The Exhibition I Wasn’t Ready to See

All photos by Ingrid Muller

In May we put together an exhibition of our son Gadi's drawings in a local gallery space, to mark the year since his passing. While Gadi created some wonderfully detailed artwork over the years, we never expected to be putting together a show of his art for a long time to come. It was something that I hoped - no, believed - would happen one day in the future. The events of 21st May 2022 changed all that and when a friend, curator Shira Friedman, approached us with the idea of putting together an exhibition of Gadi's work, we thought it was the perfect way to remember Gadi and to share his talent.

Gadi loved to draw. He would spend hours in his room creating highly detailed pieces based on his passions at the time. He drew football players and knights, animals and steampunk characters, mythical islands and maps. There was a long period when he drew football stadium after football stadium, concentrating not on the pitch but on the crowd. These stadiums are not the stadiums that Gadi visited in his short life. We can’t see Ironi Modi’in’s stadium, nor Hull City’s. He didn’t draw Camp Nou, which we toured back in 2017, or the Emirates. These are the stadiums of Gadi’s imagination, filled with animated crowds waving flags and banners and setting off flares. He drew each piece in great detail, using an extra fine pen to add each and every member of the crowd and to include even the wording on their banners.

Football stadiums aside, Gadi’s work was almost always in black and white. Though he had drawers full of felt tip pens and coloured pencils, he preferred a simple graphite pencil and, later a super fine black pen. His early drawings are sweet and simple but with a strong use of line to define his shapes and figures. His later pieces are small in scale but full of detail.

Gadi was not precious about his work. He was proud to show us his drawings when he was satisfied with them but many, many pieces ended up in the rubbish bin as well. The reason we were able to hold this exhibition was because I carefully saved what I felt were the best of them when tidying up Gadi’s incredibly messy room! Aviv, Gadi’s best friend, did the same when Gadi would leave his drawings lying around at school.
Gadi was still drawing when he was in the IDF (Israel Defence Forces). His sketchbook was found in his tank. He had told friends that he wanted to make better use of the many spare hours he had, when he found himself sitting around doing very little.

Gadi was also a brilliant writer. His short stories, written from the age of six and upwards, were very, very funny. Characters such as Felinius the Genius and Mister Bakewell Tart were so very English that it was hard to believe they had been thought up by a young boy living in Israel! I don’t remember ever having made a Bakewell Tart in my life, but Gadi was a voracious reader and probably learnt all about them from a book. As he got older, he wrote less, but the stories remain as amusing as the day he penned them.

A particular favourite of ours was a long story he wrote for Mister Handmade in Israel's 50th birthday back in 2014. In fact, the name we gave to the exhibition, "The Good, the Bad and the Snoring", was the name 11 year old Gadi gave to the story. With the help of Mister Handmade in Israel's brother and his amazingly talented friends and colleagues in the UK, this story was made into a wonderful short film which we showed on the opening night of the exhibition.

I have posted it below for you to enjoy too.

The exhibition was visited by hundreds of our friends and many others who had heard or read of Gadi's story in The Jerusalem Post,  Israel's most-read English newspaper. The mayor of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut came, as did senior members of the IDF and many of Gadi's soldier friends. The opening night - after months and months of planning - was somewhat stressful because four hours before the exhibition was due to open, missiles started coming over from Gaza. We decided to go ahead with the evening anyway, posting on social media where there were protected spaces if needed!

I am sure that Gadi would have been very proud of the exhibition and happy that so many people were able to see his work. I only wish he had been there to enjoy it for himself.

* This post has been shared on My Corner of the World and Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).

A Birthday Book

My youngest son, the 9 year old, loves to write stories in English (he speaks both English and Hebrew) and even though I am his Mum and so am terribly biased, I think he has a real talent for it. A while back he decided that he was going to publish a book of his short stories. I am delighted that he has such grand aspirations and decided to make that dream come true for him as a special birthday present. I mentioned it briefly here.

After a little research on the internet I decided upon a company that prints books in the UK. I could have made the book here in Israel but since Hebrew books are read from right to left, I would have had to build my son's book backwards, which I imagined was a mistake waiting to happen! It took me a few hours to create the book, primarily because it involved a LOT of typing, but my graphic design skills came in handy and I found laying it all out a lot of fun.

I have kept my son's 'best' pieces from the last couple of years and have saved as many of the better drawings as possible. He draws all the time, using up a massive amount of paper, and sometimes is quick to discard the pictures that he feels do not quite reach the mark. The pictures that made it into the book were pretty much all met with approval. I tried to match them where possible to a story. When I didn't have a suitable drawing, I added a photograph of the birthday boy instead.

I used Albelli books and overall was very happy with the service, though it took some time for the book to be sent and for me to receive it. Shipping to Israel pretty much always comes under the 'worldwide' bracket and is therefore unnecessarily expensive. Fortunately my Dad was willing to help and knew to forward the book onto me as soon as it arrived at his address in the UK.  He paid less than a third of the price that Albelli had quoted me, using the same packaging.

I made a hardback photobook and paid a little extra for a photo cover. My son was speechless when he saw his first book and it has been shown to anyone who is willing to spend a few moments looking at it, regardless of whether they speak English or not! I am not sure that his form teacher speaks a word of English but she seemed impressed all the same. His friends even asked him how many copies he had sold! Not many, but two more copies have been ordered for the proud Grandparents in the UK, and I see a second collection being 'published' within the next year or so. Look out for it.

* Want to take a look at the book? A link to the online version is here.