I am a holistic practitioner and a graduate of psychology studies . I’m a mother of three children, Emmanuelle, Ya’ar, and Lavie . I’m also happily married to Omer, and together we’ve been raising two adorable cats named Zohar and Libi.

The idea for Animal Cards & Tales came to me after the birth of our first daughter, Emmanuelle, in the middle of a New York winter.
Omer was working hard at that time to support us, and I found myself tired and lonely in an apartment surrounded by snow, without any family support.

Fortunately, or maybe it wasn’t sheer luck, but I had an inner calling that told me to take care of myself. And every time I breastfed Emmanuelle a new animal would come to me and tell me a story. So there I was, sitting in the dark with my daughter , dozing off every now and then, imagining stories and animals.

Omer would come back at night and find me sitting and drawing. I’d draw what the animals told me. Complete scenes that came to me in between sleep and wakefulness. Each animal brought along a unique magical story and insight.

The inspiration, of course, was Emmanuelle.
But also my own values, everything I knew about the world and what mattered to me. Everything I wanted to pass on to her as her mother. All the values I wanted her to grow up with.

There’s no doubt that it sustained me during that sensitive and complex period, when I could have easily (and all the conditions were there for it) sink into postpartum depression.
And looking back, this period seems magical to me, not sad or frustrating at all. Snow piling up on the windowsill, while it was warm inside, where a mother and her sweet baby enjoyed heaps of inspiration.

That’s how Emmanuelle was born.
That’s how I was born as a mother.
That’s how Animal Cards & Tales was born.

Michal Barnea