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Alan Muskovitz: Your grandfather 
was the legendary Indian painter 
Francis Newton Souza and your 
mother is an accomplished artist in 
Israel. Painting is truly in your DNA.
Solomon Souza: Definitely. I came 
from a family of artists. It was engrained 
within me from a very young age. I real-
ized I could draw and paint. It spoke to 
my soul. I continued to grow into it. It 
was something I had to do. 

I understand you even drew on the 
walls in your house as a young boy.
Yes, drawing on walls everywhere 
and my mum, instead of stopping me, 
she would just put paper on our walls 
that were my height that I could draw 
and paint on.

Later, as you began reaching your 
teens, you entered a school that was 
known as a “last chance place for 
boys who had been expelled from 
other programs.” A bit of a “wild 
child” perhaps?
You could say that. The school was 
a yeshivah near Jerusalem. A lot of my 
friends were there, and I fell in love 
with it. It became my family.

What was it about this particular 
school that finally changed the tra-
jectory of your life?
It changed my life in so many ways. 
It gave me the structure I needed, but 
unlike most other schools, they didn’t 
dictate to you. It gave me the flexibility 
to explore and discover who I really 
wanted to be. 

So you weren’t kept on a tight leash, 
so to speak?
Exactly. It was an accepting place, 
and they gave me the room to do any-
thing I wanted, including painting a 
bunch of rooms in the yeshivah, eventu-
ally branching out to paint in the streets.

And what if you hadn’t been given 
that flexibility, if you had to conform 
more?
I’d be a rabbi now. Most of my 
friends became rabbis and run their 

own yeshivahs. I even attend a shul 
today run by a friend. It’s wonderful. 

You’re a painter and not a rabbi. But 
you share so many stories from the 
Torah in your art. Judaism truly plays 
a central role in your life.
I have a deep love and respect for 
Judaism as a religion, and I’m deeply 
connected to the culture. I’m shomer 
Shabbos. I keep kosher. I observe the 
holidays. I’m as some say Masorti — a 
traditional Jew.

You were only 8 years old when your 
grandfather, acclaimed artist Francis 
Newton Souza, passed away and you 
didn’t have many opportunities to be 
with him. To what degree has his leg-
acy impacted you?
I grew up in awe of him. The more I 
understood, the more I learned about 
the role he played in India art, the 
more I was amazed by him, wowed 
by him. It inspired me to push myself 
more, take my art and craft more seri-
ously.

In 2019, you were invited to paint 
in the Serendipity Arts Festival in 
Goa, the birthplace of your grandfa-
ther. What kind of reception did you 
receive?
It was quite amazing. I painted 20 
murals telling the untold stories of 
Goa’s heroes. They treated me as if I 
were my grandfather. It was because 
of him that I was there, and I was so 
thankful and felt incredible gratitude.

It cannot be fully appreciated by 
a mere passing glance. The mural 
is an exhilarative 60’ x 6’ expanse 
that takes up an entire wall of the 
gallery’s lower gallery. A “creation” 
that leaves you spellbound in both 
the literal and biblical sense.
Solomon graciously set aside 
time after completing the mural 
to talk one-on-one. On Friday 
afternoon prior to the Sunday 
exhibition opening, we took 
advantage of the unseasonably 
warm temperatures to share a 
memorable conversation while 
perched outside on the steps of 
the JCC (see sidebar on this page).
Meanwhile, as we chatted, the 
inside of the gallery was a flurry 
of activity as crews led by Janice 
Charach Gallery Director Natalie 
Balazovich and Assistant Director 
Rebecca Reeder worked tirelessly 
to put the finishing touches on 
the exhibit. Balazovich is in her 
11th year at the gallery and is 
herself an artist who has taught 
drawing at the Frankel Jewish 
Academy.

A CULTURAL 
COLLABORATION
The Souza and Jezreel exhib-
its are the result of months of 
strategizing between the gallery, 
JCC and organizations within 
Metro Detroit’s Jewish and Asian 
Pacific communities, resulting 
in the main co-sponsorships of 
Solomon’s visit by the Jewish 
Federation of Metropolitan 
Detroit (JFMD) and the Asian 
Pacific Islander American Public 
Affairs Association-Michigan 
(APAPA-MI).
Natalie Charach, mother of 
the late Janice Charach, Natalie’s 
sisters Esther Hankin and Doris 
Shulman, and a relative of the 
Charach family, Judy Pearl, 
provided additional sponsorship 
support. 
JFMD and APAPA-MI each 
viewed Solomon’s unique Indian-

One-on-One with 
Solomon Souza

ALAN MUSKOVITZ

Alan Muskovitz and 
Solomon Souza share a 
moment by the mural.

APRIL 27 • 2023 | 77

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JERRY ZOLYNSKY