THESE WORDS MATTER! Three Commissioned Gifts

Emet: Truth

Chesed: Loving-kindness

Tzedek: Righteousness/Justice

It was an honor to make these mixed media gifts for outgoing board members of a local charitable organization.

Each gift features a special word that suited the recipient. These words are middot~intentions. In many ways they defy simple definitions. The are words that inspire us to be better people. They are aspirational and imply action. In this situation, each word is so representative of the mensches (fine people) who worked to benefit their community in  significant ways. Each word is related to the other words. 

All middot are really connected.

There can be no justice without truth and loving-kindness. Truth stems from a belief in justice and loving-kindness....and of course, truth and justice support loving-kindness.

The base glass is called Aventurine Green. It resembles a specific type of quartz stone ; a sparkling dark green. In some spiritual practices the stone is used as a meditation aid. This quartz is said to represent moving forward with confidence, especially through challenging circumstances.  The green is clear capped giving each piece a sense of depth.

Each piece of fused glass is elevation-mounted on hand polished aluminum sheeting. French cleat style mounting brackets make it possible to hang these on a wall.

Embedded in the glass is copper mesh. When copper is heated it changes color, in this case, red.  The mesh creates small bubbles that are inevitably trapped between the layers of glass. The letters are cut from dichroic glass and tack fused to the clear cap. Dichroic beads dance on the surface while a strip of rainbow dichroic glass underscores each word.

Yes, there is intended symbolism here! But I don't like forcing people to accept my word for it...I prefer that those who choose to take the time to be with the glass, interpret the meaning behind each "adornment."  

What do you think they mean?

"It's My Shtick!" : New Art Line

 IT'S MY SHTICK!

 SHTICK...it's Yiddish  for  "my thing" or "it's what I do" or "comedy routine."

Most of my glasswork is inspired by my study of Torah and liturgy. It typically involves learning and contemplation before the letters, colors, and imagery appear. 

I guess that somewhere in the process of quarantining my sense of humor needed to spill out. 

My SHTICK for the spring is making garden ornamentations. I'm making Yardbirds, Rainbow Shticks, Barn-yard collection, Lip-shticks, Beef- stakes, and Veggie sticks.

My garden art will be available for purchase beginning April 18th on the ORA Northwest Jewish Artists website in celebration of Jewish Arts Month (JAM) 

Just go to northwestjewishartists.org   We are set up to take credit cards and PayPal. Do you have a specific garden stake in mind? Send me a note and let me know what you are looking for. Let's collaborate! I'll make it if I can!  Happy Spring!

Troll Pole

Pig Shtick

Rainbow Schtick

The "AHA!" moment translates to Glass

 Well, life in the time of COVID seems to vanish. My intention was to complete this blog post in late December. It is now March!  We are still quarantining...but both my husband and I have received our first vaccination and we'll get our 2nd on April 2nd!  December feels like it was yesterday but it also feels like it's been a year or longer.

Protests continue on the streets of Portland, alternative policing is still being talked about...and shootings are out of control. 

In my previous post I talked about Yiddish being my connection....the source of my AHA! moment. Among the many suggestions for how to say BLACK LIVES MATTER in Yiddish was the phrase, "AfroAmeriker Blut iz Nisht Kayn Vasser" which translates to African-American Blood is not Water. Somehow this statement resonates for me...more strongly in Yiddish than in English.  When anyone thinks they are justified in murdering someone because that death is of no consequence; that the spilling of blood is of no more consequence than spilling a glass of water, it is time for society to wake up and do something!

My piece is made of glass. Even the letters are cut from glass. In a Jewish wedding we stomp on a glass, and listen for the shattering thunk. We understand that glass is fragile and we want the newlyweds to understand the precious fragility of marriage. Human life is equally precious and fragile.

                                                            Cutting out the chalked body outline

By depicting the chalked outline of a body on a sidewalk, I wanted to communicate the anonymity of those who have died on our streets by violence, specifically out of hatred, racism, and ignorance. Stare at the outline and tell me about that body that bled out on concrete pavement. Male? Female? Genderless? Black? White? Straight? Homosexual? Religious? Non-religious?  YOU DON'T KNOW! 

If you are reading this blog you probably aren't part of my intended audience. I am talking to those who like to say..."All lives matter." I am speaking to those individuals of privilege and power who don't believe that black people matter. They don't believe that each and every human regardless of their gift wrap (skin) is precious and matters. And they probably won't see my art, nor read this blog.

But I learned a lot during this journey. Beating back racism is complex. Human beings don't have rheostats that control their ignorance, but we all need them. I am not well schooled in the world of electricity, but I chose rheostat as my metaphor quite purposefully. 

 The definition of a rheostat is : an electrical instrument used to control a current by varying the resistance.

Our learning, our emotions, our reactions don't operate with an on/off switch.  Human learning is filled with AHA! moments, but they take time to develop....and even when we think we get "it", we likely only understand a fraction of  "it". We need to pursue the rest of the answer and figure out our role in conquering our own biases. It's sad to say that it will take time...because this form of hatred has existed for too long. How do those song lyrics go? When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? 

I guess the best I can do is to say "I'm on the path and I'm still learning."