With Renowned Artist Michoel Muchnik
I was born in Philadelphia, and as a young adult pursuing an art degree at the Rhode Island School of Design, I got caught up in the culture of the Sixties. It was not until I dropped out of school and got introduced to Chabad that things started to change for me. This happened in 1972 when I was twenty.
Over time, I enrolled in Tiferes Bacuhurim, the Chabad yeshiva in Morristown New Jersey. While there, an opportunity came up for me to have a private audience with the Rebbe. I recall being very anxious and not knowing what to expect once I crossed the threshold into the Rebbe’s study. It is hard for me to describe what I felt because it seemed to me like a different reality. And I thought, “I have to take this spiritual feeling and somehow incorporate it into my art.”
As I was standing near the entrance to the room, not sure what to do next, the Rebbe said, “Come closer.” So I walked right up to the Rebbe’s desk and handed him the letter I had written listing my questions, and I also put on his desk three small samples of my art because I wanted him to advise me what I should do with my artistic talent.
I thought that perhaps I should become a scribe as I was good at Hebrew calligraphy, and I believed that if I were to be religious this was probably a more suitable profession than becoming a painter.
But the Rebbe had another idea. He said that I should pursue my art talents and consider doing illuminated marriage contracts, ketubot, which have been the subject of Jewish art for many centuries. I asked him if I might also illustrate children’s books and he gave me a blessing for that as well, as long as it didn’t interfere with my study schedule at the yeshivah. By this point I was so excited that he was giving me the green light to express my talent, that I actually exclaimed Baruch Hashem (thank G-d) out loud three times.
When it came time for me to leave and I was backing out of the door, the Rebbe called me back and asked about the art samples I had forgotten on his desk, “Are these for me?” “If you would like them...” I answered, somewhat flustered.
He picked up each one and then selected a small watercolor of a winter scene in Russia, depicting a little synagogue with a Star of David on top and a crescent moon in the background. When he said, “I’ll keep this one,” I was so happy.
Again I started to leave, but again the Rebbe called me back. “Is this an original?” he asked. I replied that it was, to which the Rebbe responded, “I can’t keep an original, but when you make a print please send one to me.”
Of course, I made a print and sent it to the Rebbe. And, thereafter, whenever I made limited edition prints of my work, I always sent one to the Rebbe.
Now, I did not expect it, but the Rebbe proved quite the art critic. Many times, I sent him the proofs before they were printed, and the Rebbe made detailed changes.
As my artwork became a bit better known, I was invited to exhibit it, and at one point I had shows in eight different Chabad Houses across California. I was very new at this and I badly miscalculated how much I would sell so that by the third stop I had sold almost everything. After a failed attempt to paint new things, I had to borrow back the works I had already sold just to have something to show. By the end of the tour, I was a nervous wreck and I went home sick from the whole experience.
When I wrote to the Rebbe for advice on how to avoid such anxiety in the future, he responded that I should meditate on the concept of Divine Providence and that I should place on display at my exhibitions the following: a charity box, the Five Books of Moses, the Book of Psalms, and a prayer book. He also said that before every show, I should give to charity “eighteen times eighteen cents” (as the number eighteen symbolizes life).
I did just that, and the Rebbe’s advice saved me many times. Often exhibitions – especially in international venues, where one has to deal with customs, taxes, import laws and corrupt officials – can be very stressful. Then there are exhibitions where hardly anybody shows up, or those where lots of people show up but nobody buys anything. But no matter what happens, meditating on Divine Providence and donating to charity even before making a profit helps to buttress my faith that G-d is watching and taking care of my livelihood. And that displaces a lot of the anxiety and fills me with more peace.
Michoel Muchnik, is among the foremost Jewish artists of our day. His originals have been displayed at the Brooklyn Museum, the Goldman Arts Gallery in Washington, D.C., Yeshiva University Museum in New York, Dansforth Museum in Massachusetts, the Sydney Jewish Museum and the Sharei Tzedek Collection in Israel. Behrman House published a series of his original paintings for their gift edition of Pirkei Avos, “Sayings of The Fathers”. He wrote and illustrated eight children’s books and provided cover illustrations for numerous other books and magazines. His present focus is on developing bas-reliefs and murals.
Excerpts from an interview with Jewish Educational Media, My Encounter Project. Fore more information please visit www.muchnikarts.com
