Meet Orna Feinstein | Visual artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Orna Feinstein and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Orna, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
Yes, I have several quotes. One of my favorites is when life hands you a Leamon, make a lemonade.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Going back to your first question, I can think of a quote that describes my journey. “Success is what happens in between failures.”

My artistic career is an example of that quote. As an artist who constantly creating new artworks, I constantly searched for new venues to show them. In a way, being an artist is a one person business. In addition to creating the works, you have to market yourself, send press releases, do the accounting, and all other jobs every business has to do. Wearing all these hats is pretty challenging, especially because what every artist really wants to do is create!

All these challenges were met with repetition. If I my work wasn’t accepted in one exhibition, I tried another, and another. Eventually I made it to a good number of exhibitions, and even won numerous awards.

The key was, never to give up, but keep doing what I love doing.

As an experimental printmaker, I had extra challenges trough the years. I wanted to achieve effects and dimensions as not seen before in my field. After a decade of experimentation and improvements, I was able to create 3D monoprints and installations. These achievements were celebrated in a retrospective exhibition that traveled to 5 museums in Texas. I also published a book documenting the steps that led to these artworks. The book includes many images, and a comprehensive essay by Dena Woodall, Curator of prints and Drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

I am also proud to share that in 2023 I have created and showed my art work in Antarctica and the Arctic Circle as well as Patagonia. These art events were in remote outdoor places, and I was able to get new patrons to see my art. I became the first artist ever to make and show art on both poles within 6 months. In 2024, I have shown my art at the Tortoise park in the Galapagos Islands.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Luckily, I have numerous friends who live in other states. When they come to visit me, I have to prepare the itinerary. That of course includes the places we visit and the places we eat.

Houston is a great cultural city, and one week is not enough to see all it offers. I will definitely include MFAH and the Menil Collection for any visitors who is interested in viewing some amazing art collections. A very interesting gallery to visit is Reeves Art and Design. The selection of art is vast, and includes exhibitions of living artists, as well as works from secondary market. There is something for every budget, and every taste and style.

I will also include a visit to the Houston Botanic Gardens and the Houston Zoo. The HBG has an amazing light exhibition throughout the garden during the month of December. This one is a must see!

I highly recommend to my music loving friends a visit to Houston Grand Opera for amazing productions of operas, as well as Opera in the heights for more intimate experience of opera.

Houston is known for being a very diverse city, and because of that we have restaurants with food from all over the world. There are so many great restaurants in town. I personally love Thai and Japanese food, and some of my favorites are Thai Cafe, Songkran and Sage 400.
I also like the new Fusion Eats on Taft St. for fast and tasty food.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
As an artist you go through a lot of training in school. The first ones to recognize your talent and encourage you are some of the teachers. I have to thank my drawing and printmaking teacher at the Glassell School of art in Houston, Mrs. Suzanne Manns. She encouraged me to try printmaking, and predicted this will be my field of interest and expertise. She was right!

I also believe that through out my artistic career, it was the curators, and gallery owners who deserve credit for including my works in many exhibitions around the country and abroad.
They recognized the quality and importance of my work, and the collectors followed.

Website: https://www.ornafeinstein.com

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Image Credits
Orna Feinstein