Artist Ari Ziegler Has an Ambitious Dream Project

COLlive.com presents Art & Soul featuring renowned and up-and-coming visual artists who specialize in Jewish and Chassidic scenes and themes and showcase their works. The feature is presented in cooperation with the Leviim Jewish Art Gallery.

Ari Ziegler (Tzigler in Hebrew), 31, was born and bred in Brooklyn, New York, and studied at Brooklyn College CUNY. Currently residing in Great Neck, he has always been passionate about showing people the beauty and importance of being a proud Jew.

Through his work with “Israel Free Spirit,” he led over 500 young adults on trips to the Holy Land and inspired them through storytelling, education, mentorship, and, of course, through art.

How did you get into art?
I’ve always considered myself creative. As a matter of fact, when I was in pre-K, the teachers wrote home telling my mother that she shouldn’t touch up my coloring work and let me do it myself because I spent so much time making sure I was in the lines and that everything was perfect. Over the years, I continued with creative pursuits, drawing, painting, sculpting, and stuff like that. When the pandemic roll ’round, I found myself with more time in the day now that I wasn’t commuting. I started to more seriously devote it to developing my current collection of pieces.

How would you describe your art?
I’d describe my art as focusing on the story and the rituals of Judaism. I tend to focus on specific moments of our history, our story, the Torah, but also specific moments in our daily lives as Jews. Moments of prayer, learning, growth, observance. My art tries to focus on those and then use color and monotonous subjects to help put the meanings and the feelings of those moments onto the canvas.

What work are you most proud of?
This is such a tough question. I once asked my wife’s grandmother which of her grandchildren was her favorite and she answered that I was asking her to choose her right eye from her left. They’re both equally important, and the same goes for my artwork. That being said, my favorite subjects to paint are usually praying.

Growing up, I really had to work to connect with tefillah but now it’s one of my favorite things about being Jewish. There’s something unique about tefillah in Judaism, in that it’s at once so personal and also communal. We pray together and we pray for each other, but we also have all these hopes for ourselves and how we fit into the wider world. The Shema and the amidah, the louder prayer and the quiet one. The image of a person praying holds so much inside it.

What is your favorite part about being an artist?
Well, obviously making art, creating something that only existed in your mind and making it a reality is huge. Just being involved in this act of creation. That’s the job of a Jew also – we live so that we can be partners with Hashem in creation, in this world. Art is one of the greatest ways to do that. To bring something into the world that will inspire and affect others.

What is the most challenging part of your work?
Honestly, to find the time and to focus. One of the silver linings of this huge grey pandemic cloud we find ourselves living under was that I was afforded more time, by working from home and not having a two-hour commute. That was a huge help. Having that extra time to devote to the work. And that helped me focus also because it made me realize, “Here, you have these extra hours, are you going to use them, or are you going to waste them?” It’s still a challenge to stay focused and push projects into production and then eventually into completion.

What is your dream project?
I’ve actually thought about this a lot. I have this vision to paint all of the important moments from Jewish history (or as many as I can fit) onto a large (think 5-foot by 6-foot canvas). It would start at the bottom with the days of creation and include pivotal and emblematic moments throughout Tanach, Jewish history, and into the modern-day with Israel, with our hopes for the third Beit Hamikdash near the top somehow. One day, I hope to devote a good chunk of time to make that kind of vision a reality.

*

Ari Ziegler will be presenting his art this Thursday, April 1 at 2:00 PM at Leviim Art Gallery at American Dream Mall – 1 American Dream Way, East Rutherfold, NJ 07073