When I was invited to paint this huge painting, under a three months dead-line, I knew I would need help. I asked some of my best painting students to be my assistants. Niv Refael, Eithan Shacham, Dedi Shachar, Lee Trifon, Yasmin Ben-Ron, and Yossi Ronen, who joined towards the very end, when I was mostly painting on my own.

My assistants would come and go as they pleased, some worked more, some took trips to places far away, came back for a while, and continued. Towards the third month I found myself mostly alone. I would open the big derelict empty building in the old city of Jaffa, (The Califf night club) which was hired as a studio for that duration, climb to the third floor, turn on the lights, music (Mostly the Faure requiem) etc, and find myself alone with this amazing task.