Spent a fascinating morning this week in Miami with my children and my friend, the great artist Ron Agam.  Of course, as anyone familiar with the Jewish or Israeli world knows, the Agam name is legendary as Ron’s father, Yaakov Agam is the most famous Israeli artist in the world, famous for kinetic art and more.

Ron, raised between France and Israel only began painting at the age of 52, following a successful career in photography. As he says however, working the last ten plus years 18 hours a day, 7 days a week is the equivalent of someone else’s 30 years. And what a dream life he has today, doing good for Jews and Israel with a lot of philanthropic work, having a very successful painting career with collectors worldwide including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, Madonna and the French Ambassador as collectors.

Having recently relocated to Miami Beach from NYC, he surely seems to be in a groove now, wearing his trademark winter hat, and with gorgeous, colorful, upbeat art in his Little Haiti, Miami studio one can only see Agam’s work and feel positive realizing that art affects so much of life.

As Ron told my kids children especially can benefit from understanding art and creativity and inspiration as art develops personality, individuality, creativity, thinking and more. As a proud Jew, he also spoke of the importance of positivity in Judaism – with his colorful Jewish stars which adorn homes worldwide, symbolizing the beauty of being Jewish and more. He recounted how he created a gorgeous colorful Star of David following the tragic Pittsburgh Tree of Life shooting to remind Jews to be positive, to think positive. What a nice message.

Agam whose influences clearly reflect Kandinsky, Bauhaus artist Josef Albers and the Russian Constructivist Kazimir Malevich makes beautiful colorful art. As he noted, art allows us to create ourselves, to understand ourselves and more. Ron Agam is an artist with a bright and upbeat future.