The images by Israeli artist Anat Shiftan leave an impression on any viewer. It seems kismet then that they should be shown in the space next to the Image Clothing store at 150 Canal Street. A blend of fine flowers and plants with interpretive and vague features of clouds, the digitally enhanced images take earth and sky and unite them in such a way as to make even the casual viewer stop and take notice.

Shiftan grew up in Jerusalem and began studying art at the age of five. She earned a degree in ceramics from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Six years ago, she moved to Michigan, earning an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Design in Bloomfield Hills, a suburb of Detroit. Shiftan then came to the Hudson Valley three years ago to teach ceramics as a full-time instructor at SUNY New Paltz, where she lives continues to live and produce work.

Though she hasn't been in the area for very long, Shiftan admits to an influence from the region's environment. “Nature influences my work quite a bit, in color and pattern, and nature in the Hudson Valley is not disturbing,” she laughs.

Despite her concentration in ceramics, the works displayed in Ellenville are all digital prints, though Shiftan points out the role that ceramics plays. Even though it would seem that the two disciplines are opposite she argues, “one influences the other in terms of technique and content,”.

This combination of two seeming opposites takes root in the displayed works of art themselves, which all offer starkly different images with very similar themes. The prints feature backgrounds that are filled with tumultuous clouds, which are then “sweetened” by the digital coloring process. Then, inserted over the clouds, there are close-ups of flowers and plants which have also gone through a process of digital color alteration so as to accentuate the features that are, in Shiftan's words, “not so sweet.” “It's about the polarity between things that are going a negative way and things that are going a positive way,” she says of the prints. The final image takes two familiar but very different sights and combines them in a way as to make their blend seem totally natural and simultaneously unreal.

Shiftan hopes to hook into a sense of artistic kinship through Ellenville's 10x10x10 event. “One thing I wanted to do is connect with local artists because I'm new to the area. [I want to] play a role in the community, and get a body of work that can move me somewhere creatively.” Anat Shiftan's prints are on display through the month of July.

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