For reading the entire article about Roee's life story, you can link to The Jerusalem Post.
Rude people sometimes approach blues musician and painter Roee Lavan and ask about the bandages wrapped around his head. “Sometimes they omit even introducing themselves and just pounce with the question,” he shrugs. “What am I going to tell this stranger? That I have Glioblastoma (GBM) [an aggressive form of brain cancer]? “That would probably ruin his whole day,” he laughs, “so I just say that whatever I have, it really is none of their business.”
While fully appreciative of how his personal struggle with cancer is inspiring to many, Lavan points to how he was engaged with both the blues and art well before he was diagnosed with GBM two years ago.
“I first learned about the blues at age 15 when I listened to Eric Clapton’s 1992 Unplugged album,” he told The Jerusalem Post. He is deeply passionate about the blues, having done a cover version to “Say No to the Devil” by Reverend Gary Davis in his 2015 album Black/Big/Cold. This was his second album; his first, A letter from an admirer, was released in 2013. His latest album, Blue Light Project, includes cover versions with Roy Young of “None of Us Are Free” and (with Lior Kabesa) “Where the Blues Begins” originally performed by Buddy Guy and Carlos Santana.
“Our own suffering as Jews is different from the suffering of black people in the US,” he told the Post, “but we Jews identify with it. If we would decide to return to the ghetto we could end up as narcissists or hateful towards other people, even haunted. Yet suffering, if you keep a fair mind about it, knows no genres.”
For reading the entire article about Roee's life story, you can link to The Jerusalem Post.
A lot happened since then, I have found a specific niche in graphic design and became a senior Art Director in the local high tech industry, so every morning I took a 20 min walk to the train station and waited a few minutes. I don't know why but I have found myself sitting on the only chair not taken on the train to Tel Aviv. It was crowded, so I don't really know how I always had a comfy chair and enough battery on my cell phone. I Have started drawing for 43 minutes (this was my obstruction every morning) and gained back my basic technical abilities. I was drawned to Blues artists, foreign and domestic and it all came to a nice facebook gallery with more than 50 drawings. I took 10 of them and helped my CEO decorate the office (plus a few murals). It was like art waited for the right time to attract me again to it's world.
Anyway first oil on canvas painting was a self portrait, and then Anat's portrait while looking and getting inspiration from Gustav Klimt. After having a bunch of portrait paintings for the entire family, I began taking this artistic hobby (seriously making me fell like I'm retired) more seriously. Today my spear time in my house dedicated to music and oil on canvas/wood paintings (which now has new concepts inside them). Last painting was a hybrid between 2 Israeli politicians that decided sharing the PM's office, and create a rotation (that's how it's called in Hebrew).
Looking at Graphic designers who became a known artists for their most active period, for example Andy Warhol, I guess feels very logical to me. well his say about the emptiness inside the advertising world talks to me. when I'm looking at a room full of Campbell's soup, I guess his pop art statements talk to me a lot right now. I guess I don't mind selling copies of my works in a way that will feel similar to the original painting, so I guess that a reproduction can still feel relevant.
I know Lucian Freud's works of art for a while now and the genre of Figurative Realism have found a way getting into my heart and navigate me in a way I cannot fully control the figure or character I am painting, and I have found myself feeling free having a go at it. So my creative process finding what feels complete have changed and I want to share. this is actually the reason I have found it natural to share my works in a low cost price. so my "Campbell's soup" is available for you. enjoy the website.
]]>Published in: Migdalor, Pardes Hana. Written by: Itay Tetro. Date: 12/3/21
"Near death experience is a very complex subject in my life at a moment. I say thank you every morning I wake up and still alive and kicking" * This type of cancer got Roee off guard, while he is full of inspiration and released new recordings and paintings * "every MRI check it is just anxiety wraped with noise inside your ears. To a part time musician like me noise is too difficult".
Roee Lavan, 40 years old, married to "marvelous" Anat, a father to Avishai (7) and Adva (3). The Lavan family got to Harish a moment before the school break ends (08/20). Roee paints portraits, landscapes, and still life each time in a different technic (oil on canvas/wood).
For the full article on Hebrew click here.
]]>Translated from an article in Israel's channel 12 N12, written and published by Avivit Misnikov, 31.7.20, viewed by 40k.
Roee Lavan (40) was diagnosed with a very agressive 4th grade brain cancer called GBM (Glioblastoma Multiforme) and the doctors predicted that he will not survive * the treatments Roee been through tormented him and he even temporarily lost his sense of smell and taste * a year later he is clean from metastases- and he decided to get back to his music and fine arts: "art relaxes me".
He is a multi instrument musician, sings and paints oil on canvas - even though all the predictions said he is not going to live long because of a brain tumor. A year ago (2019) Roee Lavan started a healing process - he went through a difficult treatments, lost his job, and lost his scent and taste. Today he is completely "clean" from metastases and art is his therapy. "It's just relaxing me, even though my body became weak and tired", he described.
It all began when Lavan felt specific head aches, limiting him, and nausea. His lack of focus and hard exacution got him fired from a high tech company. In an S.O.S MRI Roee took, thr doctors diagnosed his disease as GBM, a common and very aggressive brain cancer, that the population of Israelis (8 million), suffer from GBM in a ratio of 3 to 100,000 a year. Doctors astimated he has a 1.5 year to live. Roee, a father for 2 kids ( 7 and 3), that his life course completely opened up a clean slate, when he knew how it started and, when it will all end.
For reading the entire article about Roee's life story, you can link to N12.
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