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Depicting another world: Matilda Katz offers high-quality prints of her original artworks

by JJ Tanaka |2021年06月02日


Matilda has been drawing since she was 3 years old. It was always something that calmed her and felt natural. For her, it was never about impressing others, but rather a way of giving herself joy.


Matilda was always practicing her art. Other than drawing, she studied sculpture, pottery and other skills. Nowadays she focuses primarily on drawing.


In 1995, Matilda was accepted to the prestigious Bezalel Academy of Arts, but left a year later after realizing the major wasn’t for her. The courses had an emphasis on conceptual art and Matilda had more interest in studying 19th century’s art. Moreover, she expected to study anatomy and classical techniques, but realized it wasn’t on her program.


In 1997, Matilda found an “old master,” who taught her anatomy and drawing for years. In 2001, she moved to The Netherlands to study animation; when she returned to Israel three years later, she began working in this field. Matilda keeps studying new things to this day, reading books and watching tutorials to keep honing her skills. It’s important to her to keep developing.


Before starting her own business, Matilda worked as an artist in the gaming industry, designing characters. This job improved her art dramatically, helping her technique as well as developing management skills. However, Matilda did not feel fulfilled as all of her art was being used for an initiative other than her own, and had many restrictions on her creative ability. 

         

With a burning desire to create her art freely, Matilda established her own business, centered around a creative series titled “Witch and Familiar”. The series displays a magical and spiritual world, with influences from the Middle East region. 

     

Through her art, Matilda wishes to change the representation of witches. Witches have been flattened and de-legitimized along history, but witchcraft was a daily habit that is documented in history. Moreover, in historical research of Middle Eastern religions and mythologies, the focus is mainly on men. women were either erased from the narrative or represented negatively. By choosing witches for her series, Matilda is able to “rewrite the story,” positively representing women, and showing witches that aren't evil.


All of Matilda’s drawings are made using graphite. This enables Matilda to work in black and white, which creates drama and invites the viewers to interpret the pieces individually. Rather than add colors, she’s focused on values (the range from light to dark). She also likes the texture graphite produces, and how simple this medium is: she only needs paper and graphite. There’s no need for big working spaces or toxic materials.


When creating, Matilda starts with a concept of an animal and a figure, then conducts research and collects references. Before starting the actual drawing, she decides on the composition and makes several small sketches. A collage is then created in Photoshop to create a new reference, and then several studies of the animal’s anatomy are made before starting the final drawing.

    

      

For her drawings, Matilda uses paper with a highly smooth texture and creates a lot of thin layers with graphite to cover the paper’s texture and create the different values. Each drawing takes over 100 hours to complete. 



This intense process is worth it in the end, as the end product looks like a “painting” in graphite rather than a drawing. 

    

Matilda Katz's art

     

     

The Goat Bearers Set

       

“The Goat Bearers” is a mini-series within “Witch and Familiar”. The inspiration for this series is from ancient artifacts and artworks found in The Middle East area. Among these, there were small sculptures of men holding goats. These were made as offerings to Enki, the Sumerian god of water and magic. In the beginning, the offerings were actual goats, but in time people created a symbol of this offering in the image of these statues.

       

This series is a gesture to this myth, with a modern interpretation in which women are featured. In this adaptation, the witch isn’t sacrificing the goat, but rather joins it to communicate with the spirits.   

       

All of Matilda’s prints are made with quality as a priority. In collaboration with a local studio in Haifa that makes art prints of a museum-quality level, Matilda prints on 220 gr. archival paper, which is durable and acid free. The prints are shipped unframed.

     

Museum grade archival quality paper, 220 gr. Printed using archival inks. Unframed.
Sizes available: A5, A4, A3.

A5 paper size: 5.8 x 8.3 inch / Image area size: 5.1 x 6.1 Inch

A4 paper size: 8.3 x 11.7 inch / Image area size: 7.3 x 8.6 Inch

A3 paper size: 11.7 x 16.5 inch / Image area size: 10.3 x 12.2 Inch

        

¥ 6,600

Use coupon code ISRAERU21 at checkout for 15% off

      

Witch and Goat Familiar

      

First in the series, “Witch and Goat Familiar” is the most basic representation of the archetype: a young woman carrying her goat in a gesture to the small statues of the goat bearers. They join together to become one and communicate with the spirits.

  

¥ 2,800

Use coupon code ISRAERU21 at checkout for 15% off

      

        

Witch and Goat Familiar

       

A sequel to “Witch & Goat Familiar,” here the witch is older and the scene captures the essence of the ritual. The witch is dressed in ceremonial clothes with many details. 

       

 ¥ 2,800

Use coupon code ISRAERU21 at checkout for 15% off

      

Spirit Flight

      

A sequel to “Witch & Young Goat Familiar.” The scene is inspired by European folklore. “Spirit Flight” is a nickname to a witchy custom in which witches would fly in the air as part of a ritual called “Witches’ Sabbath.” The witch travels between the real world and the world beyond.  

¥2,800   

Use coupon code ISRAERU21 at checkout for 15% off

       


The graphite art from Matilda serves as a decoration piece as well as a conversation starter with its meaning and story. Check the ISRAERU Marketplace for more details for purchasing Matilda Katz’s art. 

      

https://www.matildakatz.com/

https://www.instagram.com/matilda_katz/?hl=ja