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Today's Featured Biography

Brian Whitson

Minnesotans offer help—and hope—in Israel
by Delores Topliff

TWIN CITIES, Minn. – Some transplanted Minnesotans in Israel are making a notable difference. In 2003, Brian and Kari Whitson sold their Coon Rapids, Minn., home and moved to Tel Aviv. After helping with hospitality and worship while obtaining a five-year work visa renewable yearly, they moved to the Judean hills and then Jerusalem. In 2004, they started Bezaleel Arts, an entrepreneurial business. In 2007, Whitson published “Everyday Miracles - Judean Hills Wildflowers,” a book photographed in the Judean hills. The impressive collection caused a Hebrew University botany professor to request Whitson’s collaboration on three future books.
Whitson’s attraction to Israel began in 1996, after a trip there as a dancer with For Zion Sake, the dance troupe founded in 1981 by his sister, Debra Holm, at Blaine’s Way of the Lord Church.
“By 1995, Brian and I were leading the ministry together, and it had become citywide,” said Holm. “We had a heart for Israel’s people, songs and music, and developed a heart for the land, too. To be honest, it was hard to come home. Brian came home, but he and Kari took steps leading to their move to Israel in 2003.”
On January 1, amid the renewed fighting between Hamas and Israel, the Whitsons joined volunteers traveling to Sderot, in the war zone, where the municipality provided names of needy persons.
“We brought food and blankets to 150 elderly people who were unable to leave their homes,” said Brian Whitson. “A toy factory donated educational games to distribute to children. We received many tears and smiles.”
 “Everyday Miracles - Judean Hills Wildflowers”, www.bezaleelarts.com.
[source: http://www.mcchronicle.com/Articles/Feb09/Art_Feb09_05.html]
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Brian, married and a father of five sons, was born and raised in Minnesota, USA. He always had a love for nature and as a youngster spent as much time as he could with his grandparents, who lived on 85 acres of woodland which had a small lake and a stream flowing through it. As he grew, so did his love for natural beauty. Whether canoeing, hiking, or biking, the out-of-doors was where you would most likely find him. Brian’s father is a wildlife painter and Brian is a sculptor of bronze and painter of silk. The two of them have shared their love for nature and art over the years.

Brian’s love for photography began in high school when he took one year of photography courses. He would love to watch the photos come to life before his eyes as they sat in the developing tray. His father bought a 35 mm Minolta which Brian could take out to the nature center near their home to photograph ducks and geese as well as landscapes for his father to use in painting.

After marrying, photography became mostly a tool for recording family history, and he could be found snapping shots at every special occasion. After most of his children were grown and gone, he once again began taking pictures of nature. But this time, instead of ducks and geese, it was mostly still shots of things like flowers, leaves, and spider webs with morning dew on them.

Before Brian and Kari moved to Israel, he decided to purchase his first digital camera so that he could e-mail pictures with the notes that he sent off to family and friends. Brian feels that the digital camera has dramatically increased his skill as a photographer, since it gave him the ability to take hundreds of pictures and then immediately load, view, and see what shots did and didn’t work while they were still fresh in his memory.

Brian’s love for nature and joy of photography has never decreased, which can easily be seen by each picture portrayed in this book.
[source: http://www.fotl.co.il/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=110&zenid=6447d6d492014eae881a89d793d1d1a0]

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