Interview
Nira Chorev
Born in Boston, MA in 1952, Nira Chorev was raised and educated in the United States and Israel. She graduated from Art Teachers College (Harzelia, Israel) receiving a BA in Fine Art in 1974 and attended the School of the Museum of Fine Art (SMFA) in Boston, MA at second year level, where she received multiple degrees including Bachelor of Fine Arts, Diploma, pursued her fifth year post graduate studies in 1977.
While in the fifth year post graduate studies program, she was an assistant to both printing and drawing classes, and won a traveling scholarship which she used to revive her photographic work and merge it with the work she was doing in silk screen and printing class. Her early work on large canvases was in acrylic, looking at landscapes from a bird’s-eye view, seeing the contrasting forms in color, and focusing on the positive and negative shapes in space. In 2008, she returned to the United States to attend the Continuing Education Program and Workshops at the School of the Museum of Fine Art (SMFA). Currently, she is living in the Boston area and working in mixed media, using photos to capture moments as memories that trigger the artwork she creates with them.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“In my early childhood, I knew that I wanted to become an artist. I was living on a farm with my family and my grandmother who was an embroidery artist. She showed me the difference between leaves facing the sun that are a lighter color than that of a leaf that is pale and dull. She showed me how flowers can change their color as the hours pass, the wind in the tall grass, the migration of the birds and the drifting clouds in the blue sky. I see myself as a mixed media artist, I love playing with different layers of materials, using my photos as they integrate into the painting in a series of artworks, until the moment when everything comes together, and I can hear the music play.”
Dream 6 - Mixed media on paper
What inspires you?
“I find inspiration in my daily life, in the everyday things, looking outside my window, driving to the grocery store with my friend, cooking, reading a book, looking at the birds and chipmunks running, the noises outside, the way the winds blow the leaves on the ground, from working in the garden, smelling the roses , eating mango, the cypress tree at my parents backyard, just looking at nature, all those things are triggering my imagination and bring me the inspiration for creating my artwork.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“Through the past few months, I’ve been working on a series “Homes on a Journey.” The name for this body of work comes from poems that I was reading that were written by my dear friend. We both are dealing with living in two countries. Constantly traveling overseas gives me a much different perspective of the distance, the time, the homes, sunsets, sunrise - everything turns into one big landscape that has no borders. I took this body of work a few steps forward by using new elements from the poem; adding new materials, some people see connection to the Holocaust. To others, it reminds them of immigrants that have taken place all over the world in the last few decades. This is what I’m going to work on in the future. In between, I will go back to preserving nature and try to bring it back to its balance. What I learned about my artwork is that to create my mixed media I need constantly to draw trees and be close to nature. My underlying message is to create artwork that is balanced, that ‘plays the music.’”
How would you describe your work?
“My overall working theme is ‘memories and now.’ The photographs I take are the ‘memories’ and the new scenes that come out are the ‘now.’ Each artwork begins with a photo that I have taken, which becomes the central motif, but which ultimately is integrated into the overall painting. A new technique which I have developed by drawing with soft pastels on the photo, gives me the ability and the opportunity to continue drawing the photo to the surface I’m painting on, and it is a unique way of creating my artwork. Typically, I work in series, each group of paintings is devoted to a theme drawn from nature or an aspect of human experience. In every series, I use the same photos again and again as a starting point, but with each piece I explore the theme from a different angle. Over the course of a series, individual elements may recur and come to life in different contexts, each painting reflecting my own life experience, and the series as a whole telling a story using my language that consists of lines, positive and negative shapes that come from nature. By mixing my own colors, I have managed to develop different shades of blues and other colors. My artistic goal is to be a highly regarded mixed media artist whose body of work exemplifies excellence, creativity, and balance that will inspire its viewers and bring them optimistic thoughts.”
Which artists influence you most?
“Picasso, Matisse, Sargent (watercolorist), Moshe Rosenthalis (Israeli painter) and the photographer Robert Osborne (black and white portrait photographer). From each one, I learned something else and all together they gave me the tools I needed in order to become mixed media artist with a clear vision.”
Homes on a Journey - Mixed media on paper
What is your creative process like?
“It all begins with the photos I take on my travels. Then, selecting the ones I will use, I send them to be printed on non-glossy paper, combining together the different materials. If it will be a continuation of a series the process has already begun, but if it’s new I will pick a theme that is important to me. If it’s new, I will first decide if it’s going to be on paper or canvas. This is very crucial information for the surface I will be using. Sometimes, I will create a standalone piece between the multiple ranges of series. The standalone piece gives me the opportunity to study deeper the next theme. In the process, I love to try new things that will trigger my ability to push forward my capabilities testing to endless limitations. The sky is not the limit.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“Each artist has a different role that contributes to the development of society. Poets, painters and sculptors bring joy, interaction and inspiration to their communities, which push the communities to engage in thought and behavioral change that create constructive steps towards social progress.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“My artwork has been exhibited at The Royal School of Art in London, the Esart Gallery in Barcelona, the Madrid Exhibition Center, Spain, and the Glicksman Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland, Emerging – Boston City Hall Gallery, Boston, MA; NAVE Gallery, Somerville, MA; Art Takes Times Square, NYC; the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC; Art Expo, USA, NY; Boston’s Resnikoff Gallery and the SMFA Grossman Gallery; The Studio Gallery, Irvine, CA.; Post Office Gallery, Inc., North Truro, MA, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA; as well as in Israel - Tova Osman Gallery, Tel-Aviv in 2023.”
Website: nirachorev.wordpress.com
