Carolyn H. Manosevitz
healing: a personal journey
An Exhibition of art about the Holocaust
May 6 - August 6, 2004.
Colorado Moutain College
Aspen, Colorado
Carolyn H. Manosevitz.- Colorado artist educated at The University of Minnesota deals with the Holocaust and the power of art to heal. Manosevitz's work is available for exhibition from the artist, who is also a well-established speaker on spirituality and post-Holocaust Jewish-Christian relations. Contact CHGS for details.
(Click on image for larger details)
reconciliation |
reconciliation |
owning memory |
resting place I |
resting place II |
at my center |
not yet healed |
my naked soul |
girl with gold coins |
preserving memory |
in the shadow of a great mountain (front) |
in the shadow of a great mountain(back) |
the call god has placed on my life
|
healing VI |
sacred ground |
healing after sept. 11., |
mass grave |
from a different place |
leaves falling from a dead tree (front) |
leaves falling from a dead tree (back) |
i heard tales of horror and beauty at the same time |
Memory Vessel II, |
Memory Vessel III, |
not a trace, |
seeking the holy spirit together |
seeking the holy spirit together |
listen to the voices from the ashes |
protecting memory, Mixed Media, 12" x 15", 2003. |
sometimes the gates of prayer seem closed, |
mending the fracture, |
the eternal presence of absence, Mixed Media, 10" x 8", 2003. |
the eternal presence of absence (detail), Mixed Media, 10" x 9", 2003. |
how long will You hide Your face from me. pslam 13. 9" x 6" (from artist's book: inspiration) |
road to sacred ground, Mixed Media, 6" x 20". 2005. |
brethren again, |
we who are the remnants, |
only a thread, Mixed Media, 18" x 14". 2005. |
reconstructing the story I, |
reconstructing the story II, |
 when I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, psalm 8, 9" x 6" (from artist's book: inspiration) |
 my children's children, (front) 7" x 14" |
 my children's children, (back) 7" x 14" |
 reconstructing the story, 13"x 14" |
 detail: reconstructing the story |
 krefelder juden: for emma, 13" x 11" |
 detail: the trees are witness |
 the trees are witness, 14" x 22" |
The last venue in the upper midwest was at Gallery 101 at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
The Girl with the Gold Coins
She was waiting for no me at the entrance to the gallery. 'Thank-you for validating my life', she said 'Are you Second Generation?' I asked 'No.' she replied. But I did a not know that my father was Jewish until I was an adolescent' .... and then she proceeded to tell me her story.
Her father was an American, born In Prague He became a career diplomat. In the late '30's, people began to approach him, begging his assistance to help them leave the country. He could do nothing. However, he agreed to take their money and keep it for them until after the war. He drained the oil pan in his car and hid all the gold coins that had been entrusted to him, then replaced the oil. That was where they stayed for the duration of the war. After the war,he went searching for all those who had given him their gold coins. They were all dead.
When he died, his daughter inherited the gold coins. 'People have suggested that I melt down thegold', she told me. 'But I can't. The souls of all those people are in those coins.'
"You know, you ARE Second Generation', I told her. At first she denied it. But after I had returned to Austin, I received a letter from her. " I feel like an abandoned child whohas finally found refuge" she wrote
As I had experienced so often in the past - after speaking withchildren of Survivors, I could not get her story out of my head. So, I did the painting - 'girl with gold coins'.
Our brief conversation on that blustery cold night in Alma Michigan has grown into a friendship of mutual respect, admiration and love. This elegant, charming woman bears the burden of her generation – the Second Generation. Her eyes tell you that she carries the weight of the world on her shoulders.
This woman with a heart of gold and the spirit to match, has contributed as much to my healing as I have to hers.
Carolyn H. Manosevitz
Snowmass village, Colorado
20 July, 1999
The Spirit of the Shoes
The Spirit of the Shoes is a series of 12 images that symbolically describe the Journey of the Second Generation (children of Holocaust Survivors). I selected the number 12 to portray the twelve tribes of Israel. The Holocaust is now part of what it means to be a Jew. As Elie Wiesel has said not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims. Additionally, many Second Generation have been involved with various twelve step programs.
Each of the mixed media paintings contains a shoe image. The paths of the Second Generation were marred by those that their parents were forced to walk. The continuum in this series is the leaf image which appears in each painting. I have found some strong similarities amongst the people I have talked with. Thus the appearance of the same natural form throughout the series.
Wherever a shoe has laces, they are untied. I find that the Second Generation I have talked with continue to search for new paths to healing. The open laces are symbolic of the openness of the Second Generation to new pathsthat will lead them to inner power
Most of the shoes are not complete but rather fade into the negative space. This phenomenon is indicative of the fact that survivor families are not complete -- that part of the family, like part of the shoe, is missing.
The Spirit of the Shoes are a symbolic metaphor not only for the Second Generation, but for all those who search to heal themselves.
Related Links
- healing: a personal journey carolyn manosevitz, The Henry Luce III, Center for the Arts and Religion
- www.carolynmanosevitz.com