Sunday, March 30: gallery open house for "Super Heroes, Holy Land"

Super Heroes, Holy Land: "Tower of David"

This is "Tower of David" — one of the works in my all-new show, "Super Heroes, Holy Land!"

The Tower of David as it now stands is actually an Ottoman structure, having been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times since it was first built in the second century B.C.E.   — with no connection to King David at all. Nonetheless it has come to represent him and his palace, and has a place on every Jerusalem tourist’s list. In addition to the stone textures taken from comics used to build this paper tower, there are pieces from Theodore Herzl’s speech at the First Zionist Conference and from a traveler’s phrasebook, underscoring the dichotomy between the history of Israel and the way these sites are experienced by the tourist. This papercut includes:

Automatic Kafka #1 (Sep 2002)
300 #2 and #3 (Jun and Jul 1998)
Aquaman #23.1 (Nov 2013)
Dreadstar and Company #6
(Dec 1985)
Green Lantern #23.3 (Nov 2013)
The Infinite Horizon #4 (Sep 2011)
Infinite Vacation #5 (Jan 2013)
Justice League of America #7.4 (Nov 2013)
Secret #2 (Jun 2012)
Warlock and the Infinity Watch #12 (Jan 1993)
Wonder Woman #23.2 (Nov 2013)

Berlitz Hebrew Phrase Book. Grosset & Dunlap, New York (1964).
Israel. Ed. by Yigael Yadin. Massadah Publishing Co. Ltd., Tel Aviv (1958). Portion used is an essay by David Ben-Gurion.
“The Jewish State.” Theodore Herzl, 1896.

The show is open through March 14 at UCLA Hillel's Dortort Gallery in Los Angeles, at 574 Hilgard Avenue; call 310-208-3081 for more information.

And you can see all of the work online in this PDF catalog.

Telling stories by cutting paper... at camp

Two weeks ago I posted about what I do every summer at URJ Camp Newman – teaching kids to cut paper. Last week I posted about the campers' first projects: mizrach plaques. This is the third of my four posts about cutting paper at Camp Newman, and this one is about the big project: paper midrash.

Bereshit

All of the campers in the two-hours-a-day yetzirah group (and many in the one-hour-a-day hizdamnut group) made "paper midrash" – they used their newly-developed papercutting skills to tell a story from the Tanakh (Torah, prophets, and writings) or midrash, picking a story or theme that was personally meaningful and interpreting it in this medium.

Eden

The Giants

The Rainbow

Parting the Sea

David and Goliath: Kavannah

Samson

Others had more esoteric sources for their work, pulling ideas from Sefer haAgaddah or other books that I brought for inspiration.

Claws

Dwarvish

Li

Mad Man

Pillar of Fire

Time

Sus

Next time – my last post about the camp workshops – will feature photos of the finished group projects which we made as a gift for camp.

Completed commission: "Psalm 150"

Here's my latest completed commission: "Psalm 150." This papercut was commissioned as a gift for a local musician who is an accomplished pianist, conductor, orchestrator, composer and vocalist. It's based on the words of Psalm 150, written by King David, and urges the praise of God through music:

Halleluyah!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
praise Him in His mighty firmament!
Praise Him for His mighty acts;
praise Him for His excellent greatness!
Praise Him with blasts of the horn;
praise Him with harp and lyre!
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
Praise Him with loud cymbals;
praise Him with clashing cymbals!
Let all that breathes praise God. Halleluyah.

The papercut is built on the word which appears at the beginning of many of the poem’s lines: 
“הללוהו – Halleluhu – Praise Him.” Within those letters are the psalmist’s words for each of the instruments. Surrounding the letters are swirling patterns of line and shape that evoke those instruments: the curved neck of a lute, the narrow waist of a drum, the plucked strings of a lyre, and more.

The background of this papercut features the tones and textures of musical instruments, in blues and browns and gold and silver, alongside snippets of cut-up comic books and a medieval illustration of King David himself, playing his harp. There are numerous surprises to be found in these backgrounds, including one space left intentionally blank as a nod to the pauses between notes which, as one famous musician said, is where artistry lies.

King David + Elvis = "The King"

This is the last piece I made for my Memphis show; it's not a part of the "Paper Tefillah" series, but rather a portrait of King David.

Based on the King of Spades playing card (traditionally, each of the four kings is based on a real king), I've replaced the sword with a guitar, added sideburns and full lips, and voila: it's Elvis Presley.

Backed by cut-up pictures from the 1995 LIFE magazine special "Celebrating Elvis," observant lookers will see album covers, parts of outfits, images of Graceland, leather pants, Vegas jumpsuits for the jewels in the crown, crowd shots from his Independence Day 1956 Memphis concert in the spades, and much more.

In the faces of the king I've placed part of Psalm 33 (in English and Hebrew), written by King David; these bits were taken from an old prayerbook that was headed for ritual burial in the genizah. It includes the lines:

Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous;
it is fitting for the upright to praise him.
Praise the Lord with the lyre;
make music unto him with the harp of ten strings.
Sing to him a new song;
play skilfully with sounds, and shout for joy.

 You can see it in person at Temple Israel in Memphis, now through February 8. If you're interested in purchasing an archival giclee print, drop me a line.

"King David": Commission for a Magician

I'm very pleased to share with you a photo of my latest completed commission, titled "King David."

[CLICK TO SEE IT LARGER]

Commissioned for award-winning magician Paul Green by his wife to mark his birthday, "King David" is a representation in paper of the King of Spades playing card, an oft-used tool of the close-up magician. The King of Spades is traditionally known as King David -- an acclaimed warrior, musician, and poet, and credited with writing most of the Book of Psalms.

The "King David" papercut brings together magic and Judaism in this birthday commission, backed in shades of green to represent Paul's name and his predilection for that color.

The background of the papercut features cut-up comics, featuring snippets of Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and others. The papercut also includes a section from Psalm 145 (from a book taken from the genizah before ritual burial), written by King David, which contains reference to "thy wondrous works" -- used by the artist as an allusion to Paul's magic. The English words of the psalm are found in the "top" face, and the corresponding Hebrew is found in the reverse.

Below are details of the two faces -- click the images to see them larger.