Flight of the Soul 2006

Israel Tsvaygenbaum painted this dreamlike vision called 'Flight of the Soul' using oils, though when, is anyone's guess. There’s a figure playing a pipe, standing on one leg atop a giant blue pigeon. The pigeon itself seems perched above a townscape of orange and yellow tinged buildings. I imagine Tsvaygenbaum in his studio, layering these colors with the focus and precision of someone telling a very special story, one built from memory and emotion. The light is warm, almost nostalgic, and it bathes everything in a hazy glow. What does it mean to connect the sound, the bird, the town, the light and a body? I can't help but think of Chagall, or maybe some other painter of the diaspora, trying to picture, trying to re-member a lost world in a new one. It feels like the memory of a place, real or imagined, is what gives this painting its charge. The very act of painting becomes a way to feel alive.