Paintings from rare photos of my grandparents, great grandparents and great-great grandparents made into a unique series exploring my family history from Poland, Hungary and New York City. It is popular now for authors to delve into their past by searching for relatives in books about their family origins, some going back centuries as in the Sephardic Jews of Spain forced to convert in the Inquisition, to understand their histories.. As a visual artist, I found the experience of painting my great grandparents and their parents very spiritual. I connected with their souls by painting their eyes and features. I was able to introduce myself to them as their great great grand daughter and "speak" with them. Acquiring these photos of my relatives, many who died prior to and during the Holocaust was especially emotional and fulfilling. Painting their portraits and then presenting them in this new uniform series created a profound respect for their lives in their old countries while their children fled to the new world in the 20th century, leaving all that they knew and loved behind. In my family, my sisters, parents, and cousins did the reverse and left America to fulfill their dreams of creating a new country in Israel and becoming proud citizens of this young nation.. A new shift east in the modern era. We are all connected, past and present. I hope people enjoy this very personal series in an upcoming show to be held at the Turtle Beach Resort Gallery , Siesta Key, Florida, in the fall of 2014.