This series of work has been made possible with grants from Greater Jackson Arts Council, Mississippi Arts Commission, and Six Degrees Consortium.

Artist’s Statement:

   I have long been fascinated with cultures different from my own. Recent trips to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Haiti opened windows into worlds of which I had only dreamed. Along with thousands of photographs, I brought home with me a love of these places and their people. During my travels, I was reminded once again of the notion that all people are at most six steps away from any other person on earth. This ever-increasing connectedness of human beings can have profound consequences for human societies. 
   As our world shrinks, we are compelled to find ways to live in harmony with our neighbors. Visual art is a powerful vehicle for storytelling as well as for teaching, and this new series was created to tell a story of cultures different from my own.
    This series incorporates photography, digital imaging, paper and fabric collage and acrylic painting techniques. Some pieces incorporate all of these techniques, while others are limited to one or two. One one level, my intention was to create a series of work which expressed my impressions of these countries and their people.
    On another level, this series is an exploration into the world of collage art. Collage as an art form has a long and rich history, and it has been suggested that it can be understood as a metaphor for human perception. Perception is in essence a cut and paste operation, and the same holds true for consciousness, dreaming and memory. An example is the way in which the human brain, through narrative dreams, makes up a story from bits of experience. The principles of collage move easily between two and three dimensions as well as mediums and have been used in literature, internet culture, cinema, philosophy, and music as well as in visual art.
   All of the pieces in this series are available for purchase.  Please contact me for price information.

In January 2013, I spent three weeks in the beautiful country of Morocco.  I fell in love, and hated to leave when my time there was finished. Morocco is a land of many contrasts, and a nation of warm and generous people. For an artist, it was also an endlessly rich repository of visual delights. The fishing boats of Essaouira, the walls of Marrakech, and the zelij fountains of Fes beckoned me with their vibrant colors, and I have tried to capture that vibrancy in these images.

For information on pricing and availability, please contact me at lorikgordon@gmail.com.

Face of Morocco

Marrakech Workday

Corner Market

Souk

Delivery Man

Side Street Market

Produce Market 2

Terra Cotta 2

572

Shoppers

Essaouria Harbor

Walls of Marrakech

Heading Home

Wool Dyer

Blue Pots

Backstreet Market

Turban

Essaouira

Produce Market

Berber Taxi

Blue Boats, Essaouira

Street Market

Delivery

Terra Cotta

Vegetables and Eggs

Levant: A Visual Essay

The following body of work resulted from a two week stay in Israel/Palestine in January of 2012.  My visit there was a profound experience; from the wonders of the twisting streets of the Old City of Jerusalem to the harsh reality of life for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories,  I came away with a much better grasp of the region, its people and the immensity of its problems. 

The pieces of work in this series are photographs and collages that have been printed on heavy bond paper and mounted on support panels of tung wood. Directly below is the Portals Series.  These images  have been created in shadow boxes to give a sense of depth to the work. Each piece has two or three layers coming forward from the background. Portal #1-#8 are paper collages and #9-#16 incorporate other elements including glass, metal, polymer clay, fabric, cowrie shells, gemstones and candles from a shop near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

Portal 21: Discussion (Jerusalem 2012)  8” x 10” x 2”

Portal 20: Scrolls (Jerusalem 2012)  8” x 10” x 2”

Portal 19: The Good Daughter  8” x 10” x 2”
SOLD

Portal 18: Liturgy  8” x 10” x 2”

Portal 17: Nun  8” x 10” x 2”

Portal 16: Veil  8” x 10” x 2”
SOLD

Portal 15: Pilgrim  8” x 10” x 2”

Portal 14: The Shopper  8” x 10” x 2”

Portal 13: Priest 2  8’ x 10” x 2”
SOLD

Portal 12: Holy Sepulcher Priest  8” x 10” x 2”

Portal 6: Incense in the Old City  11” x 14” x 1”

Portal 4  Women at the Wall 11" x 14" x 1"

Western Wall 3
This little boy was patiently waiting for his mother while she prayed at the wall. His expression indicates that he understands the solemnity of the visit.

Streets of Jerusalem 8
I was walking behind this woman one day on a trip to the Western Wall and was intrigued by the light and the way she was framed in the arched, covered streets of the Old City.

Bar Mitzvah 1: The Cantor's Song  16" x 20"
I did not need to understand Hebrew to know what this song was about. The poignant expression on the cantor’s face, his body language and the response of the participants all indicated the joyous nature of this event. I placed him directly in front of the Wall, where the prayers of unknown visitors can be seen. In front of him is the sterling silver and gold Torah Case.

Bar Mitzvah 2: A Son's Questions 16" x 20"
 In this image, a father is helping his son to don his tefillin. For the rest of his life, the Bar Mitzvah is obligated to wear the tefillin at all appropriate times. These small leather boxes contain scrolls of Torah passages which command Jews to bind the word of God on their bodies. The white tallit (prayer shawl) worn by the father identifies him as belonging to the Sephardic tradition.

Bar Mitzvah 3: Leaving Childhood Behind
In some Jewish traditions, a doll is presented to the Bar Mitzvah as a symbol of the childhood he is leaving behind. This is a more solemn aspect of the ceremony and to accentuate that aspect of a boy becoming a Bar Mitzvah, I placed a man in prayer at the Western Wall.

Bar Mitzvah 5 Father and Son  16" x 20"
In addition to the joyous aspect of the ceremony, there were some very tender moments as well. Here, a father holds his son close, perhaps mourning the loss of his little boy to adulthood.

Bar Mitzvah 4: The Dance  16" x 20"
I wanted to capture the celebratory aspect of the ceremony in this image. The cantor in this scene is singing boisterously, and leading the participants in a dance as well. All of the men were in a circle around the Bar Mitzvah, singing and dancing their hearts out.

Streets of Jerusalem 2  18" x 20"
I do not have a clue where these intriguing men were from, if they were Old City residents or pilgrims. I was fascinated by them as soon as I saw them approaching and managed to get one good shot, and placed them in front of a shop that sold brightly patterned fabric. What a smile that guy in the middle has!

Streets of Jerusalem 1  18" x 20"
I would not make it as a photojournalist, because I am overly sensitive about being intrusive with my camera. This was one of those insatnces when I felt guilty as soon as I took the photo; the man on the left obviously did not want his photo taken. How to tell beforehand?

Western Wall 2  18" x 20"
Many of the men at the Western Wall arrived with book in hand, and spent long periods of time standing facing the wall. I ssaw many women with prayer books as well, although the only lecturns present were on the men’s side.

Streets of Jerusalem 4  16" x 20"
I captured this photo in a bustling souk in the Muslim Quarter. The intense gaze on the woman’s face caught my attention. I placed her in front of a wall that had the remnants od postors with Arabic text.