Ma’ayan: New Jersey-born artist shares how art, faith, and loss shaped her journey to Israel

For Ma’ayan, the meeting point of painting and faith emerged in Jerusalem, after years spent building two seemingly separate paths. The New Jersey-born artist, who uses only her first name, began art lessons at eight and later studied at New York’s Art Students League and National Academy of Design.

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With the passage of time, I sought to fill my spiritual void by taking basic Judaism classes. I learned about the deep, soulful beauty of the heritage I never knew. I found my own place in the warmth of the Reb Shlomo Carlebach community on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where my heart was opened up to Hashem and the Torah.

Her spiritual life took shape more quietly. Her paternal grandmother’s Orthodox rituals and Friday night dinners left a lasting impression, though the family never called them Shabbat dinners. When her grandmother died at 28, Ma’ayan felt an inner longing she could not yet name.

While earning a living in advertising, she continued painting and taught at the Montclair Museum of Art. She eventually began taking basic Judaism classes and found a spiritual home in the Reb Shlomo Carlebach community on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “With the passage of time, I sought to fill my spiritual void by taking basic Judaism classes,” she says. “I learned about the deep, soulful beauty of the heritage I never knew.”

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It was not a conscious decision to bring these two worlds together. It naturally evolved, as both speak from the heart.

Ma’ayan says the connection between her creative and spiritual lives developed naturally. “It was not a conscious decision to bring these two worlds together,” she says. “It naturally evolved, as both speak from the heart.” She left her full-time advertising career and moved gradually toward Orthodox observance, a decision she describes as huge.

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That decision was huge. But just when I had closed those doors, it felt like Hashem was opening new doors for me, I received two major, highly coveted art grants from the Art Students League. This was a confirmation that I had made the right decision.

Two grants from the Art Students League soon followed. One funded five months of sketching and painting across Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. The other took her to the Marchutz School of Art in Aix-en-Provence, where she says her artistic voice began to blossom. Her work moved from representational and expressionist painting toward what she calls “experiential abstraction,” with large canvases designed to draw viewers into an emotive inner light and depth.

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Over the following years, my style moved from more representational and expressionist to what I call ‘experiential abstraction.’