Ruah Edelstein
Genesis
I was born in Klaipeda, Lithuania. Early in life I received a rigorous education at Adomo Brako School of Fine Arts. Around the age of 10 I saw an installation in Klaipeda Exhibition Hall titled "The Water Well." One hundred clay bells were hung from the ceiling on strings of different lengths. They reflected in a mirror placed underneath. I was familiar with figurative art but this was different. At that moment I understood the existence of concept, that extra dimension, which expands consciousness beyond what eyes can see. This realization changed everything.
Studies
In mid 1990s I moved to Great Britain to study stage directing and toured Western Europe with a theater company for a number of years. This was an invaluable experience for my future career as a filmmaker. Later studies included National Film School of Ireland, Film and TV Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague, and l'École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris. In 2006 I emigrated to the USA and received a BFA in Character Animation and MFA in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Los Angeles.
Search
Atrocities were happening in our world when civilization had already produced Goethe, Klimt, Kant, Brahms. Yet beauty and intellect did not stop the cruelty.
Despite my understanding that beauty and intellect are not the answer, I know that the gauge for pure perfection is usually not what we expect it to be, yet it is somewhere in our system. Sometimes I remember it through glimpses of a soul – the soul remembers something that waking consciousness does not know. This intuitive recollection is the basis for my work. I stand strong, engaging new tasks for the culture of spirit, heart, and matter into everyday life, the earthly medium of time and space relativity.
Despite my understanding that beauty and intellect are not the answer, I know that the gauge for pure perfection is usually not what we expect it to be, yet it is somewhere in our system. Sometimes I remember it through glimpses of a soul – the soul remembers something that waking consciousness does not know. This intuitive recollection is the basis for my work. I stand strong, engaging new tasks for the culture of spirit, heart, and matter into everyday life, the earthly medium of time and space relativity.
Oah & Harlam Episodes
From 2007 to 2010 I created a series of animated episodes based on my stories about two characters Oah and Harlam. Many short episodes are written since around year 2000. Through Oah and Harlam's voices I talk just about anything I want, the most awkward or hardest topics. The manuscript was presented at &NOW Conference for Authors of Innovative Literature in San Diego and is being prepared for publishing.
Died 100 times
In 2012 my collected memory found an outlet through an animated film premiered under the title "Died 100 Times." It was produced in my Los Angeles studio in a mixed media painting technique, then shown with daily screenings at a month-long exhibition of film artwork at National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum of Fine Art, Lithuania. Exploring separate lives within one continuous path of a soul, the film savors the idea that to evolve and renew the old life must first cease. The film was shown in many venues internationally, including The Museum of Jurassic Technology in LA, AMC Theaters Miami, galleries, and multiple film festivals. "Died 100 Times" receiving 1st Prize Experimental Animated Film at the Athens Animfest, Best Animated Short Film at the Lisbon International Film Festival, and Best Animation Award and the Golden Reel International Film Festival, among other awards.
Lumen Animae STUDIOS
In 2012 together with filmmaker Masha Vasilkovsky I co-founded a Los Angeles-based animation studio, Lumen Animae Studios. Driven by the spirit of artistic innovation, we share sociocentric philosophy with the global community through film, art shows, and education, presenting work at the US Open Tennis Championship, Holocaust Museum LA, Museum of Jurassic Technology Los Angeles, Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, and numerous film festivals around the world, including Sundance and Tribeca. Our work in the film "Ashe '68” received the SIMA Award in 2020 and an Emmy Nomination in 2019.
Why Art
During my travels in Tibet in 2018 I came to an understanding that the composite of all colors of the spectrum, white, is already an absolute. Why would I add anything to it? I wouldn’t of course. An empty canvas is perfect. It includes everything. I am already happy with it and I shed every urge to complicate matters. I explore without expectations. What happens is that very carefully something is being revealed, I begin to see into that space, help it come to life, giving it a physical shape. Going into that zone is the happiness I know in life, a miracle I cannot explain. I know this for sure: It directs me more than I direct it.
Jacob's Ladder
In 2018-2020 I worked on a short animated film, "Sulam Yaakov" (Jacob’s Ladder). The ladder is the connection between earth and heaven that the biblical patriarch dreams about. Often a person is torn and anxious in their many attempts at climbing. While we try again and again there is a rhyme-like rhythm dynamic in circumstances, breathing of elements, glitches. We don’t know what all that means. We may not know for generations. Sometimes not directly, but we achieve what we desire, yet there is still no understanding of how it happened. I search for the very essence that would help explain human experience, the purpose of repetition and predictability. As if walking in circles, the extremes are repeating, yet it seems that the floors are changing, like the steps of Jacob’s ladder, or perhaps some sort of giant genetic code that we are all climbing. This vision gives me strength to go on, to breathe, to try again and again.
Today
My studio is located in the mountains north of Los Angeles. In my current work I concentrate on patterns and look for anything that rhymes to help make sense of this amazing matrix that we all inhabit. This is what has happened to me, a transition from taking pride in all that rigorous training in art to shedding everything I find unnecessary. It is post-disciplinary now. This current period is the most direct, honest, and playful. It is also the bravest, as intuition has taken over from control and expectations.