Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on March 19, 2015

From left: Itamar Paloge and Hillel Smith take a break from painting a mural at the Silverlake Independent JCC. Photo by Avishay Artsy

Over the past week, two graffiti artists have been applying layers of bright orange and blue paint to an outdoor wall of the Silverlake Independent JCC. Hillel Smith, a native Angeleno, and Itamar Paloge, a Tel Aviv-based artist, met a year ago through their shared interest in street art. Now theyre creating Jewish-themed murals across Los Angeles.

The JCC mural features a massive orange Hebrew letter, alef, which fills the wall space. Surrounding the letter are blue calligraphic lines that reference the forms of the Hebrew alphabet but are not actual letters.

It does incorporate the styles that both of us work in, Smith said. My work tends to be a lot more geometric and angular, and Itamars is a lot more free-flowing. This layering effect really brings the two things together.

This is just one in a series of works the artists are making incorporating the Hebrew alphabet as a design element. Their current project, Illuminated Streets, references illuminated manuscripts, beautifully decorated handwritten books that are part of a rich history of Jewish typographic art.

Smith said he enjoys the unusual juxtaposition of Jewish tradition and contemporary media such as graffiti. Smith grew up in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles, riding his bicycle to the comic book shops on Melrose Avenue and admiring the street art of his hometown. In L.A., he said, street art is closely tied to cultural identity, and it bothered him that there was no Jewish representation in street art.

I always felt like, growing up, OK, I have a lot of pride in my Jewish heritage, and theres all this really interesting work happening elsewhere; how come theres really nothing interesting thats Jewish out there? he said, pointing to Japanese-inspired murals in Little Tokyo and Mesoamerican-themed murals in Boyle Heights. So, while not all of my work is Jewish, and not all of my work, I dont think, needs to be Jewish, it did feel important to me. Like, I have the ability to do this, and I can represent my own identity and the identity of my community in a way that other communities have successfully been able to do so far.

Smith first pitched the idea of doing Jewish-themed graffiti projects around L.A. at SEDER, an event where artists present their ideas, and participants pool their money and vote on which artists project to fund. Smiths grant helped him purchase materials and make connections with other Jewish artists. Anne Hromadka, art consultant and program director for the Jewish Artists Initiative, runs the SEDER events as part of her role as director of Nu Art Projects.

Why not have spaces that are designed and beautiful and speak to the multilayered generations that inhabit areas like Pico-Robertson or Fairfax, or going to school at AJU [American Jewish University] or HUC [Hebrew Union College], Hromadka said. There are endless possibilities to be reflecting back on our culture in new ways that are exciting and interesting and innovative, and speak to developing a new language for us to interpret our oldest traditions.

Smith is a full-time graphic designer and has made small-format spray paint work for a few years. He made a mural at Camp Ramah in Ojai in 2013 and met Paloge last March at Asylum Arts, a summit for emerging Jewish artists in New York. About 70 artists participated in last years gathering, which was supported by the Schusterman Family Foundation. The pair bonded over street art and a shared love of typographic art.

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Graffiti artists draw on Jewish roots

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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