Golems Appearing Around the Country!

 

Glad to share the news that my Paper Golems are doing a bit of traveling, after their big reveal in Los Angeles earlier this year. You can now buy the Paper Golems poster on my shop site, featuring 20 of my favorites – but yes, you can also see them LIVE and in person at two locations, in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Michigan friends can see them on exhibition at the Goodman Museum at Temple Israel, where DOZENS AND DOZENS of golems have taken over the gallery space! About a year ago I participated in their "Museum Moments" video series, and now — finally! — we've got an in-person show.

The Goodman Family Judaic & Archival Museum is thrilled to feature comic book, papercut artist Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik’s latest collection: Paper Golems. Inspired by the uncertainty of the pandemic, Brynjegard-Bialik connects popular culture with sacred texts and traditions to create golems that tell stories of power and protection. The golems allow us the opportunity to consider what is necessary to assume responsibility for one's protection and the community's protection, using whatever resources are available- be it mud or paper- and to consider what role we play in our own salvation or destruction.

 

Pennsylvania folks? You can see some of the series as part of "Roots & Blossoms: An Exhibit of Eastern European Papercut Art," now showing at the Guild of American Papercutters National Museum in Somerset, PA. Open through July 15, 2023; Monday through Thursday from 11 to 6, and Saturday from 10 to 2. Free and open to the public.

Come see this special exhibit at the Guild of American Papercutters National Museum featuring artists working in traditional and new Eastern European papercutting traditions of many kinds. Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, and more are represented. This exhibit consists of art that is in the style of or influenced by papercutting traditions from the European countries of Poland and further east. From the colorful, stylized Wycinanki to cuts born from the Jewish Diaspora, Roots and Blossoms displays traditional, modern, and even fusion works of art from members of the Guild of American Papercutters. Come find out about the images and techniques of eastern European paper artists.

Paper Golems Are Coming to Los Angeles in January 2022!

 

The golem story is one of power and protection. When the pandemic began and the world seemed to unravel in so many different ways, I wanted to regain a sense of control over my life, and so I started making golems. And now, for the first time ever, you can see all 72 of my paper golems in a new exhibition at the Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts at UCLA Hillel.

If you've been keeping up with me through the pandemic, you know how personal this series is. Every golem is a response to what I saw happening in the world, day after day and week after week. The series is, at its heart, a pandemic diary.

“Paper Golems: A Pandemic Diary” is on display at the Dortort Center for the Arts Gallery at UCLA Hillel from January 27 through March 11, 2022. The free opening night reception is Tuesday, March 1, from 7-9 pm — with exclusive posters for sale, freebies like stickers and buttons, and some big surprises!

In Conversation with Art and Scroll Studio

Looking forward to talking with Shelley Werner of Art and Scroll Studio about my work, its origins, my golem series, and the new stuff I have planned for the coming months.

 

 

Register for FREE tickets: https://bit.ly/IsaacBrynjegard-Bialik

Paper Golems in Jerusalem

Join me for a very special exhibition premiering DOZENS of my Paper Golems – THIS MONTH IN JERUSALEM! I’ll be exhibiting prints of some of my favorite golems in the MASSIVE series I have been creating since the pandemic hit in 2020, and talking about WHY GOLEMS and WHY NOW and WHY COMICS.

Jewish writers and artists have explored the golem narrative for centuries: using Jewish magic to bring clay figures to life, to do everything from performing household chores to protecting communities from existential danger. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I began to create golems in my home studio: pieced together from cut-up comic books, featuring brilliant colors and surprising juxtapositions. These golems are inspired by personal stories of universal interest, imbued with the attributes of classic super heroes in a decidedly contemporary context.
 
Exhibit opening and meet-and-greet on Saturday night, June 26, at 9 pm (after Shabbat) at Kol Haot in Jerusalem: Studio 9 in Hutsot Hayotser Artists’ Colony, across from Jaffa Gate.

Cutting up in New Jersey

 What a lovely story in The Jewish Standard about the work that Rabbi Shawna and I are doing as Paper Midrash – and in particular the work we're doing with Temple Emeth in New Jersey.

 

Gotham Golem

For some reason, though Batman is one of my favorite comic book characters, he doesn't wind up in many of my papercuts. That changes with this piece from my golem series. With a working title of "Gotham Golem," it measures 24" x 36" and it's made of cut-up Batman comics, focused in particular on Gotham City.

 

For me, the golem story is about protection and power. It's about making your own protector from whatever you have at hand, and hoping it doesn't grow beyond your control.

 The golem story is tied very closely to a sense of place – it's important where the material from which the golem is made comes from. As Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel took mud from the Vltava River in Prague to make his golem (spoiler alert: not a true story), the comics in my golem come from my childhood collection, and this golem is made of the city it is protecting.

 I can't wait to put this – and all of its companions – into an exhibition for you to see in person.

With an Outstretched Arm

"With An Outstretched Arm" is an original papercut I made for Emmett to mark the occasion of him becoming a bar mitzvah January 2021. This papercut is inspired by him, by his Torah portion Va’era, and by the words he shared with his community as he made the transition to Jewish adulthood.

 The central imagery draws on words from Shemot/Exodus 6:6, in which God tells Moses to tell the Israelites, “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary marvels.” The arm of a pitcher, right to left from wind-up through delivery, delivers a miraculous pitch with an outstretched arm. Within these arms, which are an allusion to Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase,”are various comic panels which reference Emmett and the responsibility he is taking on at this special moment.

“Today I am a man,” spoken by teen super hero Robin in a Batman comic, represents the day that this thoughtful, mature boy becomes a man in the eyes of his community.

The rest of the papercut includes cut-up comics which refer to his dreams (such as sports management), his ideals (including the justice and equality embodied by Jackie Robinson), and the moment when a boy becomes a man — noteworthy in the Captain Marvel comic since that hero is actually young Billy Batson, who says the magic word (Shazam) and becomes a grown man and super hero. At right is a pitcher in the moment of wind-up, standing on a pitcher’s mound which includes the EWSK logo commissioned for Emmett for his bar mitzvah — and behind that silhouette (the outline of Sandy Koufax, in one of the many references to the Dodgers in this papercut, sacred to Emmett and his family) we find references to the marvels and miracles of the Torah portion (“I still can’t believe it!”) and to Emmett’s special day (“All stand up to see what he’s done.”). Throughout the work are additional super heroes, embodying the ideals that Emmett chooses to live up to, as well as references to moments public and private.

Comics in the papercut include:

• The All-Star Story of the Dodgers (1979)
• American Flagg #6 (March 1984) — Emmett
• Batman: The Widening Gyre #1 (October 2019) — “Today I am a man.”
• Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier #1 (December 2014)
• Bullseye: Perfect Game #2 (February 2011) —”All stand up to see what he’s done.”
• Decorum #2 (June 2020)
• Justice League Special Featuring Mister Miracle #1 (1989) — #13 and “Miracle”
• Los Angeles Dodgers: The Legend of the Blue Knight (April 1997) —”I still can’t believe it!”
• Power Pack #13 (August 1985)
• Shazam! Power of Hope (November 2000)
• Shazam! #2 (April 1973) —”Shazam” and “Marvel”

Inauguration Golem

Haven't posted as much over the past year — but I sure have been cutting paper here in my studio, and I want to share a new piece with you. It's another in my series of golem that I started in March, 2020, when the pandemic lockdowns began here in the U.S. – and this one is inspired by the events of January 20, 2021: the inauguration of a new American president and vice-president.

My new inauguration golem, as of yet untitled, in my studio.

It's a big one, measuring 24" x 36" (as many of my latest golems are) and it's another strong humanoid figure, facing front and ready for action. It's made with cut-up comics featuring super heroes that are women, immigrants, and people of color (all three or some combination of those qualities): Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Sif, Thunder (Anissa Pierce), Vixen (Mari McCabe), and Supergirl.

There's a sense of dispensing with the nonsense of the last administration, and of celebration. There's strength and resolve. And there's power.

Detail with comic featuring Thunder (Anissa Pierce – daughter of Black Lightning).

The colors are drawing from one of my favorite moments of the day: national youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman reading her inspiring words from the steps of the Capitol where only two weeks before there was an armed insurrection and failed coup by white supremacists and their allies against the United States.

Detail with comics featuring Vixen (Mari McCabe).

And at the end of the ceremony, the sense that we were ready to pick ourselves up and strive to be the more perfect union that our founders envisioned, and that our present leaders reflected upon in their words.

America at its best. Courage. Heroism. Everyone pulling together.

So yeah, feeling a bit hopeful right now.

"Graphic Jews" and ish Festival

 Had a great time presenting for the third and final installment of the "Graphic Jews" webinar series from ish Festival, HUC Cincinnati, and the Skirball Museum in Cincinnati. If you missed it and you want to catch it on the replay, click here. Meantime, here are some screencaps; we talked about Jewish art, and golems, and comics – some of my favorite topics!

Sharing my "Twelve Tribes" series

Discussing "Wisdom Cries Out in the Streets"

Sharing some of my lockdown golems

"Emet" (truth) powers the traditional golem

My first golem is made of comics featuring Jewish super hero The Thing

Did a live demo!

Me, ish's Marie Krulewitch-Browne (right), and the Skirball's Abby Schwartz (below)

Arella Whirls – Commission at Sinai

"Arella Whirls" is a papercut commission made for Stephanie Swedlove to mark her conversion to Judaism, the culmination of a ten-year journey.

Torah and Talmud tell us that all Jews were at Sinai at Revelation, to accept the Torah and the covenant with God. All Jewish souls, into the future, today and tomorrow, by birth and by choice, and so on (Talmud Shevuot 39a and Shemot Rabbah 28:6). This papercut is built around Stephanie’s presence at Sinai, even as she now takes the final steps in the conversion process. Judaism also teaches us that all humanity deserves respect and justice, reinforced for us when we were slaves in Egypt, a story which we retell every year at Passover (and continually throughout our lives). This is connected to Stephanie’s drive for justice, trust, and community. This half of her story is represented with our people’s redemption, shown in the parting of the Sea of Reeds, with a path leading to Sinai.

The foundation is made of the purple costume worn by super hero Stephanie Brown, known as Spoiler – it’s where the journey starts. Up through the parted waters, which feature Arrowverse heroes (such as Felicity from Arrow, representing Stephanie’s analytic mind). “Tomorrow” references the teaching that all Jewish souls, past and present, are “right here.” Beyond/above the waves are verses from Devarim/Deuteronomy 29: 9-14, in which we read about all the people and future generations standing at Sinai in acceptance of the covenant.

In front of Mount Sinai we have the Teen Titans, with the voice of the Divine echoing around them. The lightning of God’s voice (based on a Hebrew pun in Shemot/Exodus 20:15) is made of another hero from the Arrowverse, the Flash, and in the clouds that swirl around the mountain like the smoke from a kiln (Shemot/Exodus 19:18) comic captions read “Arella Whirls” and “Arella Turns,” reflecting the joyous dancing of the Israelites after the crossing of the Sea and in acceptance of the Torah. And of course, Arella is Stephanie’s chosen Hebrew name – reflected as well in the shape of Mt. Sinai, an abstract aleph.

Comics in the papercut include:

• Batgirl Annual #3 (January 2015)
• Batman: Huntress/Spoiler #1 (May 1998)
• Blackest Night: The Flash #1 (February 2010)
• Gotham Underground #2 (January 2008)
• Justice League of America #46 (August 2010)
• Shazam: Power of Hope (November 2000)
• The New Teen Titans #2 (October 1984), #4 (January 1985)
• Teen Titans #6 (May 2017)

Art & Activism: Jewish Visual Artists Showcase & Panel

 

Please join me (and some other INCREDIBLE artists) on November 17 for the Gershman Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival "Art & Activism" Panel. Details here: https://pjff.org/event/art-activism/

Cleveland "Guests" Portraits for Sukkot 2020

 Last year at this time Rabbi Shawna and I were in Cleveland with the community of The Temple-Tifereth Israel, praying and studying and creating and celebrating Sukkot (check out what that was like). This year we had the opportunity to be back in Cleveland.... virtually. We joined them today for some visual text study about Sukkot and "the guests you can still have in your sukkah" (ushpizin and ushpizot), and for a sneak peek at what's going on in my studio.

I also shared with the TTTI community three new portraits I just completed, inspired by the upcoming virtual visit: three guests I'd invite to join me in the sukkah. Last year I added four guests to the traditional seven patriarchs and matriarchs: Cleveland's own Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman; Rabbi Sally Preisand, a Cleveland native who is America's first female rabbi (and visited the gallery to see her portrait!); and Golda Meir, Israel's first female prime minister.

This year's three new guests all have Cleveland connections. The first one is Simson Thorman, the first Jewish permanent resident of Cleveland, an immigrant from Bavaria who was a founder of the city's first Jewish congregation and the first Jew to serve on the Cleveland City Council. His portrait is made with cut-up comics featuring Nightcrawler, another German immigrant.

 

Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver is beloved by TTTI because he was their rabbi for 46 years starting in 1917. He was an early champion of rights for labor, for worker's compensation and civil liberties, though his highest priorities were to advance respect for and support of Zionism. 

 

My portrait of Silver is made of cut-up Superman comics focused on Perry White and the Daily Planet offices, inspired by his fighting for workers’ rights, and the renewed understanding 2020 has given us of the importance of those who work in the press and other fields essential to our emotional, political, and physical well-being.

 

My portrait of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is made of cut-up She-Hulk comics (she’s a super hero and her alter ego Jennifer Walters is a lawyer focused on defendants’ rights).

 

I wanted to capture the fight that “the notorious RBG” (in her "dissent collar") and *all* of us are engaged in for justice for all.

The portrait includes text from the Book of Judges (on Deborah), the text from Deuteronomy on “Tzedek Tzedek tirdof,” some Justice League comics, and pieces of an RBG comic book biography.

Can't wait to get back to Cleveland in person.

Arts, Provocation, and Jewish History

 Click here to listen as Aaron Henne and I discuss art, justice, comics, representation, and Judaism – and get a look at some new golems in my studio!

 

Wisdom Cries Out in the Streets

Inspired by the words of Proverbs (1:20) and the streets of Portland, this is my latest papercut: "Wisdom Cries Out in the Streets."

It's made with cut-up comics featuring super hero moms, including Jessica Jones, Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman), Greer Nelson (Tigra), Sue Storm (the Invisible Woman), and Jubilation Lee (Jubilee).

The "wall of moms" we're seen in the news lately – with moms in yellow, linking arms to protest police brutality, federal kidnappings, and to promote the obvious truth that BLACK LIVES MATTER – is a wonderful visual, and made me think of the words we read in the Book of Proverbs, in which Wisdom is personified as a woman crying out in the streets to be heard.

Wisdom Cries Out in the Streets
24" x 18"
Cut-up comics
2020

Yearning to Breathe Free

Yearning to Breathe Free
9" x 12"
Mixed media
2020



This past Friday night my wife and I were praying (virtually) with Temple Beth Israel of Fresno, listening to the words of Rabbi Rick Winer, when I had this idea: combining the grief we have at the words "I Can't Breathe" with the hope in these words from Emma Lazarus' poem, "The New Colossus" – found in its entirety at the foot of the Statue of Liberty.

"Yearning to Breathe Free" is made with X-Men comics featuring Bishop – a mutant from the future who is the son of Aboriginal refugees who fled to America, where he was sent to a mutant concentration camp and branded with an "M" over his right eye, used to identify mutants in his era. Which is a lot of backstory, I know.

The words form a tight square on the lower half of a rectangular sheet – I wanted them to feel cramped and in need of release. And the all caps letters in multiple colors? We've seen a lot of that in the streets of America these days, so it's certainly got protest and pride as inspiration as well.

Black Lives Matter

Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof – Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue!
(Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:18)

#blacklivesmatter #justiceforgeorgefloyd

I Can’t Breathe
24" x 18"
Mixed media
2020

“I Can’t Breathe” is made of cut-up comic books and inspired by the death of George Floyd – and also the Ten Martyrs of the Jewish tradition, and the “Ayleh Ezkerah” poem from our High Holy Day machzor that reminds us to remember those that died in holy causes. I also referenced the Book of Lamentations – particularly thinking about how we represent and respond to tragedy. I’m also a big fan of Ben Shahn (mid-20th century social realist), and his illustrations are definitely an influence on the final form of this piece. Then, once cut, I filled it with cut-up comics books featuring Black super heroes: the wrongly-convicted Luke Cage, the monarch Black Panther, and the youthful Cloak. The color scheme of the figure is actually inspired by Luke Cage’s traditional super hero outfit. The last element in here that might benefit from explanation is the listing of place names in his shirt – taken from an ad for a series of comic book conventions around the country. I saw “Minneapolis” and instantly decided to incorporate it and the other cities, to represent that this is more than one man in one city, but a tragedy we have seen repeated so many times, to so many people, in so many cities.




UPDATE

Featured in the June 4, 2020, issue of LA Weekly.

Hineini: A Papercut Commission

Hineini: The Ordination of Meir Bargeron

“Hineini” was commissioned for Meir Bargeron by his husband Jon to mark his 2020 rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Designed to complement their ketubah, the commission has at its top a similar lattice-like design, filled with comic book speech bubbles that tell a “Hineini “narrative, a call-and-response to inspire us to action.

The lattice at the top evokes a roof, and matches the top of Meir and Jon's ketubah.

Exodus 40:38 and Numbers 9:15-16 indicate that the Pillar of Fire and Pillar of Cloud which protected the Israelites on their journey through the wilderness were actually one pillar — during the day the cloud was visible, and at night the fire inside was revealed. With this in mind the lattice sits on this singular Pillar of Cloud and Fire, source of Divine protection and symbol of God’s sheltering presence, styled in similar fashion to the Havdalah candle in Meir and Jon’s ketubah. The fire within is also a reference to Kedushat Levi, Exodus, Mishpatim 11, in which we read that serving God through observing the commandments and studying Torah gives satisfaction to God, and we experience God’s satisfaction as a burning fire of enthusiasm and inspiration in our heart — and that the “consuming fire” mentioned in the biblical account of the Revelation at Mount Sinai is not a description of what was visible on the mountain, but rather a reminder of this fire within us.

At the center is Meir as Avram (or perhaps the other way around) — a “Hineini” moment in which Meir gets his calling from the Divine. Inspired by the Torah which Meir has taught in sermons and in his thesis, it evokes the experience of ordination which — though it may not be where expected — is nonetheless transformative. Beneath Meir is a foundation of texts from which he has drawn his teachings: stories of Avraham and Sarah, Jacob becoming Israel, Ruth and Naomi, and more; these texts form the Hebrew word “Hineini.”

The Hebrew word "Hineini" is filled with texts from Rabbi Meir's thesis and sermons.

Beneath the texts are tall stands of wheat and barley in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass. Wheat and barley are two of the seven species (connecting back to the grapes and pomegranates in Meir and Jon’s ketubah); they are a reference to the fields that Ruth and Naomi gleaned together; and they also allude to the many Jewish texts that use wheat and barley as metaphors for growth and morality. Within the stalks can be found maps which point to the past (Minneapolis), the present (Los Angeles), and the future (Fort Wayne).

Wheat and barley and traditional Jewish metaphors for growth and morality.

The Superman panel in which he proclaims, “It’s me” is from the most recent Superman storyline, in which he reveals his truth to the world: he is both Superman and Clark Kent. In issue 18 he says, “When I show up as Superman, I want to show up representing both parts of me at the same time.” It is a bold story about truth and authenticity. He is declaring his identity and his purpose, and responding to a call for action with his whole self — the perfect story to mark Meir’s rabbinic ordination.

The "social distancing" hand-off.

Comics in "Hineni" include:

Action Comics #687 (June 1993) — “Look! Up in the sky!!”
Blackest Night: The Flash #1 (February 2010)
Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier #1 (December 2014)
Detective Comics #936 (September 2016) — “There’s a call for you.”
Etc #1 (1989)
Eternals #10 (July 1986) — “I am here.”
Fantastic Four #587 (January 2011)
Flash #0 (October 1994) — Story called “the beginning of tomorrow”
The Flash: Rebirth #1 (June 2009)
The Flash #1 (June 2010)
JLA Secret Origins (November 2002)
Justice League International #35 (February 1990)
Kabuki: Reflections #6 (June 2006)
Secret Origins #7 (October 1986) — “Oh...My...God...!”
Shazam: The Power of Hope (November 2000)
Silver Star #1 (February 1983) — Jack Kirby
Superman: Peace on Earth (January 1999) — Krypto (for Charlie)
Superman #18 (February 2020) —Superman reveals his truth
Superman: Heroes #1 (April 2020) — “It’s me.”
Ultimate X-Men #63 (November 2005)

Texts include:

Genesis 12:1 — “Lech Lecha”
Genesis 17:5 — Avram becomes Avraham
Genesis 32:29 — Jacob becomes Israel
Exodus 3:4 — “Hineini”
Mah Tovu — Jacob’s tents
Exodus 18:19 — Yitro and Moses
Ruth 1:16 — “Wherever you go, I will go with you”

And today we had a virtual gathering over Zoom to celebrate Meir's ordination, at which the commission was presented. Mazal tov, Rabbi Meir Bargeron!