"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)

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

Paper Midrash and Protest Art in Washington

So much great stuff to share with you from our weekend residency at Congregation Kol Ami in Vancouver, Washington (and our getaway in nearby Portland!) – but a picture is worth 1000 words, right? So here are a few thousand words, in picture form (you know what I mean).

We met Allie Goertz on the plane ride up!

The famous Portland Airport carpet

We braved the cold (high temp of 46º!!) to hit Portland's Saturday market

...and picked up a copy of the X-Men holiday special at Floating World Comics

CKA is a beautiful place to work – views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens!

Cutting out paper midrash designs

Finding just the right comics

A finished protest art papercut

Another finished protest art papercut

During the "teachback" session, this young artist read from the comic he cut up to make his art!

Another finished protest art papercut

What a great group we worked with!

We presented "Maccabees and Other Super Heroes" at the congregation's latke party – great turnout!

And what visit would be complete without a few hours at Powell's?

And some DELICIOUS late-night pizza!

Thank you for a great 2015

Whew! It's been a great year, and I am so pleased to have shared it with you!

Workshops up and down the West Coast (including Congregation Kol Ami, Temple Beth Hillel, and  Temple Ahavat Shalom), the new windows at Maimonides Jewish Day School in Portland, my annual residency at URJ Camp Newman, commissions galore, an enormous ketubah featuring Adam Strange and Emma Frost, winning a juror's award in "Heroes & Villains" at the Smithsonian-affiliated Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center, the opening of my latest show "Women of Valor and Other Super Heroes" at National Council of Jewish Women/Los Angeles, participating in the Jerusalem Biennale, presenting "To Boldly Go" to William Shatner... and so much more! Too much to put in one graphic, in fact!

To paraphrase "Hamilton" – I'll see you on the other side of the year...

Oregon Jewish Life

There's a nice write-up in the January 2016 issue of Oregon Jewish Life about my appearance with William Shatner in Portland last month. Here's an excerpt:

Jewish-themed papercuts generally don’t conjure up visions of Star Trek. References to Jews beautifying commandments with this colorful, baroque folk art date to 1345. Symbols and inscriptions include biblical passages, Stars of David and the Zodiac – complete with fantastic animals. Captain Kirk and his Starship Enterprise are unlikely candidates. Unless, of course, you’re Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik.

Read the whole thing here.

To Boldly Go: William Shatner (and me) in Portland

Presenting "To Boldly Go" to William Shatner.

I still can't quite believe it. This photo? It's me and William Shatner. With a papercut I made for him. Seriously.

Deep breath.

Sorry – but I'm genuinely such a  huge fan of Star Trek and William Shatner, and this was a dream for me. I was given the opportunity to create a piece for William Shatner and present it to him on behalf of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland at their annual gala.

The complete papercut; click to enlarge. You can buy a print here.

The papercut is a representation of “Lech L’cha,” the Torah portion in which Abraham and Sarah are told by God to leave their home and travel to a new land: Canaan (Genesis/Bereshit 12:1–17:27). This desert journey is set against the backdrop of Vasquez Rocks, a California location familiar to viewers of Star Trek (and many other television shows and movies), and it’s made of cut-up Star Trek comics with a focus on Captain James Tiberius Kirk.

Details of a bit of an old chumash and the opening words from "Star Trek."

The papercut contains comic book quotes and speech bubbles related to the message of “Lech L’cha,” it is set against a star-filled background from those comics, and the background behind Abraham and Sarah’s caravan is made of a mosaic of appearances of Captain Kirk’s uniform shirt. And of course, the Federation Starship Enterprise is included as well.

The Federation Starship Enterprise, a travel-related quote, and Abraham and Sarah.

This is the chapter in our Torah when people are first cited as a source of blessing to others; we read that Abraham and Sarah are a source of blessing for all those they come in contact with. Similarly, William Shatner has used his talent and celebrity to share his blessings with others in various community and philanthropic pursuits.

It was such an immense pleasure to present it to him in front of the Portland Jewish Community – to share the meaning behind the piece and to hear him say that he liked it and would be putting it up in his home.

He had such kind words to share about my work.

When I had originally told my wife this might be happening, she told me that if I was meeting William Shatner, she was coming – and so were the kids. And they did! And he was so gracious; he spent some time with the family, asked each of the girls what they want to be when they grow up and offered them encouragement and suggestions. He knows how to talk to girls! And of course, we not only took an "official" photo with the art...

We are all freaking out! Except for Mr. Shatner.

We also took selfies with him in the green room!

Selfie with Mr. Shatner and my wife/muse Shawna.

This was an incredible experience – and one I owe to the fine folks at the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland (especially Event Coordinator Allison Specter and President Marc Blattner) and my buddy Barry Greenberg (of Celebrity Connection).

One last thing – the original papercut is going in William Shatner's house, but you can get an archival giclée print of your own, right here. I'll sign it and ship it to you in a fancy tube and everything.

Portland windows at night

Got a nice photo sent to me of the (newly lit) windows I designed for Maimonides Jewish Day School in Portland, Oregon – and I've gotta say, I love how they look!

Washington Workshops at Congregation Kol Ami

I just flew back from the Pacific Northwest, and boy are my arms tired! From cutting paper!

OK, I'm no comedian. But I did, in fact, just return from a long weekend in Washington and Oregon, where I was leading a papercutting workshop at a synagogue, checking on the windows I designed for a day school, and also just having some fun. Want to read about it? Then you're in the right place!

I love the design and thought that go into the making of airplane safety brochures. Just love it. And I took it as a good omen that across the aisle from me a gentleman was reading a trade book with DC's "Shade the Changing Man" comics in it. Obscure! Perfect for a Portland citizen, right?

The entire flight up I was amazed to see gorgeous, snow-covered peaks from 30,000 feet up – just beautiful. And those dots? A close-up of the wall next to my seat. Just thought it looked cool.

There's a lot of water in the Pacific Northwest – and so, a lot of bridges. Portland has ELEVEN, I am told, and I was on at least half a dozen of them.

There was an exhibit of quilted tapestries at the airport, much of the work featuring bridges.

And then there's the Portland Cuckoo Clock, in the airport. I've got a picture of the description here because it was crazy awesome.

Congregation Kol Ami of Vancouver, Washington, had invited me to up be their artist-in-residence for the weekend, working with their high school students and teaching them to make their own "paper midrash."

Their synagogue is beautiful – three years old, modern and sleek but warm and welcoming as well. Their ark has a gorgeous "parting of the Red Sea" design and a blown glass ner tamid that complements the theme. And the sanctuary has one wall of glass which looks out upon Mount St. Helens. Just beautiful, the way the building is situated on the grounds and integrated with the landscape.

As usual, I started off the workshop talking (a little) about what I do, teaching a little about papercutting (a little more), and going over knife safety (a LOT). And then, after a warm-up project cutting out their names, we jumped into "paper midrash."

We talked as a group about the idea of midrash – stories about stories – and how we can add to those stories, especially by creating art to express our ideas about them.

The students each found a story that held some meaning from them – such as Creation, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, and stories and legends from deeper in our tradition, discovered in Sefer haAgaddah – and planned their work. They sketched and drew and erased and measured... and then began to cut.

The students had a break Saturday night, and while they did their own thing, so did I! My good friends Debra and Lisa showed me around Portland – including the world famous Powell's Books.

We had dinner at a great Mexican restaurant and got to visit Debra's studio, which was furnished with a mix of vintage knick-knacks and artifacts and state-of-art design equipment.

 Sunday morning I headed back to Congregation Kol Ami to continue working with my students.

The engagement of the students was matched only by their inventiveness. They really put all of themselves into their projects, and came up with some incredible work.

And of course, I had brought a big box of comics for them to cut up and incorporate into their work – just as I do. (Thank you again, Brave New World Comics!)

Really, just spectacular work.

Two days with them, and already creating things I will DEFINITELY STEAL. Not really. But I am genuinely inspired by what my students created.

A wonderful congregation, and a wonderful community.

(As for the rest of my adventures... you'll have to read this.)

Thirteen Windows in Portland

This past Sunday afternoon, as part of my weekend in the Pacific Northwest, I visited Portland, Oregon, to see the Maimonides Jewish Day School, which had commissioned me to create designs for the 13 windows of their new building entryway.

The windows represent the major holidays of the Jewish year as well as daily and weekly observances. The designs are printed on film and mounted between glass, so that they can be seen from both sides, and so the sun can illuminate them and bring vibrancy and joy to the entrance – which is what you want in a kids' school, if you ask me. (And they did!)

Unexpectedly, the late in the day the sun shines from the front of the building, and creates a special surprise inside the building...

Gorgeous interplays of light and shadows from the windows, which move around the building throughout the day and create unexpected bursts of color.

And even the shadows cast inside the window frames themselves are wonderful.

I can't wait to see the inset lights installed so that even at night the windows will be filled with color. If all goes well, I'll have the chance in March to see exactly that!

(If you're interested in the rest of my adventures in the Pacific Northwest, read about them here!)