Shahna Lax
My
art is not intended as a political statement,
but rather as an expression of my reality.
I am a Jewish woman in love with the aesthetics and values of my Islamic cousins.
This love of mine has its historical roots
in the time I refer to as "The Precarious
Age of Fruitful Tolerance" -- the
Andalusian Golden Age of Spain spanning
the better part of 700 years of Moorish
rule and the inspiration for the European
Renaissance of the arts and sciences; 700
years of the flowering of the Judaic and
Islamic cultures together
in one place. That cousin love has since
diminished and a fine enmity glares at
us in the mirror. Yet outside the machinations
of political agendas, territoriality and
closed circuit religious dogma, what has
really changed? We are both still Semites.
Our languages of origin still share the
same 3-lettered root verb form. Beauty,
be it auditory, visual or emotional, binds
us still to common expressions of poetry,
music, geometric patterns, calligraphic
flowings, the innate warmth of hospitality
and the love of sensual foods.
My work, then, is my personal reflection of reality which goes beyond the rift--a reality where the Source of Divine Revelation is found by gazing into one's own personal Human Heart.