If you see a photograph of a painting by the artist Chani Cohen Zada, you might be fooled into thinking the painting is a photograph and not a painting at all. But when a viewer approaches the works face to face, from close up, this illusion unravels, and the brush work becomes evident along with the emphasis on the interplay of light, shape and color, similar to the proto-impressionist paintings of Paul Cézanne. 

Chani’s paintings are meticulously planned; she uses models, staging and numerous methodical sketches before she puts paint to canvas. While her paintings may seem to be straight forward portraits, landscapes and still lifes, every object is carefully selected and imbued with rich symbolism. Just like the works of the seventeenth century Dutch realist painters, every part of the painting has meaning, it is not real life as seen in a random moment but an essay about a specific subject Chani is exploring at that time. 

Chani is a follower of the Yemima method. Yemima Avital (1929-1999) was a Kabbalist and psychoanalyst who developed a system for self-actualization and emotional management. Her method has a strong following in Israel. Yemima’s educational system uses both Jewish and Psychological texts and teachings to help her students better manage their emotions and become happier and more centered people. 

Yemima believed it is a person’s duty to do “tikkun” (repairs), on their soul and one of the tenets of the Yemima method is “diyuk” or precision, meaning understanding the precise action to take in a given moment and looking at the bigger picture. 

Chani’s paintings are a treatise on “tikkun” and “diyuk”. In her precise style, she takes in the important emotions from pivotal life events, arranges them on the canvas and makes space to contemplate and face each happening with a clear mind. For example, Chani’s paintings confront her position as daughter and mother, using a child sized rocking chair she was gifted by her mother when she was three years old to represent both her mother and Chani’s own journey as a mother. She painted this chair with the dress she wore to her son’s wedding hanging behind it, symbolizing the shift in her family and finding acceptance of that change. In this same painting is another symbol Chani often utilizes, which is a child’s rhinestone costume crown representing the artist’s inner child. Here is the push and pull of emotion and wisdom; the child who wishes to take center stage and the mother who knows she must take a back seat and let her son and his bride shine on their special day. 

Chani also often implements deep Kabbalist symbols of the “k’li”(container) and “or” (light) in her works and uses them both to explore the painterly effects of light on surfaces and the Kabbalistic meanings of wisdom and desire.

For Yemima, part of separating oneself from your baggage in order to become a more whole person, is in writing and keeping journals. While Chani paints her actual Yemima journals and shares her Yemima inspired writings each week about the Torah portion along with an image of one of her paintings, the paintings themselves are also a kind of journal. Because Chani has developed this intricate iconography that is rooted in the Yemima method, when she paints, she creates a physical manifestation of her experiences and is then literally able to step back and contemplate her life. Just like the way the painting comes into sharper focus when the viewer stands back from it, so to Chani’s life experiences come into focus when she completes the painting and creates some distance from the raw emotions.

But Chani takes this a step further. 

By sharing these paintings with the world, Chani not only cleanses her own soul but she positions herself as a teacher as well. Chani analyses her life, plans the painting, creates the piece, steps back and then invites others to learn from her conclusions. When a viewer comes to understand Chani’s paintings, they can then understand Chani as well as the “or” (wisdom) Chani has collected in her “k’li” (container) and use that to shed light on their own lives.