We recently connected with Naomi Greenberg and have shared our conversation below.

Naomi, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Creativity, and a passion for drawing and painting characterized me from a very young age. Since before I was 3 years old, as soon as I was able to hold a crayon and draw, I already loved drawing, and would stay at the crayons table in my Kindergarten for hours on end, while the other kids went on to other activities. Art runs in the genes of my family. There have been multiple musicians, writers, painters, actors and dancers through its generations. My Mother, Sara Samson, was a painter. She always knew she was an artist, there wasn’t a question in her mind, it was simply who she was, and that’s how she raised me. Encouraging me to explore my creativity and express it, become familiar with the works of Artists through the ages. She had a large collection of Art books and music, and we would look through them together, while listening to music, classical or other, and singing. Art hung on the walls of my childhood home, a 2 bedroom apartment in a Kibbutz in Northern Israel. We weren’t wealthy, it was just reproductions, but the images were there, imprinting into my psyche. Ancient Egyptian papyrus paintings, Cycladic sculptures, Brancusi, Matis, Rembrandt, Picasso, Modigliani, Miro, and Gauguin. We looked at Ikebana flower arrangements, and ukiyo-e prints while listening to Bach. I learned English singing Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born in Kibbutz Cabri, Israel, in 1978. My father Stanley Greenberg immigrated to Israel from Chapel Hill, NC in 1972. My Mother, Sara Samson was the daughter of Dutch Holocaust survivors, and grew up in the Kibbutz. As I mentioned before, creativity and a passion for drawing and painting were very central to my character from a very young age, and my Mother who was a painter, encouraged and nurtured those passions from the start, and made sure to expose me to the works of artists throughout the ages. Then, when I was in 5th grade I saw a performance of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and my mind was blown away. I decided right then and there that I wanted to dance professionally. So from that point on I continued to cultivate both disciplines in equal measures, Visual Art and Contemporary Dance. In High School I double majored and matriculated in both. After School I went on to complete a 2 year program in what was then called the Kibbutz Ga’aton Dance Workshop. At the conclusion of that program I searched for a college dance program, and finally decided to immigrate to the United States, enrolling in the Contemporary Dance Department at the University of NC School of the Arts. There I met my life partner, Sam Taylor, a classical Guitarist and Composer. I danced for a few years with ALban Elved Dance Company, eventually realizing that I was a much happier Artist than a I was a dancer. In the following years I continued to hone my drawing and painting skills, while embarking on a study of world religions, widening my philosophical and spiritual perspectives. These new horizons transformed my artwork, and developed my artistic vision, defining my artistic voice—an intimate exploration of self, life and consciousness via a surreal lens of multi-dimensional realities. These days I work full time as a Medical Practice Administrator, and on the weekends I make Art. Some of my own whyms, and some commissioned by community members and friends. In the past 15 years I’ve also started creating a lot of Judaica commissioned work, which has provided me with a special and meaningful connection to the Jewish community here in Winston Salem and beyond.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Art is the way my soul sings. It’s the way I express my inner world and communicate with my higher self. It’s my calling and my passion. My mission as an artist is to become the very best I can possibly be, to always keep learning, growing, expanding, and deepening my skills and my sensibilities, the content and the perspective of my art. I make art first and foremost for myself, because I have to, because I don’t know how to live without it. I will always make art, even if no one else liked it, or cared about it… Luckily, this is not the case though! People seem to respond with love and enthusiasm, and have bought pieces and commissioned others. In fact, because most of my time is spent at my full time job, and commissioned work fills my weekend, I can barely find time enough to make my own art. But this is not how things will always be! My dream is to be able to work full time as an artist, and support myself financially with my art. I haven’t yet been able to accomplish this dream, but I think I might be courageous enough to embark on this journey within a couple of years. I’ve been given this incredible talent, and it seems that the best way to appreciate it and show gratitude is to use it, as profoundly and prolifically as I can, and share it with as many people who would like to have it in their life. It is my greatest honor and duty to myself and to my community.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The most intense challenge for me as an artist, and for my artist friends, musicians, dancers, writers, and actors is the fact that it is so very difficult to be a full time professional artist and make one’s living at it. Our culture so readily replaces art with cheap commercial “instead-ofs”. It consumes cultural junk food instead of a truly nourishing diet of soul sustaining, mind expanding content. Most of humanity isn’t even aware of the lack of true culture in their life, they are too ignorant and conditioned to cultural junk food that they don’t even know there’s anything better and more fulfilling than that. I think that the best way for society to support artists, and through that to support its own wellbeing, is first and foremost with education. By exposing young people to art, of all disciplines and sorts, from all eras and all places around the globe. Bring art into the life of young people, surround them with it, give them ample opportunities and encourage them to participate in it, experience it first hand, let it become an integral part of their being. This will develop a well versed culture and art consuming society, that knows the difference between real art and cultural junk food, and yearns to fill its life with it. Another, just as important a channel, is to support artists themselves. Buy art and fund artists directly, instead of through institutions, who throw peanuts at the artists they “supports”, while their administrators take inflated salaries and the artists are forced to either starve, struggle, or spend the lion share of their time and energy in mundane day jobs. Yes, scholarships and grants are available, to an extent, but they are not usually sufficient to actually live on, exhausting to chase after, and are always so very temporary, keeping the artist at a constant state of financial instability and flux. Be an art consumer, fill your house with original art, go to concerts, plays and dance performances, be a patron. In a small measure if that’s your reach, or in a large one if your reach is greater. In eras past, the aristocracy supported court musicians and artists by paying their livelihood while benefiting from their art and music. Maybe we can have similar arrangements in this day and age as well, in which wealthy people would support the life expenses of one or a few artists, so that person/s could focus solely on creating the best work they can,

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naomihgreenberg
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