Spirit of Safed Through a Window נפש צפת מחלון

Art: 20 layers of coordinated paper cuts. 12”x20” (30x51cm) Frame: Wood. 70-100 year-old shuttered window frame. 16”x24” (42x61cm). אמנות: 20 שכבות של חיתוכי נייר מתואמים. (30×51ס”מ). מסגרת חלון עץ בתריס בן 70-100. (42×61 ס”מ)

By Jonathan Lyon. יונתן ליון Inquiries by email or phone: פניות במייל או טלפון JVLYON@GMAIL.COM Israel +972 (58)-647-8411 בישראל USA: +1 (510) 335-3567 (connects to my phone in Israel). מארצות הברית Price/ ₪5,000/$1,530 (shipping not included/המכיר אינו כולל משלוח)

Open the shutters at gaze out onto this marvelous city of glowing stones and rooftops, intimate courtyards and bougainvillea trellises.

Part of my growing series, “Love Letter to Israel”, this piece is my homage to the beautiful mystical vertical city of Safed (pronounced “Tsfat”).

This piece tries to capture the peace of the stones, the presence of place and lives of the people who live here.

I tried to express this within the city’s verticality and its expansive views of the Mt. Meron environment.

Looking at the city from lower left to upper right one ascends over 350 feet. And the birds and clouds in the sky bring you higher still.

There is a lot of small detail in the picture and much had to be cut using a low power “microscope” (IPhone using 10x magnification)

I tried to also capture some of the various moods of the city as well, like these back alleys. Getting lost in Sefat and trudging up and down worn slippery steps is an integral part of life here.

And then suddenly you hear music and someone is sitting on a porch or at the front door playing a concerto!

Or you round a corner at the bottom of steps and suddenly hear the sounds of children’s laughter as they dominate the street with their play.

Or the sound of wind whipping through alleys or through one incongruous tree growing right out of a dilapidated wall or from a garden too small to hold it. Or the sound of various birds, depending on the season.

The old mosque, now the Safed General Art Exhibition, open daily.

There are plenty of wondering confused people living in or visiting Safed. And one is reminded that we’re all visitors here and are humbled.

That is what I was thinking about when I came up with a new byword:

“You can see the world in a flower And if you see and listen carefully enough to another person, you can see the totality and majesty of God’s Creation.”