• About
  • Jewish Community Directory
  • Subscription Information
  • Contact Us
American Jewish World
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • All
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia & New Zealand
    • Europe
    • Israel/Mideast
    • Latin America
    • Minnesota
    • US & Canada
    From Jerusalem with love and compassion

    From Jerusalem with love and compassion

    Jewish groups fight for abortion rights in Minnesota

    Jewish groups fight for abortion rights in Minnesota

    ‘Honoring Our Graduates’ in May 2022

    Once again: Honoring Our Graduates

  • Arts
    • All
    • Blue Box
    • Books & Literature
    • Music
    • Televison & Film
    • Theater & Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    Poems wanted

    Poems wanted

    Tamara Nadel marries Jewish and Hindu dance traditions

    Tamara Nadel marries Jewish and Hindu dance traditions

    Searching for a bridge to the past

    Searching for a bridge to the past

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel & Culture
    ‘Honoring Our Graduates’ in May 2022

    Once again: Honoring Our Graduates

    ‘Honoring Our Graduates’ in May 2022

    ‘Honoring Our Graduates’ in May 2022

    Hey, Kids: The 2021 AJW Hanuka Cover Contest is accepting entries!

    Hey, Kids: The 2021 AJW Hanuka Cover Contest is accepting entries!

  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • AJW Digital Archives
  • News
    • All
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia & New Zealand
    • Europe
    • Israel/Mideast
    • Latin America
    • Minnesota
    • US & Canada
    From Jerusalem with love and compassion

    From Jerusalem with love and compassion

    Jewish groups fight for abortion rights in Minnesota

    Jewish groups fight for abortion rights in Minnesota

    ‘Honoring Our Graduates’ in May 2022

    Once again: Honoring Our Graduates

  • Arts
    • All
    • Blue Box
    • Books & Literature
    • Music
    • Televison & Film
    • Theater & Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    Poems wanted

    Poems wanted

    Tamara Nadel marries Jewish and Hindu dance traditions

    Tamara Nadel marries Jewish and Hindu dance traditions

    Searching for a bridge to the past

    Searching for a bridge to the past

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel & Culture
    ‘Honoring Our Graduates’ in May 2022

    Once again: Honoring Our Graduates

    ‘Honoring Our Graduates’ in May 2022

    ‘Honoring Our Graduates’ in May 2022

    Hey, Kids: The 2021 AJW Hanuka Cover Contest is accepting entries!

    Hey, Kids: The 2021 AJW Hanuka Cover Contest is accepting entries!

  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • AJW Digital Archives
No Result
View All Result
Morning News
No Result
View All Result
Home Arts

Tranquil waters, peaceful landscapes

Cancer survivor Nancy Chakrin’s art show offers healing

American Jewish World by American Jewish World
May 24, 2020
in Arts
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

By DORIS RUBENSTEIN

To look at the placid images painted by Minnetonka artist Nancy Chakrin, now on exhibit at Sholom Home West in St. Louis Park, you might not believe that they are an outgrowth of her experience with violence. This is not the kind of violence that involves guns or fists, but it leaves scars that are both physical and psychological. Chakrin is a breast cancer survivor.

READ ALSO

Poems wanted

Tamara Nadel marries Jewish and Hindu dance traditions

The paintings and giclee (pronounced “gee-clay”) prints in Tranquil Waters and Landscapes are one of the artist’s tools in visualizing and incorporating health into a life that has fought with a killer. Similarly, many residents of the long-term care center at Sholom Home West are struggling with diseases and conditions that threaten to shorten or end their lives.

“The invitation to hang this show at a long-term care facility has provided a most rewarding art experience for those residents who could not be transported to an art gallery or museum,” Chakrin said.

Virtually all of the works on display represent bucolic scenes of lakes, rivers, fields and mountains. Chakrin is a fan of big skies and revels in clouds depicted at every time of day, reflecting the changes of sun and weather.

Artist Nancy Chakrin and her oil on linen triptych painting “Dawn’s Light at Lake Superior.” (Photo: Pat Levine)
Artist Nancy Chakrin and her oil on linen triptych painting “Dawn’s Light at Lake Superior.” (Photo: Pat Levine)

A Minnesota native, and niece of the late renowned Minnesota artist William Saltzman, Chakrin lived for 16 years in upstate New York, not far from the Hudson River. While many of the landscapes depicted are from that area, Minnesotans who have lived close to farms or Lake Pepin may easily mistake the eastern U.S. subjects for spots closer to home.

“My Neighbor’s Farm” has warm rust-reds of autumn foliage that match the oxblood barn paint, melding into a golden field split by a soft blue meandering stream that might easily be mistaken for a site along the Minnesota River near Jordan.

Chakrin admits the influence of the 19th-century landscape artists from the Hudson River School, such as Frederick Church. Their paintings often veer toward photographic realism. Chakrin’s work, however, is closer to that of Monet and the Impressionists.

Nowhere is that more clearly shown than in “Dawn’s Light at Lake Superior.” This triptych is reminiscent of Monet’s “Water Lilies” in its Impressionist style and use of color. This is where the comparison ends. Monet gloried in the garden; cultivated flowers in an artificial pond. Chakrin shares the awe of nature at its finest, with reflections of sunlight peeking through the breaking storm clouds upon distant waves, creating flower-like spots of light on America’s blue inland sea.

Whether painting places with happy memories — like the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca or further downstream at St. Paul’s Hidden Falls — the focus is on the scenery. There is scarcely a scene where a human face or form intrudes upon the peace of the landscape.

Since her paintings are instruments of healing, the artist deliberately excludes anyone but the viewer from participating in the experience, allowing each person to project themselves into the scene and take or give to it just what is needed to make it complete.

“As a breast cancer survivor, my goal in painting the landscape is not only to provide serenity and peace for myself, but to offer tranquil and healing images for all to enjoy,” Chakrin said. “Especially for those going through cancer treatment and other debilitating illnesses.”

The Marsh by Nancy Chakrin

For all of the familiarity of many landscape scenes — a boat tied at a dock, evergreens growing precariously on a rocky bank along Lake Superior — none of the paintings is sentimentalized. These are not candidates for a duck-stamp competition.

This is particularly true of a series of paintings done in a more modern, almost abstract style, of mountains in Scotland. Here Chakrin departs from the more naturalistic palette of her American landscapes and experiments with explosions of bright colors and stronger textures.

Few people venture into Sholom Home West’s long-term care wing willingly. No one wants to be ill. Tranquil Waters and Landscapes gives visitors and residents to Sholom Home West a happy, healing reason to visit, to view, to enjoy or to be healed.

***

In October, Friendship… The Art of the Practice, by Laurie Ellis-Young and Nancy Chakrin, will be published by Tristan Publishing. The volume is a collection of photographs depicting friends practicing yoga in spectacular settings around the world.

Related Posts

Poems wanted
Books & Literature

Poems wanted

June 7, 2022
Tamara Nadel marries Jewish and Hindu dance traditions
Theater & Performing Arts

Tamara Nadel marries Jewish and Hindu dance traditions

May 10, 2022
Searching for a bridge to the past
Books & Literature

Searching for a bridge to the past

May 9, 2022
‘Sadie on a Plate’ spans romance, cooking
Books & Literature

‘Sadie on a Plate’ spans romance, cooking

April 24, 2022
Talented cast elevates ‘Two Jews Walk Into a War …’
Theater & Performing Arts

Talented cast elevates ‘Two Jews Walk Into a War …’

April 24, 2022
A musician’s musician
Music

A musician’s musician

March 16, 2022
Next Post

Republican National Committee chairman blasts Obama administration's relations with Israel

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RECENT ARTICLES

From Jerusalem with love and compassion

From Jerusalem with love and compassion

June 21, 2022
Jewish groups fight for abortion rights in Minnesota

Jewish groups fight for abortion rights in Minnesota

June 21, 2022
Editorial: Elections and Trump’s big lie

Editorial: Elections and Trump’s big lie

June 24, 2022
Poems wanted

Poems wanted

June 7, 2022
‘Honoring Our Graduates’ in May 2022

Once again: Honoring Our Graduates

May 11, 2022

About

Since 1912 the AJW has served as an important news resource for the Jewish community. The Jewish World unites the main Jewish communities in St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as those in Duluth, Rochester and smaller cities, and bridges the divides between the various Jewish religious streams.

Quick Links

  • About the AJW
  • Advertising Information
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Subscription Information
  • Jewish Community Directory

Contact Us

The American Jewish World
3249 Hennepin Ave., Suite 245
Minneapolis, MN 55408

Tel: 612.824.0030 / Fax: 612.823.0753
editor@ajwnews.com

  • Buy JNews
  • Landing Page
  • Documentation
  • Support Forum

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
  • News
  • Food
  • Health & Wellness
  • Lifestyle
  • Opinion

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.