MANY WAYS TO TELL THE STORY, Mixed Media, by Cynthia Brody

SPOTLIGHT ON: Bittersweet Legacy -- Creative Responses to the Holocaust -- Art, Poetry, Stories

Curated by Cynthia Brody and Denise Satter; anthology of the same name edited by Cynthia Brody

HK: How did the idea to do this exhibit come about?

CB: My parents are both Holocaust survivors, which has had an incredible impact on my life-probably in more ways than I could understand. When I moved to the Bay Area 5 1/2 years ago, I found that there were many other people with families like mine and that much had been created in an effort to integrate this unfathomable experience into their lives. The inspiration came to me like a bolt of lightning, while listening to survivors and their children. I realized that much of this work must exist and my guess was that a good part of it might not be seen, due to the personal nature. In that moment I saw in my mind's eye an anthology of written and visual work as well as museum shows of the art. The art exhibit is an extension of the efforts of the anthology and will include newer works by contributing artists. Denise Satter, another artist and child of survivors, approached me about a year ago with the desire to collaborate in finding venues for Holocaust art. It is through her efforts that this show came to be.

MANY WAYS TO TELL THE STORY (DETAIL), Mixed Media, by Cynthia Brody



HK: How did it evolve? How did you meet, make contact with, solicit work from, collaborate with the other artists?

CB: I sent news releases to every major city newspaper as well as every Jewish newspaper in North America asking for these creative expressions for the anthology. I soon began to receive beautiful and poignant poems, stories and art from people across the continent who seemed very pleased to be finding a place to tell their story. I quickly came to know of many in the Bay Area as was amazed at the diversity of expression and materials. Early in the project timetable we got together and shared slides of our work and readings of poetry. We all found the experience to be powerful as our individual struggles to deal with this awful period of family and world history were reflected in the words and images of others. Since then, some of us have formed friendships where we can speak the same language based on common understanding and experience. For me, this project which began with the receipt of personal expressions from virtual strangers, was the beginning of a great healing process. By exposing myself to this material I have felt less of a sense of being different, of alienation, due to having lived through this experience.

CONFLAGRATION, Mixed Media, by Barbara Milman, Davis, CA


HK: I think someone (who?) said the true master is the person who helps others become masters -- tell me about the experience of working, creating, collaborating and producing with other artists and producing others' work?

CB: It has been very different for me. I have felt very maternal about these projects, wanting to preserve the original themes. My own work has been secondary so that the project develops as a whole. I feel a great commitment to the contributors of the anthology to find a publisher and to expose the work through exhibitions. That commitment surpasses any I have felt in respect to my own art. In a way, I feel like this is my contribution to the history, especially since there will be school tours of the exhibit and an opportunity to influence young minds through education.

MADONNA AND CHILD, Acrylics on Canvas, by Denise Satter, Santa Clara, CA


HK: How has the exhibit and/or creating work on this subject changed you? Changed your family/friends?

CB: In some weird way it has given me a sense of control about a subject over which, of course, I had none. It has made me feel a part of something larger as I realize how many people truly were affected by the Holocaust, whether through family loss or as an assault to their sense of what it is to be human. My parents seem to be surprised that the Holocaust still has such an importance to me. It seems to trouble my mother that I do not leave it behind and live a more carefree life. My father seems proud that I have taken on the mantle. My children accept that it is a part of me. Creating the pieces that will be in this exhibit has been hard. The last one elicited nightmares for the whole time I worked on it, though the making of it was not disturbing. The nightmares ended the day the piece was finished. The experience was probably accelerated by the fact that I had just recently returned from Eastern Europe. It was my first encounter with the place where my family's history happened, and I took with me my daughter as well as my parents who were returning for the first time since the war. The piece in question is the first in which I am altering my own images by using a computer. We have only one photo of my father's family still intact before the war. I changed that image in many ways and arranged them on copper and slate. It is called "Many Ways to Tell the Story". What a strange feeling to mask out certain people and then reverse to negative and see them appear as ghosts in the photo. I experimented with ghosting those who had lived as well as those who perished as I wondered about who has lasting influence whether here or gone. I added my family to an existing painting about families and then created new images from that combination. Spending so much time with these images made them and their experiences more familiar to me.

DYBBUK, Pastel on Board, by Elly Simmons, Lagunitas, CA


HK: What projects have been born out of this one?

CB: We have hopes of this project giving birth to a traveling show. My goal is to have schools exposed to this work across the country, or even the world. In order to accomplish that we will need public support.

HK: Anything else you'd like to share?

CB: Just the belief that if we are born with the desire to create that becomes an imperative which must be acted upon. In my experience, both personally and working with creative people as a therapist, if that creativity is not acted upon people will begin to suffer in some real way. I think this can happen through anxiety or depression or finding less effective ways to put the energy to use. I also believe that our history is a part of ourselves, and if we become familiar with it we will come to understand our lives. Creativity is like a key to our psyche and our spirituality, and it is up to us to open the doors. When the door is opened, I think we find ourselves as well as others on the other side.

HK: Website links we should know about?

http://members.aol.com/womaninsf/index.html for my art site.

http://members.aol.com/btswlegacy/index.html for the site related to the anthology and Triton Museum show.

http://members.aol.com/cynbrody/index.html for my psychotherapy site which also has a link to my parenting help site.


HK: Where is the show exactly?

CB: The Sarah Shenson Community Gallery of the Triton Museum of Art, 1505 Warburton Avenue in Santa Clara, CA. The show runs January 20th through February 21st, from 1-4 pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The Opening is Sunday January 30th, from 1-4 pm.

No images published herein may be duplicated, printed, or published on the internet or elsewhere, without the express permission of the artist.

Interview and Page Design by Hilary Kretchmer

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