I will always be Terrenero

As an artist, I can legitimately choose to extend a reality which ended, and felt like a dream come true.
Terrenero is someone who resides in, or whose origins are from Las-Terrenas, once a picturesque  fishermen’s village, and now a touristic upbeat beach town in the Samana Peninsula of the Dominican Republic.
My girlfriend and I lived in Las-Terrenas from 2002 to 2012. I felt at home there, more than in any other place on earth. I miss it, think of it, and dream about it almost every day. It is in my blood and a significant ingredient of who I am today.
In 2012, when we came back to Israel, I wanted to honor and cherish Las-Terrenas, not to forget it, and keep living it in my internal world. So I simply named myself Terrenero.
Almost 9 years later, we reside in Israel with our adorable kids, and as time goes by, I realize that I am still in denial. In my heart, I never left my love, Las-Terrenas. Yes, it’s a place, not a woman, but I did experience a few symptoms of being in love back then. I knew that other people could not understand the kind of intimacy I had with Las-Terrenas. It made me forget the world. I stopped searching for other beautiful places. Whenever someone said something negative about it, I immediately jumped to protect it. I kept loving Las-Terrenas with all of my heart, accepting that any lover has some faults too. By naming myself Terrenero, I wished to express my gratitude to this wondrous place, for all that it gave me, and for the tremendous influence it had on my work.
According to some spiritual books, it doesn’t matter where you live, because happiness comes from within. While I agree that happiness is internal, my life in Las-Terrenas taught me that happiness is much easier to achieve and maintain when you are surrounded by nature and beauty, and when the people and culture around you are stress free. As an artist I felt in heaven. I was continuously aroused and inspired by the natural treasures of the Caribbean. I opened my eyes to learn as much as I could about structures, colors, compositions, textures, and movement. I tried to emphasize the unseen wonders of nature and to document the local human scene.
Today, I still frequently use the Las-Terrenas tropical colors in my work. Regardless of the theme I deal with in my work at any given period, the ocean, trees, and mountains are my favorite setting, and an Antillean naivety is typically in the air.
Wherever I go and whatever I do, I will always carry the spirit of Las-Terrenas with me and a part of me will always be Terrenero.