Hila Bait Or, an Israeli born artist and writer, is a bubbling source of endless ideas and untamed creativity. Being continuously inspired by everything around her, she always finds it hard to commit to only one of her many talents or to the pursuit of a single artistic inquiry. Instead, she continuously experiments with painting, sculpturing, writing, crafts, embroidery, filming, and multi-media, as well as other forms of artistic expression.
Hila’s art is clearly the creation of an artist who did not lose her childhood curiosity and passions. For Hila, the world is a (somewhat risky) playground, where she toys with shapes, colors, and textures. Yet, while being able to keep her connection to childhood fantasies, Hila also explores the sensual, malleable materiality of objects and concept with the sharp and observant eye of an all-too experienced adult.
The love of art and passion for life which are apparent in Hila’s work were shaped by her unusual life story. She was born and raised in an Israeli kibbutz - a small, closed community that strongly encourages communal values and social compliance. Even as a child, she had difficulties fitting in to any given structure. As a teenager, Hila lost her mother and sister in the span of one year. After high school, trying to make her father content, Hila joined the Israeli Army - and hated every second of it. Her father died of a heart attack a couple of weeks before she completed her military service.
The tragedies of her life inform Hila’s work, but by no means overpower it. Her colorful and playful works are the crystallization of her drive to seize and celebrate life, and her natural tendency towards everything exciting, fulfilling, and enjoyable. Hila’s free spirit and frequent outbursts of creativity are a way of life. Her uncompromising friendship, her wild, nothing-off-limits sense of humor, and her sense of style are the embodiment of the warmth and playfulness apparent in her art.
One of Hila’s favorite childhood memories is the moment when her father brought her an enormous artist's box loaded with wonderful colors and all painting instruments one can think of. Since early childhood, art has always been a part of life for her, an everlasting source of joy and passion. When she creates, Hila can get totally lost in the process - and every so often, she can find herself as well. Until this very day, she gets excited simply by a huge crayon box or by spending hours in art stores.
Since art has always been an escape and an endless source of pleasure for her, Hila has always been afraid of pursuing it formally and by doing so losing all the fun. In college, she studied literature, journalism, and gender. Despite tempting offers to go on to graduate school, Hila decided to leave academia. After graduation, she worked as a copywriter, a journalist reviewing art and architecture exhibitions, a writer and designer. Moving to the U.S. with her husband Dani (the only thing in her life she didn’t hesitate committing to) allowed her to dedicate more time to her art and enrich herself in many ways, as she continued her exploration onto the sensuality, tactility, and corporality of materials, colors, and shapes.
Hila says: “Through art, I am able to integrate all aspects of life: childhood and adulthood, tragedies and joys, beauty and sadness, hope, frustration, anger and peacefulness. Above all, art enables me to express my love for life, on all its rich complexity.”
