Art Blog
Eat Food IV
This is my fourth papercut inspired by the first line of Michael Pollan’s article “Unhappy Meals.”
Lo Alecha II
This is my second piece with the phrase starting “Lo Alecha”. This text loosely translates as “It is not for you to complete the work [of repairing the world]. Not up to you to finish it. But neither are you free to desist from it.” This phrase comes from Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), which is part of the Mishna, the Jewish oral law.
Papercuts Art Show
My papercuts are on display! They are at my local JCC, which features a different artist on the gallery walk 5 or 6 times a year. My papercuts will be up through the end of August. There is also an article about me and my work in the JCC’s newsletter, a writeup/artist statement on the wall of the gallery, and large printouts in a portfolio where you can see detailed representations of some of my sold work.
Also, I’ll be teaching a class on creating Jewish papercuts. It’s a two-part class, meeting on July 11 and July 18 from 10:30am-1pm. All materials will be provided. Contact the JCC to sign up or email me if you have questions.
Ayelet Engidawork
This papercut was a gift to friends with a new baby daughter. It’s three-layer – white, maroon, pink. Into the white layer are cut gazelles, the name Engidawork in Amharic, and the name Ayelet Ophira in Hebrew. Into the maroon layer is cut the priestly blessing, given over children weekly.
Mosaic gets its grout
Yesterday, in the second of two classes, I learned how to add grout to my mosaic. Never being one to do things simple, I decided that the fish and the background needed two different colors of grout. It was a bit frustrating to get all of the grout to behave (and involved miles of masking tape) but I admit to being pleased with the result.
The fish is being held hostage by the JCC for the time being, since they plan to display all 10 mosaics produced in the class. When it’s returned to me, I’ll take a proper non-cellphone photo.
Helping CAFAC knock it off
The Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center, currently just a little more than a hope and a dream, put a call out for volunteers. They are working on constructing the space out of what looks like an old movie theater. I went there recently to help them hammer the plaster off of the walls to expose the original brickwork underneath. Hard work! I’m very excited about CAFAC because that’s where I’ll be able to do my welding, hopefully. I am so eager to finish the spider and I have other square-based sculptures in mind.
A first mosaic
Yesterday I attended the first of two classes at the JCC taught by Connie, a mosaics artist. There was actually very little “class” to the class – she spent less than ten minutes showing us the four or five tools (glass cutters and nippers) and then set us to work drawing our designs on pieces of wood, cutting glass and glueing it. We had just under four hours to complete our cutting and glueing because next week, class 2 of 2, we will have to grout, and the glue has to be dry for that. I stayed a little late finishing my piece (“you’re a fish!”), but I’m quite pleased with out it came out. Connie didn’t bring as many different colors as I wanted, but I was able to get quite a range out of one piece of marbled orangey-yellow glass.
A Secret Commission
I’m starting research and design work on a secret commision – secret because the people who commissioned it don’t know about it yet! I can’t say much, other than this papercut involves a lot of research into how to spell things in a language I don’t know at all. And the due-date deadline for the papercut is unknown. A fun challenge.
