Over thirty years ago I was living on a kibbutz in the Negev desert near the Gaza Strip. As a young artist I was granted a day a week to ‘make’ art instead of working in the fields or in the kibbutz factory. I was just learning to be a painter but as an art student I had briefly been introduced to etching butnever really pursued it. At some point I had met the director of a printmaking studio from Tel Aviv and had asked him about creating etchings. He had told me that if I could arrange to get to the studio, then he would let me to work as an unpaid assistant and in return he would give me free access to the facilities. So over the course of seven or eight months I would take a weekly 3 hour bus ride up to Tel Aviv to the studio where I would sweep the floors, grind lithography stones, prepare etching plates, and silk screens while slowly experimenting with my own work. The good news is that I was very productive. The bad news is that it was hard work with long hours and I would inevitably miss the one late bus back to the kibbutz. With no money I would periodically stay with a friend. But in many cases I would have no choice but to spend my nights walking the streets, and sleeping on benches and stairways until I could catch an early bus back to the kibbutz the following morning.

Eventually I left the kibbutz began work full time at the print studio where I worked for another year, creating an entirely new body of work. The samples here are a few of the dozen or so pieces I created in my first year. All are printed in black ink.