"Sovev, Sovev"- Round and Round We Go

Last year while teaching Kohelet I came across a picture of a carpet page of a Bible from San'a, Yemen in 1469.  The shape of the triangle and inverted triangle with the circle in the center reminded me an hourglass sand clock.  Suddenly an idea started forming in my head.  The chapters of Kohelet would be written in concentric circles in the center of the piece and the Song of Time which begins, "Everything has its season, and there is a time for every desire under the heaven" would frame the piece fitting in perfectly with my original thought that the shape resembled an hourglass sand clock.  The result is the picture above, and below is a copy of the article I wrote for the Jewish Press several weeks ago.  The painting was on the front cover (!) and my op-ed piece followed several pages in:

“What a depressing book!” is often people's response to reading Sefer Kohelet. It seems at first glance that Shlomo Hamelech, the wisest of all men, is telling us there is no purpose to all of man's efforts whether it be in the intellectual, material or social arena. However this nihilistic view often erroneously attributed to Kohelet is not only antithetical to many Jewish beliefs taught by the Torah and our Rabbis it is even contradictory to statements Kohelet himself makes. What then is the message of Sefer Kohelet? Is there a way to spin Kohelet's oft-quoted statement “Hevel Havalim hakol hevel,” “Futility of futilities, all is futile” in a positive, perhaps even inspiring light?

The word hevel appears no less than thirty eight times in the sefer and if Shlomo Hamelech is telling us all is hevel, it is imperative to properly translate this word. When studying Tanakh and trying to define a word one needs to look at the first place that word appears and translate the word based on the context. The first place the word hevel appears is in the story in Bereishit of Kayin and Hevel. Hevel is the first person to introduce mortality into the world since he is the first human to die. Hevel is therefore defined as vanity or futility since his death teaches us that nothing lasts, all is fleeting, life is like the breath released from our bodies, non-tangible, transient. However there was more to Hevel's story, than his death; there was his life. In his life he achieved something wonderful and everlasting- a relationship with God. Through his sacrifice he was granted Divine deliverance, and “God turned favorably towards Hevel.” Although Hevel's death taught us life is not eternal, his life taught us how to gain transience in this world; through developing a relationship with God. The very fact that Kohelet tells us he has “witnessed all the deeds done under the sun, and indeed, all is futile and accomplishes nothing” is meant to inspire us to live life to the utmost by filling it with spiritual endeavors and God's Torah and mitzvot which are the only pursuits that have lasting value as opposed to everything else which in Kohelet's view is equivalent to “chasing winds.”

A couple of weeks ago I was at an amusement park with my family, enjoying the last few days of summer vacation. My three year old son wanted to go an a ride called, “Turtle Whirl.” Needles to say there was a lot of whirling and spinning going on on this ride. I could barely look at it without feeling slightly ill. My husband graciously agreed to accompany my son and I happily agreed to watch from the sidelines and take pictures. However, try as I may I wasn't able to get one single picture; the ride was spinning so fast it was impossible to capture their smiling faces. Isn't life the same. How often do we have days, maybe even weeks months or years where we literally feel like we are spinning around and around, it seems impossible to even pause long enough to catch one's breath, let alone stay focused and find meaning in it all. This idea is what inspired me to create the artwork “Sovev, sovev.” In the artwork, the majority of Sefer Kohelet is written in concentric circles, a dizzying feat in it of itself! As Kohelet teaches us, life and our daily activities are cyclical, just as nature is cyclical. The sun rises, the sun set; the wind blows from east to west, and then blows back again from west to east. As the Maharal teaches, human actions mirror nature. Even the words of Kohelet seem cyclical; Shlomo walking us through his logic and analysis of human endeavors just to bring us back to the same point, “Hakol hevel- all is futile.” The challenge is through this dizzying ride of life to find meaning and perspective.

The Avudraham explains that the words of Kohelet were culled from sermons given by Shlomo Hamelech every seven years on the holiday of Sukkot when the Jews would gather in Yerushalayim to celebrate the holiday and fulfill the mitzvah of hakhel (hence one of the reasons the book is called Kohelet). Every year on Sukkot we read Kohelet not to depress us rather to inspire us to not get swallowed up in the whirlwind of life but rather to remain focused that “The sum of the matter, when all has been considered: Fear God and keep his commandments, for that is the whole purpose of man.”

After all, if we are acutely aware that our time in this world is finite, how much more meaningful would our days be?

  

The Making of a Ketubah

I love watching an art piece develop. In truth I always have an idea of how the piece will turn out, but the end result is always a little different than I expected. It's a real creative process.  Normally I don't like anyone seeing my artwork before it's completely finished but I decided to give you, my readers, an inside peek of the process of designing a ketubah from scratch.

It starts with a sketch:

I draw with pencil a detailed sketch of the design.  Once the sketch is mainly completed I start filling it in with ink, pencil and watercolor, my usual choices of medium.  The couple who ordered this ketubah were getting married at the New York Botanical Gardens and they wanted a lot of detail of flowers and that blue should be the predominate color.  We decided to add in images of doves and olive branches as symbols of peace and harmony and pomegranates as a symbol of prosperity.  In addition, their wedding was right before Rosh Hashana so the pomegranates worked well with the time of year. (Also I love pomegranates so whenever I can add them into pieces I do!)

I finished adding in all the color for the flowers, now it's time to paint the background blue and fill in the corners.

If you notice I had an olive tree originally sketched into one of the corners, but I didn't like the way it looked.  A closer up of the olive branch would be more visually appealing and balance out the close-up of the pomegranates. (Art is all about balance, and if you don't believe me read Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, one of my favorite novels of all time!)  I also decided to add an extra border of floral papercut around the perimeter to give it that little extra wow factor!  And as you can see I've started spacing out the ketubah text.  I always save that for last since it's my least favorite part of designing a ketubah!

The finished product!

And of course no artwork is complete without the artist's signature.

It's All in the Family!

While creating the piece The Seven Species, I bumped into a woman in the supermarket who grew up around the corner from me in my hometown in NJ.  "I've been meaning to call you" she said.  I want to order a custom art piece for the Rabbi of my shul.  A couple of weeks ago was my son's Bar Mitzvah.  Everything was in order, we had 75 family members coming to us for Shabbos.  All our meals would be catered and eaten in the shul.  However, God had a different plan.  Thursday night there was a terrible rainstorm and the basement of the shul where we were supposed to have all our meals was flooded.  The Rabbi of the shul who has a huge living room graciously offered to host the meals at their home, and we want to give them a unique gift to show our appreciation for their helping us out.  How quickly could you have a piece ready?"

I couldn't help but laugh, the piece I was currently working on, The Seven Species was being made for this woman's brother-in-law who lives in Israel as a surprise gift for his 40th birthday.  I was told by the wife to keep the artwork a secret.  In my own family I was always known as the one who couldn't keep secrets.  I was about to shirk myself of that title.  I told my friend she would have to wait a couple of weeks because I was currently working on a piece for someone else, but I would let her know when it's complete.  "Ok, great" she said, "Oh and I want to keep the artwork a surprise from the Rabbi and his wife." She then told me their names and I realized I teach at the same school as the Rabbi's wife...more secrets to keep!

When The Seven Species were finished, I contacted my friend they told me they wanted a simple papercut with the words, "You can draw water with joy, from the springs of salvation."  The quote originally from Sefer Yeshayahu is recited during havdalah at the conclusion of Shabbos.  It was a perfect verse to use since it has to do with water (remember the flood that caused the whole scenario), Sabbath and God as the source of all Blessing.  The only thing they couldn't decide on was the color scheme.  My friend devised a plan that I could see the Rabbi's house when noone was home and choose the appropriate color for the piece.  This was going beyond keeping a secret, we're talking about breaking and entering here.  Anyway it was all accomplished, secrets were kept, I managed to get a peek inside their house without setting off any alarms and the result is the papercut above and below.  Hope you enjoyed my rambling story!

The Seven Species

I should write an ode to my neglected blog.  It's been way too long since I've paid any attention to you.  Perhaps now that it's summer and I have more free time I will be able to post more regularly.

Here is a piece I finished about two months ago  It is a papercut of Israel's seven species with the text of the Separation of Terumah and Tithes written in calligraphy on the inside.  I received a phone call from a woman in Jerusalem ( just read a book by A.B. Yehoshua with that exact title, but I digress...) who grew up around the corner from me in NJ, and has been living in Israel for the past 17 years.  Her husband enjoys working on his garden in their backyard in Jerusalem and taking the appropriate terumah from the fruits and vegetables that he grows.  To celebrate his upcoming fortieth birthday she wanted to know if I could write out the text of Separating the Terumah and Tithes and include in the piece a papercut of the seven species.  What a fun project!
 

I looked at many, many images of the seven species and sketched them out in pencil, then painted over the pencil in gold and cut out with an x-acto knife the negative space. 

Here we have some olives (excuse the shadow...a photographer I am not!)

some sheaves of wheat...

dates and figs.... 

          and pomegranates and barley

I was really happy with the way it came out.  I especially love how the gold glimmers in the light.  My husband liked this piece so much he asked if I could make it for our home.  My response? Buy an apartment in Jerusalem and plant a garden in the backyard and you'll get one too!

Fifty Years and Counting!

This family tree was created in honor of a couple who recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  Being that I've only been married 4 years I find that number quite impressive!
What was also impressive was the amount of effort, care, and concern the youngest child, who happens to be an old childhood friend, put in to making this gift happen.  It's not easy trying to get four other older siblings to agree on colors and design and every other detail that goes into creating a piece of artwork!  But they did it, and hopefully everyone will be pleased with the result.

The tree is made from canson paper, cut with a knife and mounted on a 20 x 24 in. canvas.  The canvas is painted with acrylic paint.

  
The writing is done in Indian ink and the edges are highlighted in gold paint.

 
Here's to another 50!  Mazal tov!

Bat- Mitzvah Gift

Who doesn't like to see their name up in lights?  Or at least a papercut of their name hung in their home!  This piece was created as a Bat-Mitzvah gift.  However it can also be a beautiful gift for a new baby.  Or you can make it into a Bar-Mitzvah gift and perhaps put a pasuk from the Bar-Mitzvah boy's parsha or haftorah around the cut out of his name.   

I'm not sure why I always take pictures from this angle.  I think it adds some drama, what do you think?

Also from this angle, you can really see the curling of the paper.  The piece is a square (12 in. x 12 in.) and is canson paper, cut with a knife and matted on hand made tie-dyed blue and purple paper.  Oh, and the Bat-Mitzvah girl loved it!