Melinda Berkovitz

Melinda was born in Australia and has lived both in Israel and the UK where she developed an extensive career in teaching textiles and art design courses. Since 2010 her home by the Sea of Galilee, Israel has become her main base.

Many people have childhood memories of learning how to sew or knit with their mothers and grandmothers. For Melinda, her early influences come via her father. He was a Holocaust survivor from the Polish town of Lodz. Before the second World War, Lodz was a thriving industrial textile centre and many of the Jewish community were involved in the local textile trade. Melinda’s maternal family were well known tailors and fabric merchants.

Tragically most of the family perished in the Lodz Ghetto and concentration camps. Melinda’s father survived though he never saw his parents and most of his family again. At the end of the war, after liberation from Buchenwald Concentration camp by U.S. forces, Melinda’s father was taken to Switzerland by the Red Cross to recuperate and regain his health. He was 19 years old.

Despite all he had endured Melinda’s father was determined to succeed. With help and support from friends he enrolled at a technical college in Bern, Switzerland graduating as a textile industrial engineer. Melinda proudly cherishes his notebooks with the designs and notes that he produced at the college.

Australia beckoned and in the early 1950s the young Polish refugee landed in Sydney with the proverbial “dollar in his pocket,” never to look back. He forged a successful career as director of a commercial dyeing, spinning and weaving company. As a young girl Melinda would often visit her Dad’s factory. The deafening din of huge industrial looms is a sound one never forgets!

Melinda moved to Israel in the late 1970s where she married and settled on a moshav in the North of Israel. When the family moved to England for what was planned as a short sabbatical, Melinda was able to continue her textile studies whilst teaching and raising a young family. Her interest in adult learners meant that her career focused on working in community education in both a teaching and managerial role.

Melinda has always maintained a prolific creative output of her own textile work – an important factor if one is to also teach and stimulate others on their creative journey. Melinda enjoys the challenge of producing work for regular exhibitions and private commissions. Her clients are world-wide including Australia, U.S.A, Israel and the U.K.

By using the exciting medium of fabric and thread, Melinda endeavours to achieve a vibrant and dynamic quality to her work, with design sources often originating from her Australian background or Jewish heritage. As a keen colourist, Melinda’s choice of palette is always central to any of her selected subjects. “The use of many layers entices the viewer to really study my pieces in order to explore their full message. My multi-cultural background means I am rarely short of inspiration – just the time!”

Melinda’s work continues to evolve even though themes tend to repeat themselves in an intuitive cycle. In her recent work based on sea studies at the Jaffa Port, Israel, Melinda has incorporated her own photographic images. As ideas develop, her own prose now features in her work. The latest series “Marking the Journey” explores Melinda’s journey from a childhood in Australia, to life in Israel, the U.K. and Israel today, thus linking many of her reoccurring themes.

In all her pieces the impact and presence of her father who sadly passed away many years ago, remains a constant strength and enduring influence.