MOISHE KELLMAN

    Moishe Kellman grew up in the Chassidish (Hasidic) enclave of Borough Park, a section within Brooklyn, NY. One of his earliest memories of exploring art is from kindergarten; his teachers instructed him to color a coloring sheet, and he decided to color the entire page with all the colors and then cover it with a black Crayola crayon. He then proceeded to scratch the black to reveal his hidden rainbow. This first experience allowed him to color "outside the lines" and not seek the approval of his teachers. 
    It wasn't until he was 32 that he truly discovered a need and passion for visual artistic expression. It was on a Friday night of January 11th, 2019. Everyone besides Moishe was asleep when his house caught fire. Luckily, everyone made it out alive, but the home was uninhabitable. This experience caused him grief, loss, and despair. In general, Moishe is more of an introvert and avoids public attention. Suddenly, he found himself at the center of attention within his community. These circumstances gave him the urge to get away with a friend for a few days to find himself. When he arrived in San Fransisco, he experienced symptoms of Mono. His body was yelling enough, and enough was enough. Towards the end of the getaway and peek of despair, he asked himself, how can I bring more color into this world? At that moment, he noticed his friend painting for the first time. His friend was drawing and painting the whole time, but it was out of his awareness. Moishe created his first painting, and the experience of visual art brought color back into his life. Since then, Moishe has been expressing himself through paint and reconnecting with his Muse. Artistic expression is his newfound voice for sharing emotions, life experiences, and how he visually sees the world. 

    In his latest series, Moishe is transforming his experience with travel and traffic. He spends about 3 hours traveling to and from Brooklyn for work. Traffic is getting worse, causing him to feel frustrated, furious, and wish for a different life again. It was a quote by John Kabat Zin, "wherever you go, there you are," that shifted his perspective. This statement sparked the question, how can he transform his current life? Yes, there is traffic, but how can there be a shift in consciousness and be with the pain and nausea of traveling? He decided to transform his traveling into a piece of art; this shifted his internal experience and allowed him to transform his traveling situation. About two weeks into his new series, he noticed his traveling experience being represented and transformed onto the canvas. That's when he started wondering how can he create a video so people could relate and connect with his series. He also found himself excited and anticipating traffic because he was fascinated with recording time-lapse videos of traffic and travel. The aha moment was when he observed that his traveling and everything in life was a piece of visual artistic expression. This shift in awareness allowed him to transform and elevate his  current life situation and live and breathe the quote, "wherever you go there you are." Moishe's traveling shifts back and forth from hate, avoidance, and nausea to presence, serenity, visual art, and oneness with the universe.