Art and History

The old mail boxes at Ein Hod are now an art piece. I thought this was a good recycling use.

The time is going fast here, We had a wonderful guided tour of Haifa and Akko and learned more history of this area. Those two cities have mixed populations of Christian Arabs, Jews, Bahai's etc. and there are no nasty stabbings there like in Jerusalem.The Bahai gardens were beautiful.

We could see snow on the mountains in the distance, but the camera did not pick that up.

We saw the inside of a mosque in Akko, very beautiful.

We learned more about the sheik who was in charge of building this mosque. He was known as Al Jazzar, the butcher. He was apparently a nasty person. I don't know if that is true or not.

The shuk (market) was busy and interesting. I think the fish are mostly local as Akko is right on the Mediterranean.

Since Akko was an important port on the Mediterranean in ancient times, there is a lot of history there, from the Crusades, the Templars, the Mammeluks and more recently (last century), the British.

Templar tunnel (underground) connects several walkways under the city.

On Vacation in Ein Hod, Israel

I am on a month's vacation in the artist colony of Ein Hod, Israel. It is spring here and the trees and flowers are blooming.  I am surrounded by beautiful buildings, sculpture and art, some serious, some not.

We have been visiting friends and famiy in Israel as well. Yesterday we went to the Ralli Museum in Caesaria to hear a choir sing. One of my friends is in the choir. The museum was beautiful outside and in. The choir was great. Then we met one of the choir members who also knew another friend we hadn't seen since 2012.  We had a noisy felafel dinner in a noisy mall. It's almost Purim here and they had a show going on for the kids. Food in Israel is terrific. Lots of fresh fruit and veggies.

Israel is not like what is portrayed in the media. We feel safer here even though every apartment has a bomb shelter, than we would feel in the big cities in America.

I've only done a little sketching and some small paintings here.  I will do more of them when I am back home and able to work in my studio. I only brought some acrylic paints with me and small canvases.

Photos above are from Ralli Museum art (contemporary art from South American artists.

I have posted more photos on FaceBook and in my web albums. Google has taken over Picasa, but if you have a sign in for Google, you can see all the photos. There is a link on the right.