This art installation on the Kishinev Pogrom began with a series of paintings I did in response to images that emerged in landscapes as I was providing psychotherapy for survivors of torture and political violence at a clinic in New York City. I eventually reached an impasse that prevented me from progressing further with the paintings until a friend and fellow artist came into my studio one day and asked me where was my own narrative behind these paintings. I remembered that my grandfather had survived two anti-Semitic massacres as a child growing up in Kishinev, Moldova in 1903 and 1905.

He had written me letters about his experience. My friend urged me to find the letters and hold them. I began to realize that the paintings I had created in response to the testimonies of these recent refugees of political violence had created an opening to allow me to experience my grandfather’s story in deeply emotional way. When I returned to look at the paintings, I recognized themes in his life. Only later did I realize that I had been painting his story all along.