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Maya Britan: I am
Painter Maya Britan believes artists are not inventors but channelers; like a mystic, she opens herself to visions. Her richly colored, dreamlike images beautifully illustrate this belief. Self-taught, Britan grew up in Israel and began painting at age 14, but it was only after three husbands, three children and several businesses that she got serious about art. "Sometimes things happen in life that push you deeper into your work. You have to really commit to it. Art is like a wife. You can't just say 'I'll call you later.'" She's made that commitment and has been painting full time for the last 14 years.
We met in her apartment/studio in a classic old Hollywood building. Her easel sits beside an old piano. The room has high ceilings, antique linens draped romantically across doorways, and stacks of her beautiful paintings in every corner. Britan sits in a velvet chair with a glass of wine. She is an avid wine collector, comparing it to art, in that each is individually and consciously crafted.
She showed me a painting of three miners in a fiery underground, created over an intense three days. The subject is unusual for her, but the source was the same as ever--an image arrives, needing to burst out of her psyche. Upon finishing it she turned on the news to hear the story of three miners trapped underground in Mexico. The accident happened the day she started the painting. Eerie connections like this are common for Britan. She has recently completed work on a Tarot deck called The One Tarot, in the making for over 10 years. It is a 78 card deck based on the traditional set, but with her own suits: pears, curved blades, two-headed serpents, and stones, as well as reinterpreted major arcana cards. It will be published this summer, along with a guide book, by U.S. Games Systems.
Maya Britan's work is shown at Art Connection in the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, CA. She has a one-woman show opening at the Key Club in Hollywood, CA, in the next few months. Contact her via email at: Iamaton@aol.com --Jennifer Murphy |
Britan
described her latest series of paintings as "...moving between the 'I
am' of the individual ego, and the universal 'I am.'" The "I am" series
tries to capture an eternal moment through archetypal images of women.
The figures are often faceless or turned away, in vibrantly colored
gowns and swirling atmospheres. Britan is very prolific, always questioning
and moving forward. She uses her art as a way to express her metaphysical
explorations, leaving behind a beautiful record for us to ponder.
