Jack’s Studio is on Moshav Neve Ilan.
Small group classes are offered at a first come first serve basis. Many students have been coming to Jack’s Studios for more than 22 years.
My Dream Came True
I grew up on a small farm, and liked to play with clay from the river, making small animals which I baked in a coal fire stove.
When I reached the age of 6, we move to Potchefstroom, which had a large military base and I watched the convoys of military vehicles going through the town on the way to Durban, from where they went up north to fight the Italian and German Armies. I used to make copies of the vehicles’ tanks and guns. This was the greatest joy for me as I did not have many toys.
After the war in 1948, I joined the Habonim movement, and in my teens we joined a group from the surrounding towns and in a group exhibition at the town of Randfontein. Issy Kirsh, who was my group leader, encouraged me to make a face of Achad Ha’am and Hertzel in Plaster Paris. The feedback from the participants was what gave me the push to continue in this field. Unfortunately, there were no art classes in my high school. I was advised in my last year to be an accountant or a motor mechanic. One of my older contemporaries had apprenticed at Leyland as a diesel mechanic and I decided to follow in his footsteps. The apprenticeship required me to attend classes one day and one night a week.
The Technical College also had courses in clay modelling which I was glad to participate in. My first class teacher was Mrs .Benson. She looked at my first piece and said “this is rubbish” and smashed it with her hand. She then showed me the correct techniques, for which I am forever grateful. I participated in the course for two years. A new teacher replaced her and allowed me to make a sculpture of a plasticine model, I called it “The Prisoner”. It was during the time that Mandela was sent to prison. Unfortunately, the casting in Plaster of Paris failed. I took time out.
After I got married, we bought a house which was a double story house. My wife Sarah was worried that the upstairs windows did not have bars and that the children could fall out. I made bars, during the process I saw and liked the texture of the welding and I started to do welded art. The same technique as we’re using with clay modeling, adding little, small blobs of molten metal to complete a piece. At the time, I joined an Artist Market and exhibited twice a year in park.
The political situation in South Africa was not to our liking. The apartheid system caused us to examine our lifestyle. Sarah, my wife, had friends who immigrated to Australia, and was keen on leaning in that direction. Because of my past history growing up with art and my Habonim experience, I felt that either Israel or South Africa where I wanted to live. We met the Shaliach, who told us about the Moshav Shitufi. It was a compromise between the kibbutz and the city life.
In 1973, 3 weeks before the Yom Kippur war, we made Aliya with five other South African families, and after visiting many kibbutzim and moshavim, we chose Neve Ilan, a new moshav near Jerusalem with an art school. Sarah worked in the Electronics factory, and I was the mechanic and metal worker for the moshav. After the full day of welding, I could not carry on welding as a hobby. I started to carve in a small piece of throwaway wood, which I’ve been doing since then. I started an activity for kids carving wood. It only lasted 2 years as I couldn’t handle the lack of discipline of the kids.
In 2002, we joined. Magash, a 60 plus club and in 2003 I started a club for pensioners for carving wood. Today I have 30 participants, 4 morning classes and one high tech evening class. I participate in different exhibitions of my work, including an art gallery in Ranana, which has sold several pieces, as well as in the Neve Ilan Hotel gift shop.
In 1995, we had a forest fire that destroyed my studio and 18 pieces of art. The insurance appraiser asked me how I arrived at the valuation of the sculptures, he thought of material and labor like an industry article. I only received 1/3 of what I requested. I had half the money given to me right away, which I used to buy a plasma cutter and the rest I put aside for the cost of an Exhibition.
In 2002, I started teaching wood carving for small groups of six people which grew to 30 students. Most of the students were from a group called Magash, pensioners from Meveseret. We started carving with hammers and chisels. Learning the basics slowly we grew to using power tools, like the Dremel, which didn’t stand up to the work and we switched to using air tools. The compressor, which was attached to my studio, also served the local garage and could not cope with the number of tools being used and I was forced to switch back to electric tools. The Dremel, unfortunately, was not able to stand up to the use by the students who had no knowledge of how to operate a sensitive tool. I discovered a new source in a Chinese tool, which was more suitable to our use and now we have electric tools. With the help of my daughter KIM in America, I managed to get the bits we used.
At the end of every year. We held an exhibition at the Meverseret 60 plus club.
In 2011, I held 8 weeks exhibition in the Jerusalem theater, which was great exposure.
When we left Meverseret we started to have exhibitions in the Neve Ilan Community Centre. Neve Ilan has over the years been supporting an organization for abused children and we decided to donate money from our exhibitions to the school. The last exhibition we had was two years ago. We managed to raise 10,000 shekels which was made up of the entrance fee and an auction of my art pieces.
OVER THE YEARS I FILLED MANY POSITIONS, APPRENTISSHIP,DIESEL MECHANIC,SALES ADMINISTRATER,MANAGING DIRECTOR ,METAL WORKER,HOLIDAY RESORT MANAGER,ASSISTANT HOTEL MANAGER,FOOD AND BEVERAGE MANAGER AND MANY COMMITEES. THE MOST IMPORTANT AND SELF SATISFACTION CAME FROM MY ART.
MY DREAM TO BE A SCULPTOR CAME TRUE.