Art For Me

Painting is placed in the heart of the life of the artist, Ittai Altshuler. Through his art, he cured himself from war-shock which followed the first Lebanon war. Based on his healing process, he created The Altshuler Method to help trauma survivors of all sorts. The Altshuler Method is teaching its students how to reconnect to their self-healing ability, reconnecting to their Vital Element . The Vital Element, which, as consequence of traumatic events, retreats and disconnects, is the fundamental element of The Altshuler Method. A lack of the Vital Element causes what we call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

 

This way is ecological, integrative, positive and complimentary to mainstream approaches. The Altshuler Method is based on 11 principles and uses four multidirectional tools. Ittai Altshuler, the founder of The Altshuler Method, published a book about his way in Hebrew which has recently been translated into English. The book's name is Living the Vital Element .

For years, Altshuler has worked in various two-dimensional ways. He paints on canvas and on handmade paper, which from time to time, he makes by himself. He has a special sympathy to printmaking because by doing it himself, he can practice two of the 11 principles of The Altshuler Method: the Slowness Principle and the Actuality Principle .

In this section of The Altshuler Method website, you can find some slideshows of a small part of Altshuler's artistic work.

What is Vitality?

 

Vitality is a word which tries to describe the energy of life. This energy is the basis of our lives in private and in general. It is the core of us and it is also the meaning of our existence. When people are looking into introspectively, they are searching for their core, for their meaning of life, for their vitality.

The vitality of each of us is built from positive energy and joy which helps us to overcome our obstacles, big and small. When this energy is consciously known to us, our lives become better: Valuable, positive, less aggressive and fluent.

 

What of it?

 

In our period of history, vitality seems to become a mystery hidden in its simplicity. This is a kind of treasure that belongs to each one of us and that my help us to reach a better position in life. Vitality, in its widest meaning, may help us to survive in times of indifference, violence, loneliness and pessimism.

 

The Vitality Site

 

This website partly depicts my full attitude toward Vitality. Vitality is a voice (by my art and by my personal life) calling to reassure our vitality, we the people. It is so rare that art is fighting gently for vitality, yet it is what I am trying to do. The origin and the reason for most of my deeds and my art are coming from my connection to my vitality.

 

Vitality and My Art - Visual Art and Poetry

 

All my creative activities are rooted in my vitality and this becomes their main message. Through my art, I try to remind people of their vitality, their positive thinking, their freedom to be themselves and their ability to be optimists. My vitality as the foundation of my message leads me to take a few directions in my art.

 

• First — I try to keep on listening to the voice of my vitality (this requires a lot of practice).
• Second — I flow along with the actions and do not try to understand what is important and what is not because time changes the perspective; it is impossible to be inside time and beyond it. (Do not use “eraser” in its broadest meaning because you cannot erase the river.)
• Third — I don't use “good” and “bad” to describe art because everything is legitimate and all values are equal. If you are listening to your vitality you are not able to do anything else. For sure it is “good” because it is you —it is the positive side of you.
• Fourth — I enjoy myself in the art I am doing (not all the time, but in general), escaping from the pose of the suffering artist.

Words word words.

 

Very nice words... how do you do it practically?

 

You may see in my works that they vary because they are coming from different places in me. They are not a result of any research or seeking for experiences; they come from the abundance of my vitality, an abundance that everyone has when it is unblocked. I consider freedom as a basic and legitimate resource of mine.

In painting, I let colors work for to me, amplifying the voice of joy—joy of life. Sometimes it comes with order, sometimes it races out of order.

I may use many styles of painting in one work as a mirror of the plentitude of vitality. Please do not misunderstand this as a postmodern attitude.

 

Please do not try to enforce my message into barriers of form and ideas; let it flow outside the words into life itself.

 

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