Shahna Lax

My art is not intended as a political statement, but rather as an expression of my reality.

I am a Jewish woman in love with the aesthetics and values of my Islamic cousins.

This love of mine has its historical roots in the time I refer to as "The Precarious Age of Fruitful Tolerance" -- the Andalusian Golden Age of Spain spanning the better part of 700 years of Moorish rule and the inspiration for the European Renaissance of the arts and sciences; 700 years of the flowering of the Judaic and Islamic cultures together
in one place. That cousin love has since diminished and a fine enmity glares at us in the mirror. Yet outside the machinations of political agendas, territoriality and closed circuit religious dogma, what has really changed? We are both still Semites. Our languages of origin still share the same 3-lettered root verb form. Beauty, be it auditory, visual or emotional, binds us still to common expressions of poetry, music, geometric patterns, calligraphic flowings, the innate warmth of hospitality and the love of sensual foods.

My work, then, is my personal reflection of reality which goes beyond the rift--a reality where the Source of Divine Revelation is found by gazing into one's own personal Human Heart.

Back to Shahna || Shahna's Artwork

©2010, Desert Foundation, all rights reserved.