Realized Art by Effi

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From my childhood fears of a menacing fairy tale comes a exploration of childhood narratives, reimagined through my adult eyes and experiences. The dualities of contemporary female identity, domesticity, and the vulnerabilities of urban life.

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Wearables inspired by my original art based of “Adulterated” 26 artworks that explore the classic alphabet blocks but reimagined and for adults.

Adult and Adulterated spelled out with alphabet blocks and adult imagery.

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Apparel & Gifts | Efrat Baler - ART

Wearables inspired by my original art, based on the artwork series Adulterated by contemporary artist Efrat (Effi) Baler, where the 26 child

[ef4art]

A plant, a symbol, and the shared roots of stories that shaped centuries. Text, layers, structure, and meaning surfacing behind and because of a humble plant.

This work begins with Euphorbia milii, a plant that carries the historical weight of its common name: the Crown of Thorns. As the primary botanical reference for the most iconic crown in Western art history, this succulent shrub serves as the foundation for an exploration into the shared Jewish roots of a narrative that has shaped centuries of art. A faint face adorned with a thorny crown seeps through from an unseen front, creating a spectral presence reminiscent of the Shroud of Turin. While this figure is traditionally identified by the Latin acronym I.N.R.I. in Western iconography, the text appears here on the raw, reverse side of the canvas in its original Hebrew:

Yeshua HaNotzri Melech HaYehudim. 

‎יֵשׁוּעַ הַנָּצְרִי מֶלֶךְ הַיְּהוּדִים

Seen backwards as it bleeds through the fabric (םיִדוּהְיַה ךְֶלֶמ יִרְצָּנַה עַוּשֵׁי), the inversion emphasizes a "backside" perspective on both the canvas and the narrative’s backstory. These Jewish origins often remain hidden; here they are facing the wall, yet they leave a permanent imprint on the surface of the canvas. Behind a torn section of the painting, a physical plaque bearing the familiar Latin Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum is nailed directly to the internal structure. These layers of language, botany, and structural support converge to transform a botanical study into an investigation of history and material memory, all growing from a humble plant defined by formidable spines and small, delicate flowers.

Mixed media on joined canvases 

40 x 30 x 1.5 inches

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The structure of a still life becomes the window through which the painting’s process is visible.

Front and back. Sketch and underpainting. More than one state at once. Reflection as image. Reflection as pause.

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A thistle across multiple states of making and existence. It remains suspended between stages, allowing process, revision, and exposure to shape the experience. Built from stacked and joined canvases that collapse distinctions between front & back, image and support.

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Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is a work that holds multiple viewpoints and versions of the same theme simultaneously. Constructed from four stacked canvases that collapse front and back, image and structure. Exposed stretcher bars, raw canvas, finished and unfinished, and painted surfaces exist at once, holding the work in a state of simultaneous narratives.

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A Cardinal painting revealing its own construction. Front and back, paint and drawing, existing at the same time.

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Finally done with the 26 paintings of “Adulterated” children’s alphabet blocks.

[ef4art]

Letters M, N, O, and P added to “Adulterated,” an alphabet series reimagined for adults (with nods to childhood themes).

Each piece is made from two joined canvases, about 12x15 inches, either horizontal or portrait.

16 done, 10 to go!

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Artworks for letters J, K, L added to ‘Adulterated’, alphabet blocks reimagined for adults. 12 done, 14 to go!. Art in progress.

Each work is built from two joined canvases, about 12x15 inches, sometimes horizontal, sometimes portrait, painted in different styles. 12 letters done, 14 to go.

When shown together, the 26 pieces will connect into one installation a shift from playful to dark, from memory to confrontation of our lived experiences through childhood to not so cheerful realities.

[ef4art]

More artworks added to ‘Adulterated,’ an alphabet reimagined for adults. Letters G, H, I. 9 done, 17 to go! Art in progress.

[ef4art]

From nutcrackers to Stormtroopers, Captain America, and beyond, this work follows how toys change yet stay the same. Times shift, but the spirit of play and life remains the same. War games always remain.

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New artworks:

“As The World Turns” invites viewers to look beyond surface impressions into spaces behind and beneath, where secrets and struggles endure out of sight, held in the past and imagined futures.

A postcard-like landscape of the same farmhouse in different seasons is deliberately ruptured and opened, exposing the reverse of the canvas and small green toy soldiers—some locked in battle, others climbing above. Faint traces of another painted scene bleed through from the front, leaving ghostly stains that mark the hidden side as a record of unseen realities. These hidden elements haunt the quiet composition, reminding us that behind every calm façade private histories and conflicts continue, whether remembered, ongoing, or still to come. The work echoes the cycles of the seasons, where change is constant and time repeats, but not everything is visible. The ordinary carries conflict. Some things remain buried in the layers, fought over, hidden in time, or surviving in the spaces behind and beneath.

Every surface peace is contingent, provisional, and haunted by what it conceals.

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Title of painting “FOLDED TIME: ENCOUNTERS AND TRANSFORMATIONS”

explores the evolution of female representation. Examine how the female form has been viewed and portrayed across different eras and mediums.

The artwork examines the intersection where art history meets pop culture. This piece considers how iconic figures can "face" each other, prompting a reflection on our understanding of time, change, the layers of history, and the enduring power of imagery. It engages with ideas of embodiment, nostalgia, and the shifting depiction of the female figure across visual languages.

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Sound on 🔊

Otherwise here is the text: A new series of paintings on Yupo paper, exploring the narratives of destruction-bullet casings-juxtaposed with signs of life. These works reflect on the tension between destruction, renewal, and resilience, revealing unexpected beauty amid menace and conflict.

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New work: Curse in Motion

Another piece with a Voodoo doll as a vessel for projection and pain. This one captures the charged moment when a spell is already in motion, where intent becomes action, somewhere between casting and consequence. It reflects how we often cloak intense emotions. anger, spite, vengeance, behind a façade of innocence. So here is a chance to reflect on the hidden depths and the universal struggle to confront pain and the urge to punish those we believe have harmed us.

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PINPOINTING THE PAIN (36 x 48 x 5 inches) This two-sided piece blends painted illusion and raw structure—where cartoonish colors meet deliberate harm, and emotional scars surface through threads, pins, and torn canvas. Pain becomes visible. Revenge takes shape.