"Kishkes"

"Kishkes"
Abstract Oil Paintings and Monoprints over
digitally manipulated photographs

Treasure Room Gallery
March 2 - 27, 2009

Artist Statement
Kishkes is a Yiddish word meaning guts or intestines. It is also a delicacy. I have used this word in the figurative sense to describe the process of creating art. It is hard, consuming, gut wrenching, and delicious all at the same time.

This series of oil paintings began with making prints. The computer has been an innovative tool enabling me to use my photographs, manipulate them, and transform them into something other. These images printed on artist's paper are the basis of my monoprints. Then using the more traditional printmaking process, I create new images combining these methods. The "clean" process of working on the computer followed by the "dirty" hands-on process is a wonderful new way of creating unique images.

By the time the oil painting is completed there is little of the original photo left to recognize. By abstracting, editing, transforming, enlarging, and changing the print, a different painted image emerges. This process from the first photo shoot to the final print or painting is a long but exciting journey that usually takes my kishkes out, but is oh, so delicious.

Biography of the Artist
Miriam Stern is a painter, printmaker, and installation artist. She has exhibited both in the United States and Israel, and has won numerous awards and prizes. In 2006 she won a grant from the Puffin Foundation, Teaneck, NJ.

Recent exhibitions include an installation titled Ezrat Nashim (Women's Section) at Yeshiva University Museum in New York City (2007-08), and paintings at ETS, Brodsky Gallery in Princeton, New Jersey (2007).

Ms. Stern usually works in series of prints and paintings on a specific theme. She often bases these series on Jewish values and concepts. Her art has been reproduced in magazines and books of poetry. In addition to producing art, she has curated several art exhibitions and lectured about the relationship of art to Jewish interpretations of texts and ideas.