Israel. How does it influence your art practice? 

I chose to live with my family on a kibbutz in which the connection to a simple life in nature, the search for truth, and an authentic life form a significant part of my daily life and inspire my work.
Being close to nature is essential. I paint from observation in the expanses of primordial nature in which valleys, mountains, and tangled wild vegetation alongside ancient trees. My daily journeys to the natural old oak forest enable me to have an immediate closeness to surrounding nature, to its movement, its silence, and consolation.

Your work seems to be highly influenced by your surroundings and the nature you experience daily. What are your other sources of inspiration? 

My other sources of inspiration are family photograph albums of my children, me, and my partner, mainly childhood moments that enchant me, which I paint with my own interpretation of the past, which I revive.
I’m also inspired by artists such as Hundertwasser, Magritte, Švankmajer, Basquiat, Cezanne, Corot, Monet, and many others -- darkness and readymades along with classical, optimistic quiet. 

In recent years, you started painting over book covers. Can you tell us more about this concept? What does it represent for you? 

I find the book covers on benches and in the street, some old and torn, seemingly waiting to be gathered up and receive new life and meaning. The small format embodies signs of prior life and memories. The cloth bindings of old books have interesting colors, and the font is usually special and mysterious, reflecting my thoughts on the day of painting. Each has a symbolic connection to me, even if I’m the only one who understands the meaning. I leave the printed titles engraved on the book cover in the sense of wanting not to erase the title or the memories: I add myself and what I see to the book cover. This is like a process of mirroring my feeling and sights onto and into the surface of the painting.

You also use photography and drawing. What do these different techniques have in common, in your opinion? And on the contrary, how and why do you use them on different projects? 

No matter what medium I choose - photography, painting, or drawing - I translate subjective reality at any given moment, with different thoughts flooding me. Each technique facilitates the commemoration and translation of various aspects of my thoughts, my environment, and how I love to move between them. Drawing facilitates a warmer touch – maybe “more intimate” is the better word for the relationship with what I choose to draw. I like to draw my children and make observational drawings from childhood drawings of me and of my partner.
I photograph most of my paintings on the book covers when I feel that I have accomplished the work. I photograph the painting within the landscape it was painted, like a selfie. It is a sort of documenting - I was here today at this moment as if it is part of a memento mori from a diary, documenting a moment that will never come back.

Is there anything else you would like to experiment with? 

I am interested in learning etching techniques since the material and components intrigue me – some controllable and others unknown, allowing improvisation.

What do you think of the art community and market? And how do you promote your work? 

The art world is relatively new and fresh to me in certain senses.
Since selected to show at the Fresh Paint art incubator about two years ago, I was back to exhibiting and showing my art. I still feel that I’m learning the whole network of relationships, power balances, and currents in the contemporary art field in Israel.
I promote my works through in-depth curatorial accompaniment from Curator Vera Pilpoul. 

What are you working on now? Do you have any new projects or exhibitions you are looking forward to? 

I am interested in deconstructing and reconstructing things, generating new meaning and movement. Right now, I am continuing to gather book covers, document moments, observe the past and paint the present. I am examining and researching new surfaces. I would like to paint and draw on surfaces such as tracing paper, recycled papers, etc. I collect old pieces of wood that used to be part of the furniture, sand them slightly then paint pieces of the present that will also turn into the past. I now also paint on entire covers of book and leave it “as is,” forming a stand alone object or a diptych of the landscape I am observing, as if opening a window. 

And lastly, what are your goals for 2023?

I would like to exhibit more both in the periphery of Israel’s north, where I grew up and now live, and develop collaborations with other artists from various disciplines as well as overseas. 
Drawing and painting are an infinite field for research, which I would like to continue, as well as find a way to integrate the two mediums.