Neil Kerman

hi there nice to meet you nice to meet you thanks for doing this thanks for joining us on the show it's a pleasure talk to us a little bit about your art and what art means to you um basically my art is abstract i enjoy using all colors mixing colors together to get different textures blending of different colors and art to me means everything all around us in the world is art the sky is the different colors the waters the oceans the trees the flowers and i get great enjoyment out of seeing every one of these visual settings as i walk every day in different places and i try to express that in my art and people tend to see an abstract art what they want to see they're able to extract for themselves some of them it's on a spiritual journey a lot of my art is spiritual uh for them it's uh like if they're reading a book and they get emotional some people get emotional on in art i've also used art in the nursing homes with the alzheimer's patient to use it as a tool to try to get them to express past memories through color not only do they do what you are they do it through music they do it through baking they do it so i happen to have done it throughout the years with ours so so take us through a little bit this concept of abstract art um how do you approach it you know what take us if you a little bit into the kitchen um when you are at your canvas and you're creating your art do you have something in mind that is that you're trying to get across or you are are you just inspired how does it work for someone who's doing abstract art it works in two ways to me at times on the canvas i'll write a classic from to hilum wow i'll put it on the canvas and i'll see let's wear it take where it takes me so it doesn't stop necessarily with the canvas i go into the paint room and also if i'm starting a new project i'll say what color hits me at that moment wow i could really start with the yellow and then i let it evolve it's almost like writing an essay you start with your first sentence and then you let it evolve or baking or cooking you take ingredients and add to it and that's what paint is to me and if i see the yellow and i'll say gee it's a gloomy day outside i'll say well we could put a little uh ten you know gloom into the picture maybe i'll use a little black or a little brown but i really try to keep them vibrant a lot of colors i use um a color i use often is blue blue is the sky blue is uh the waters and people tend to gravitate to blue so are you trying to make the art in a way be an expression of the tahillim and an expression of your feelings i think what happens is um if we use the word ammuna we see what happens i don't want to say that the puzzle of tahilam um means that's what i'm going to paint i put the pusic in a plastic that might hit me at the moment i'll open it and i'll stop painting and i think it just evolves together it's it's a way of giving the painting abroad so to speak you know what's so interesting as i'm hearing you speak and i wonder if you if you over the course of your life have done this is you know when you speak about when you hear this from people that are you know they call this like either in the zone or um in flow but there's a consposo in torah where you you're not trying to get in hashem's way you're letting hashem speak through you you're letting hashem you know act through you and in many ways i'm hearing from you that when you are approaching your art you're not trying to over analyze it you're trying to be a conduit if you will of the divine that then ends up on the canvas which then when someone interacts with they're not interacting with someone who is calculating they're acting with someone who put their soul into it and that is probably why it hits them like that i think it's two things i think part of it is correct an extension of the hands if you want to say um but also it's what god gave me in an eye to visually make those colors pleasing so i do work with colors and i'll say wow this could use a little bit more white or maybe i could add this to what will give me the enjoyment of that painting and hopefully others but the first part of it is correct it's what we all do in everyday life and we hope that we don't try to control the situation as that we go with the flow that this is what it is and actually it's very funny just one second when you weren't coming on and i said you know maybe there's a problem i just read um in one of these um folks i said listen if something happens it happens for a reason you just accept it and if he's not there so we'll do it another time and not say oh here i am sitting here so i always had that little spiritual component and it's a tremendous component i think it's it's the factor that makes it all work um and it's beautiful that it's not only who you are but it's also what you put into your to your expressions is there a piece that is your favorite like is there anything that you can remember yes i sent it to you it's called a steel veil i believe that's the piece okay and that was in honor of my father my father had alzheimer's and there's a painting behind the steel veil and the reason i painted it was remembering when my father came out of alzheimer's for about six weeks he told me he was behind a steel veil he heard what i was saying but couldn't respond and my working with alzheimer's is a lecturing of alzheimer's i wanted that as a memory to him but in a steel veil it also represents everybody else that has a blockage of letting go what would they like to express themselves and let that steel veil beautiful how do people find your art they find my art through different galleries i've been traveling around the world i was invited in different countries on the internet instagram facebook and other things which i don't go on to i've never been on instagram facebook made me once and when people say are you on instagram i'd call elky who worked with me on instagram um my generation was just not made for that we don't want you to change in the slightest you and and when they asked me for my address i still get my home address and they say no no i have to give the other one it's also interesting with the abstract dart i never saw in the front of the piece because i find that people turn it in different directions and they tend to see different things that might have evolved for them which didn't evolve for me so i usually sign the back for them i'll sign an autograph for them and uh they finally uh we've sold around the country which is pretty nice and uh it's an interesting journey journey which was hard for me to leave the nursing homes and um but um it's funny when i first started they used to ask me what i do and i said i'm a nursing home administrator i had a very hard time saying i'm an artist yeah and when i went to kennedy airport the guy said how to have a nice flight mr kermit i said you know me dude he said i follow you on instagram i said oh you know it's i wasn't used to that what this journey has done for me at this stage in my life it took me around the world meeting other artists exploring a different world but as i wrote in my paragraph to you i try to go into a nursing home in different countries and work with the residents there beautiful and we started a program in brazil um with rav gurari um he's the rabbi there where we go into nursing homes and one thing we found which was amazing that so many people came to us and said you know i grew up jewish i used to put on spilling so from that we arranged a program for people to go in and put on spilling with them beautiful so beautiful we had to stop that because of the pandemic wow neil thank you so much for what you do thank you so much for being here um and i wish you so much continued continued enjoyment as you share your light with the world the same to you and it's a pleasure meeting you thank you very much thank you bye thank you thanks so much for watching for more content like and 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