My story
Sali Ariel is an internationally known painter of Tel Aviv, the Bauhaus, White City
She has had many international exhibits of her artwork.
While she often paints Tel Aviv, she also creates paintings relating to women’s empowerment, horses, dogs, and joyful flowers, sometimes interconnected in the same work.
She exhibits both in Israel and internationally.
Internationally she has exhibited in the USA, and in Germany, Italy, and most recently, in Singapore and Zurich.
Her oil paintings are in many private collections around the world, and many foreign Ambassadors and diplomats who have served in Israel have collected her paintings and taken them to their next postings and to their home countries. Her work is in private collections in the USA, Canada, Japan, England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Singapore, India, South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria, and even Saudi Arabia.
She studied Fine Arts/Painting at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and later also studied at Cooper Union in NYC and The Art Students League, also in NYC, and much later, in Israel, she studied with Raffi Lavi at the Bet Berle Arts College.
Sali currently lives in Herzliya, Israel, with her husband, Yaakov Kirschen, the creator of the well-known “Dry Bones” political cartoon.
She came to Israel for the first time in August 1967, just after the Six Day War and we went back and forth several times while living in Manhattan, NY till she made Alyah, (immigrated to Israel) in May 1971.
During those years, 1968/71, she lived in Manhattan with her first husband and had many interesting friends.
Bob Dylan used to visit them almost every day in their one-room apartment in order to relax for an hour or so, after working in his studio all day. He would strum on Sali’s old guitar from high school days and play Shesh Besh (a Middle Eastern form of Backgammon) with her husband.
Dylan introduced her to John Lennon, Yoko, Peter, Paul, and Mary. She also knew Andy Warhol, Abby Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and more. But saw Dylan much more often than the others. Sali had the first portable video camera equipment in NY, and she used to be the cameraman and director while making short reality videos all over the city with Dylan.
In addition to being a video director, She has been a horse trainer, dog trainer, riding teacher, art teacher, public speaker, and general manager of a computer games company based on AI.
Sali Ariel was raised partly on a horse and cattle farm in Tulsa Oklahoma, which contributed to her passion for horses in her work.
She also lived for three years at the Shaar Haggai Dog Kennel, and farm with no electricity, and that kind of lighting situation led her to use reflective colors in some of her works.
She is active in many organizations. She is a past president of the IWC (The International Women’s Club of Israel,) and the DSPI (the Diplomatic Spouses and Partners club of Israel,) and she teaches art and painting to this group and privately. She is a member of the Israel Artists Association and a Friend of the Tel Aviv Museum.
