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"Marsha," 2023, watercolor and charcoal on paper, 45x36, by Lisa Edelstein. |
My parents are on the move again. After two years at an assisted living facility in Buffalo Grove, it's down to Addison to a smaller place that better suits their needs. Moving means packing, and once more my wife and I boxed up their dwindling possessions — far fewer than when they left Boulder in 2022 — weeding out what can't make the transition from three rooms to one.
"How about this?" my wife said, holding up a round metal 1950s cookie tin. "Photos."
"Throw it away," replied my mother. She never even looked inside.
The past burdens and buoys us, holding us back and driving us forward, like stunned survivors wandering across a minefield. The moment I clapped eyes on Lisa Edelstein's paintings, my first thought was "Jewish unease." The awkwardness of one's own relatives, frozen in the garish 1970s. The lucky few who somehow made it from Lodz to Levittown. They call to us, in their thin, wavering voices, from beyond the grave, or its lip. A hard tin to throw away, and Edelstein has taken her family Kodachromes and transformed them into evocative paintings.
"I love finding the in-between shots, the poorly posed, the awkward, the strange angles, even damaged photos or film stills," said Edelstein, an actor you might know as Dr. Cuddy in "House." "Taking these unvalued shots and blowing the images up into carefully rendered paintings, celebrating them that way — there’s so much life and story and discomfort that gets exposed."
Edelstein's work has to be viewed through the fog of anti-Semitism, always a haze in society but billowing up even more after six months of the war in Gaza. Not the easiest moment to be Jewish, never mind examine the out-of-placeness of our tribe.
"Yes, this is a wildly fraught time to be Jewish, which is absolutely part of why I am making these paintings," said Edelstein, whose husband, Robert Russell, is also an artist. "Robert and I have gone to countless art shows over the 14 years we’ve been together, and we’ve seen a lot of identity-based work. All of the various identities were demanding representation within the larger human story. And not just representation — celebration. But not Jews. Where are the Jews?"
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You have a kid brother? I can't remember you saying much about him. I always wished I had a brother.
ReplyDeleteWonderful article. I enjoyed Lisa Edelstein on House - who knew she was a talented artist? Her paintings are art at the highest level - windows into a world that needs to be documented.
ReplyDeleteThank you For this article. I too inherited photos. I encourage you to take the ones with people you don’t know and talk to your parents about them. There are great stories there! Also I’m not Jewish but I see my family in those paintings, they brought back fond memories.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I read an article about "Israeli genocide" or "cease fire," I do a word search for "Hamas." As often as not it comes up empty. Funny how that works.
ReplyDeleteI listened to a piece on NPR documenting the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. In particular, it surrounded the story of a doctor who worked at a hospital that had been badly damaged during the fighting.
DeleteNever once did I hear any suggestion that Hamas should surrender in order to end this suffering. The radio piece painted a picture that sounded like only one side was engaged in warfare that it was unprovoked and that it was somehow the Israelis who should end the war.
If Israel does not destroy Hamas or bring them to their knees, it will only be a matter of time till this whole cycle repeats itself, why doesn't anybody understand in the media That Hamas must renounce the violent destruction of Israel and that the people of Palestine can live a much improved life
Well said, FME.
DeleteI am that rare breed in Chicago, a true WASP, who grew up in very undiverse places. Yet somehow I came to the realization that Jews are part of humanity and Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself when it is attacked. Any country has a right to do so, as did the United States in 2001. Yet, when we chose Iraq as a target we were criticized. Israel, is being criticicized, not for defending itself, but for appearing to throw the Palestinian baby out with the Hamas bath water. In defending itself, Ukraine and its allies are walking a fine line between defense and creating a wider war with Russia. Let us hope a wider war in the Middle East is not in the making.
ReplyDeleteLisa Edelstein captured me as the call girl involved with Rob Lowe on The West Wing. I read that she was an artistic young woman in the New York club scene before making her way into our living rooms. I think it's her eyes that hold attention even when her costar is very annoying and has you reaching for the remote. I have also done several sortings of old photos, but I just shared them with my family. While that made some of them happy, I suspect Edelstein's effects would be more widely appreciated. Unfortunately I will not be back north before her showing concludes. I would endorse Anonymous 8:13 recommendation, start with your oldest relations for information about people in photos and for stories about your family if you ever want to complete your family tree.
ReplyDeleteGreat picture of you and Sam and your gramma! Love Lisa Edelstein's sensibility and her focus on old photos, because I'm also obsessed with the "worst" family photos. They are the best! I'm just surprised that *she* is surprised that so many people recognize themselves in her paintings. I'd be surprised if anybody who remembers the 70s didn't. That's good art, plus these photos (the ones I see admittedly) could be from a huge slice of American families circa 1970s, certainly any working-middle class families with immigrant families from the early 20th century. And that's a whole lot of people, only a small percentage of which are Jewish. The accordion in "Marsha" takes it out of the WASP world I guess, but that's about it. Looks like home to me! I'm sorry to hear she's getting blowback from paintings that include yarmulkes--which admittedly are not in any of my old (Catholic) family photos. Unfortunately, that too is not surprising these days.
ReplyDelete"I'd be surprised if anybody who remembers the 70s didn't." Steve Bertolucci certainly would!
DeleteThis is probably not a good place for it, but I just wanted to say that you've been a fine addition to the "Mincing Rascals" podcast, Cate. (Though, um, I mostly just watch the short videos Eric Zorn posts on his Substack...)
It is certainly easy to tell that this is not a good time for Neil and his family as well as gpt his tribe and humanity at large. Myself, I have a deep and long lasting aversion to nationalism in any of its manifestations, including in the English isles. Proud to be Irish used to work for me, when I was eight years old and regrettably somewhat longer, even after I was confronted with incontrovertible evidence of the evils it has invited on our planet.
ReplyDeleteThe situations in Europe and in the Middle East could not be more fraught with danger. No one can deny that the United States and other nations did a good thing recently in helping Israel defend itself from Iran's drone and missile attacks. One hopes that Iran will be satisfied with beating its chest over its "lesson" for Israel and that Netanyahu will also have sense enough to leave well enough alone and will listen to the cries of many of his constituents for him to take the first step towards peace.
And here's hoping that Neil's parents will find comfort and contentment in their new home.
John
I liked the 1968 picture of you, your brother and grandma. I was living in North Royalton, OH at that time. Right down the street.
ReplyDeleteThis one was powerful for me. Thanks for writing it.
ReplyDeleteAre those pictures labeled, Mr. S? Names and dates? I inherited too many photographs to count when my mother died in 2012. Pasted in stacks of photo albums. Many had been labeled, in my mother's classic Palmer-method cursive, when they were originally taken in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. But too many more had neither names nor dates, thus rendering them essentially meaningless. And eventually, worthless.
ReplyDeleteAs she got older, my mother valiantly...and vainly...tried to organize and categorize all those loose photos in the shoeboxes, the cookie tins, and the plastic bags. Attempting to identify all those old Jews, young Jews, and middle-aged Jews in the mostly black-and-white images. And at least assigning a year of origin to as many as she could.
But too much time had already whizzed by, and too many of the photos just remained blank. In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, she finally pasted them into scrapbooks and photo albums. After her death, I ended up with half of them. My sister got the rest. Mostly so her only daughter could enjoy them. Which she probably didn't. She's a science geek. History has always seemed to bore her.
Gave most of my share, after rarely perusing them, to the first cousin who was our de facto family historian. She's dead now, and she has joined nearly all of the people in the albums. I'm sure the albums themselves, just like those who were in them, no longer exist.
Does that really bother me? Not all that much. Soon I too will no longer exist. Once I used to care about things like family histories and legacies. Comes a time when it really doesn't matter anymore. Apparently, at almost 77, I have reached that time. Perhaps, Mr. S, one day you will, too.
No doubt. Some are labeled. Most, not.
DeleteI am 77 and while I neve think of family legacy. There are some things I would still like to know. My dad's parents came from Ukraine in 1900 or 1901. The person who was our great grandfather was not our biological great grandfather. Apparently my great grandmother had no siblings or none that we know of. My brother took a 23 and me test. A cousin came up but we already knew about him.
DeleteIn too many instances, that's the way it is. And there's nobody left to identify the subjects. Those who could do so are either too far gone to be of much help, or they've already left the building.
DeleteThere is a resonance in a photo even with strangers. I was one day old sleeping in Bristol, IL, while your photo in Ohio was taken.
ReplyDelete