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

Men of Steel and Women of Valor

This fall I opened a new exhibition at The Temple Museum of Jewish Art, Religion, and Culture in Cleveland called "Men of Steel and Women of Valor," and I've been keeping you posted here (and on Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram) but as the exhibition comes to a close it seemed appropriate to put everything up in one place – right here on my blog. (You can also read about it in The Forward or the Cleveland Jewish News.)

Standing in the gallery – in my Superboy shirt, of course.

At the heart of the exhibition is a series of large portraits made of cut-up comic books featuring Superman and Lois Lane, Daredevil and Elektra, the Fantastic Four — transformed into the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, as well as modern figures. These portraits are a nod to the Jewish custom of inviting guests into one’s sukkah during the fall festival of Sukkot, since we opened the exhibition just before Sukkot. In fact, Rabbi Shawna and I went to The Temple-Tifereth Israel for a Paper Midrash weekend to coincide with the exhibition, praying and teaching and creating all weekend with the community.

Rabbi Shawna and I led a bunch of papercutting workshops during our Paper Midrash weekend

We led a number of projects to create new art for the walls of the TTTI sukkah

Teaching in "the birthplace of Superman"

The exhibition focused heavily on Superman, created in Cleveland in the 1930s by two Jews, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster — portraits of whom are included in the show, made of cut-up Superman comics from the past 90 years. You can see the whole show online in this PDF catalog, or check out the pix below.

"Abraham: Ignition" is made with cut-up Fantastic Four comics featuring patriarch Reed Richards

"Sarah: Forward" is made with cut-up Fantastic Four comics featuring matriarch Sue Storm Richards

"Isaac: Hurt" is made of comics featuring blind vigilant super hero Daredevil

"Rebekah: Someone" is made of comics featuring ninja badass Elektra

"Jacob:Disguise" is made of Clark Kent comics (and a little bit of Loki)

"Leah: Suppress" is made of comics featuring Lois Lane (and so is her sister)

"Rachel: Answers" is made of comics featuring Lois Lane (and so is her sister)

It also included portraits of Golda Meir, Israel’s first female prime minister, and Sally Priesand, America’s first female rabbi. The portraits share the walls with landscapes of Jerusalem, stories of fire and water and cloud, and explorations of the Mishnah — all made out of cut-up comic books.

“Siegel: Chutzpah” is a portrait of Jerry Siegel, the writer who co-created Superman. Siegel is represented with cut-up comics featuring some of my favorite Superman writers from the past 90 years.

“Shuster: Action” is a portrait of Joe Shuster, the artist who co-created Superman, Shuster is represented with cut-up comics featuring some of my favorite Superman artists from the past 90 years.

“Priesand: My Turn” is a portrait of the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the United States, Sally Priesand.

“Meir: Fight” is a portrait of Golda Meir, the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Israel.

You can see the whole show online in this PDF catalog. For more information on our residencies and workshops, visit PaperMidrash.com.

Paper Midrash in North Carolina

This year, since High Holidays, Rabbi Shawna and I have been in Manhattan (NY), North Hollywood (CA), Cleveland (OH), Milwaukee (WI)... and we're just getting started! This past weekend we were in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, bringing Paper Midrash to Temple Emanuel – and we had a great time, as usual.

Rabbi Mark Cohn leading Erev Shabbat services with "Paper T'filah Visual T'filah"

We started the weekend with a pop-up gallery for an intimate gathering of temple leadership, then in to services which Rabbi Mark Cohn led with "Paper T'filah Visual T'filah" (which I made in cooperation with CCAR Press).

Rabbi Shawna and I gave a visual sermon on this week's Torah portion, which we called "Lech L'cha: Boldly Go," which referenced Abraham and Sarah (of course) but also Star Trek, The Fantastic Four, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and more.

Saturday morning we led a Paper Midrash workshop, in which participants created beautiful and meaningful midrashic interpretations of Lech L'cha, cutting up comic books just like I do in my studio.

God calls to Abram and Sarai: "Lech L'cha!"

Abraham is a super hero, surviving being thrown into the fire by Nimrod.

Sarah has her own super hero: she talks directly to God and saves Abraham!

Sarah being carried into Egypt by Abraham, disguised as his sister, IN A COFFIN.

 Saturday night Rabbi Shawna and I presented "People of the (Comic) Book," a visual history of Jews and comic books, from the very first comic book in the 1930s up to present-day Jewish creators and characters.

Ready to talk about the patriarchs: Jerome, Joseph, Stanley, and Jacob

It's such a fascinating subject, and we have so much fun revealing the semi-secret Jewish world behind Superman, Batman, the Marvel cinematic universe... so much good stuff.

Religious school students making "Fold-and-Cut Torah" projects in the Lamed Center

Sunday morning we brought our "Fold-and-Cut Torah" project to the Temple Emanuel religious school – Rabbi Shawna and I led a special program for the fifth, sixth, and seventh grade students and their parents, while the K-5 classes used our lesson plan to create their own Torah focused on the values held in common with comic books.

Learning and praying with the "Twelve Tribes" papercuts

Sunday ended with a special service for the religious school led by Rabbi Cohn that incorporated my papercuts, including my "Twelve Tribes" series – so proud to have my work used in this beautiful studying/praying/learning experience!

Want more information about bringing Paper Midrash to your community? Contact us at info@papermidrash.com for details.

Paper Midrash in Stockton, Birthplace of the Fantastic Four

Another great weekend, this time at Temple Israel in Stockton, California! And another great batch of photos to share with you, so you can see the incredible art we created with this congregation! We spent the weekend talking about this week's parasha, Vayigash – in which Joseph reveals himself to his brothers – and we talked about secret identities in Torah (and comic books).

Friday night we presented "Secret Identities: Super Heroes and Torah Heroes"
and Saturday we started our papercutting workshop with our "Intro to Midrash."

I love these pix – using windows to transfer designs from regular paper to watercolor paper.

We turned a roomful of congregants into papercutters!

Rabbi Shawna giving a little guidance to a workshop participant

Some of the final artwork was inspired by the parasha, but very personal as well

Beautiful work exploring Judah's part in Vayigash, created by a workshop particpant

A papercut about reconciliation, one of the parasha's themes

We always end workshops with time to share our work with each other

Rabbi Jason Gwasdoff at work on his paper midrash

Cantorial Soloist Lindy Passer with congregants at work on one of the four community tallitot we made

Having fun getting messy, making tallitot!

Local celebrity Mel making his mark on the Etz Chaim tallit

Painting in the atara for a community tallit

"Shirat HaYam" community tallit

"Vine and Fig Tree" community tallit

"Who Orders the Universe" community tallit

Our papercutters with their finished paper midrash artwork

Part of our community tallit team with the "Etz Chaim" tallit

Maccabees and Other Super Heroes: A Weekend with Congregation B'nai Israel

Rabbi Shawna and I spent our Hanukkah weekend at Congregation B'nai Israel in Sacramento for  three days of praying, studying, and creating – and what a great weekend it was!

Getting ready for services (from left: Cantor Julie Steinberg, Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik, and Rabbi Mona Alfi)

Friday night after a delicious latke dinner, Rabbi Shawna led services with Rabbi Mona Alfi and Cantor Julie Steinberg, using the "visual tefillah" service we crafted which is built around my "paper tefillah" series of papercuts. For the drash we explored the idea of Jewish super heroes – what makes a superhero Jewish, and what we can do to be heroes. (BTW, sometimes the only way you know a comic book super hero is Jewish is they have a menorah at Christmas time, but sometimes — such as with Kitty Pryde and The Thing – you get a narrative inspired by the lessons we learn from Judaism).

CBI has a beautiful prayer space – light and airy and bright and open

Saturday we led two workshops, making papercuts to be displayed together in the synagogue. In the morning we worked with CBI's teens and in the afternoon, adults. The workshops were centered around the idea of worship and observance in the synagogue – reflecting on the meaning of the hagim and life cycle events that are the fabric of Judaism, with participants leveraging their personal experiences and memories as inspiration for their papercuts.

With a group of our teen workshop participants and their finished work

With our adult workshop participants and their finished work

Inspired by Rosh HaShanah

Mask, grogger and hamantashen for Purim

Hand holding a yad to read Torah

Rabbi Mona Alfi and her Sukkot papercut

Saturday night the temple hosted an evening of arts and entertainment, bringing in three local artists to show their work (while I showed mine), and then Rabbi Shawna and I gave a "dynamic duo" presentation on "Maccabees and Other Super Heroes."

Sunday every class in the CBI religious school made papercuts with a special lesson we prepared so even the youngsters could participate (WITHOUT KNIVES). Meanwhile Rabbi Shawna and I gave a presentation to the pre-b'nai mitzvah kids and their parents on "Midrash: Jewish Fan Fiction" – and led a mini-workshop with the same papercutting activity, exploring ideas of Jewish values and the heroes who exemplify them.

Working with the pre-b'nai mitzvah students

Students making Torah papercuts

Even the younger grades were able to make "paper midrash"

And one last thing before we got on the road to get back home – a dedication ceremony in the entrance to the synagogue, where we had installed the papercuts from our workshops. Rabbi Alfi said a few words, Cantor Steinberg sang a few songs, and a good time was had by all.

Dedicating the new art in the synagogue entrance

Isaac and Rabbi Shawna with one of the walls of art

And of course, if you're interested in having me and Rabbi Shawna come to YOUR community, check out more info about what we do on our webpage: www.PaperMidrash.com.