Yael Maimon

Intro to Ticket to Wonderland

We all have books, records, movie, Arts objects, that pushes all the right memory buttons.  These are what one co-worker used to call pet rocks.  What she really meant, of course, was, obsessions. I confess that “Alice in Wonderland” is one of mine. A big one of mine. Just how much was not evident to me until I thought about what Yael’s interpretive work inspired in me. The result is the extremely personal essay that is included with this issue.

What I wrote does not directly relate to Yael’s work, but would not have existed had she not sent me her pieces.  I saw in “Ticket to Wonderland”, a more than slightly lost little girl, someone who is physically in a world but not of it, someone who has taken a step through the Looking Glass but somehow remained on both sides of the glass, at home in neither. She is both out of time and out of space. She is not quite a refugee, but not a person with an identifiable home either.  Our modern Alice does not need to fall down a rabbit hole to become lost in a world of reverse reasoning; everyday life is the irrational place now.

My original plan was to include my essay and Yael’s Art in one piece. As I did multiple drafts of my essay, it became apparent that her work needed to be on its own.  It is enough that the Art is there, as the stimulus, and it would be an injustice to her craft to make them illustrative of someone else’s art, no matter how complimentary the association was meant. The original draft of my essay included a broad, free associative inclusion of all the aspects of Alice that I could think of.  While this was a, broader and richly associative, it lacked focus.  Later drafts revealed to me that there was a deeper psychological reason for a lifelong obsession with Alice, and I felt it made more sense to focus on a particular, rather than a general.  But enough about me, this about Yael.  And Alice. And a “Ticket to Wonderland”. See what you think.

In these portraits of Alice, inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I tried to capture Alice's emotional state in a chaotic reality. Alice finds herself in a world ruled by nonsense and chaos, quite a frightening world. Alice is trying to make her way or find her way in this strange, half-mad world. Although she often finds herself lost and frustrated, she keeps going forward, trying to face the challenges and confronting impossible situations. Sometimes I depict Alice with a black rabbit companion. For the rabbit's fur, I used charcoal strokes. I was interested in creating a rough fur texture with hard edges to suggest hard times. 

Details of artworks:
One Way Ticket to Wonderland, pastel, 16x22 inch
One Way Ticket to Wonderland #2, pastel, 19.5x11 inch
One Way Ticket to Wonderland #3, pastel, 19.5x12.5 inch

Visit www.yaelmaimon.com

Yael Maimon was born in Israel in 1980. Drawing and painting since forever, Maimon decided to be fully committed to her art in her early twenties. In 2003 she graduated from Bar Ilan University with a first degree B.A. in Psychology. Her art education includes studying with the oil painter Amnon David Ar in Israel and attending several workshops in Europe. Maimon enjoys painting in a variety of media including oil, pastel and watercolor. She is best known for her Cats series. Maimon is also working on a figurative series and a still-life series. Although grounded in realism, Maimon's paintings are often impressionist in nature. Her artwork was featured in solo and collective art exhibitions in Israel, gained international recognition and has been bought by private collectors.