Virtual Art Tour

Milton Rochman, American

Forever Loved

Florida artist, Milt Rochman showed a great desire and talent for art at an early age. He wanted to paint, but concentrated on drawing at the Detroit Art Institute and the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Michigan. While in Detroit’s Central High School, Milt entered one painting in a scholastic contest. Winning the contest, his painting toured the United States and eventually ended up in the Boston Museum of Art.

Today, Rochman is a contemporary artist whose view of the modern world is as would be seen through the eyes of a romantic, classical Spanish or Roman artist. He believes in a simple world, devoid of hate, prejudice and greed. Rochman’s belief that woman is the center of the universe is a central theme in his works. He pays homage to this belief by placing woman, in all her beauty and glory, onto the canvas and celebrating everything about her. He says, “Contrary to the common belief, it is woman who is the center of life that all things flow from.”

Rochman’s style is Post-Impressionistic and is reminiscent of Modigliani and his use of form, Van Gogh and his use of color and knife, and he lists Marc Chagall, another storyteller and symbolist, as one of his greatest influences. Rochman provides the color, symbolism, emotion and characters and the viewer creates his or her own story for each of his works.

Rochman symbols: the teapot – camaraderie and friendship; the candlestick – the flame of hope and liberty; the watch (which points to Seven O’clock, the hour of the pogroms) – human intolerance and blind hate towards one another; the bird – the free and happy soul that soars above everyday life in peace; the checkerboard – life, with its moves and countermoves, wins and losses; flowers – everlasting life through our seeds so that we live on after death, as do our souls which re-bloom for eternity; the temples, churches and religious icons – to never forget where we came from; long flowing hair – the uninhibited spirit of the knowledgeable mind; the angles – the Lord watches over and tries to guide our actions and life through these spirits; musical instruments – the Lord speaks to us through music; sad eyes – man’s intolerance and his belittlement of women and the resulting ache of her heart for true love and respect by man; and the butterfly – serenity and beauty.