Haya Graetz-Ran is a consistent and poetic painter, who chose to adapt her life story according to photographs: first photos from family albums, and later, from anonymous abandoned albums. Every new series is another step in the narrative that moves from the autobiographical to the collective and back again. Every step supports the credibility and sincerity of her work. In one of her latest series called"Pure & Simple Penmanship”, exhibited currently as part of a large exhibition called"Focus on Painting"(curator: Daniela Ta!mor), it seems that she succeeds, for the first time, to put together what appears to be the self portrait of a little girl (even though the photo serving as a basis for the series is actually her portrait), and thus, she touches the hidden trauma. This time it seems that Graetz-Ran dared to go back to the"scene of the crime", and to summon evidence in the form of stains, and something that may look like blood stains.