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.

On Being the URJ Biennial Artist-in-Residence

What an incredible experience. Five thousand Reform Jews from around the world (mostly from North America) gathering together in San Diego for the 2013 URJ Biennial, where I was the artist-in-residence.

Getting started in my mobile studio.

I had three things to get done: the first was to create an original artwork inspired by Biennial, created entirely at Biennial in the kikar (the “public square”). The second was to share my process with anyone and everyone who came by my mobile studio, and the third was to lead a workshop in papercutting and help people make their own art.

The first piece cut.

I’d never had to work in public in this way before – and it was certainly a challenge. It’s one thing to be working in the safety of my studio, where I can make decisions (and mistakes) on my own and not worry about how messy the process can be. To be exposed like I was, with people watching me sketch and cut and search and paste... it was unnerving at times, but energizing at others. The hardest part might have been finding enough time to keep working on the papercut while talking to so many people who wanted to hear about my process.

Left, the mountain begins to take shape. Right: one of the first background pieces.

As for the workshop: three dozen people joined me to express ourselves through the cutting of paper. Margaret and Lou and Shoshana and Joe and Robin and Wilma and Heidi... so many wonderful budding artists. It was both exhausting and invigorating. We had four hours together, and I am so proud of the work everyone made.

Photo from the URJ

Photo from the URJ

And somehow it happened: although Wednesday morning I had only a large blank sheet of cold-press watercolor stock, by Saturday night I had completed “Gathering.”



Wednesday I studied and sketched, Thursday I cut paper to create the top layer, Friday I disassembled and then reassembled pieces from comic books and maps and other ephemera to create the background, and Saturday after my workshop I put the last pieces together.

The idea inspiring the piece is simple, really – I came to see the Biennial as a “Sinai moment,” all of us gathered together to worship and receive Torah and study and learn.



As with all of my work, words from Torah informed the piece. In Exodus 19:18 we read, “Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for Adonai descended upon it in fire, and the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently.” That’s the way I like to think of Revelation – as a kiln. The smoke of God’s presence surrounding the top of the mountain reminds us that we are not just gathering, but creating. We came together to discuss strengthening our movement and building a vibrant and relevant Jewish future.



The mountain itself is built out of the honeycomb iconography of the Biennial, with the riot of colors and textures underneath reflecting the content of the sessions, the sanctity of our prayers, and the specific geography of Biennial. The space surrounding the mountain is made of cut-up books and ephemera, including a dictionary and an encyclopedia, with references to Sinai, San Diego, Torah, music, prayer and the Reform movement.

The completed papercut: "Gathering"

I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to serve as Biennial artist-in-residence; it was a pleasure and a privilege to study and teach and learn and create with this community.

“Gathering” includes these comics (and more) in the background:

• Action Comics #25 (Jan 2014)
• Animal Man #2 (Dec 2001)
• Batman: The Black Glove (2008)
• Captain Atom #3 (Jan 2012)
• The Flash: Rebirth #1 (June 2009)
• Green Arrow #22 (May 2003)
• Green Arrow and Black Canary #8 (Jul 2008)
• Green Lantern: Fear Itself #1 (2011)
• Infinite Vacation #5 (Jan 2013)
• Invincible Iron Man #25 (Aug 2010)
• Justice League #1 (Oct 2011)
• Metamorpho and Aquaman #1 (Oct 2007)
• Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #25 (Feb 2007)
• Testament #3 (Apr 2006)
• Wonder Woman #10 (Aug 2007)

“Gathering” also includes pieces of the following:

• The Future of Judaism in America, by Eugene Kohn. (The Liberal Press, New York, 1934.)
• Union Hymnal, Third Edition. The Central Conference of American Rabbis, New York, 1958).
• Pathways Through the Bible, by Mortimer J. Cohen. (The Jewish Publication Society of America, New York, 1966).

The final work will hang in the URJ’s New York offices, and for a limited time we are making archival giclée prints available to anyone interested in having a reminder of Biennial for themselves. The prints measure 16” x 20” and will be mailed in an artwork tube; the price is $120.00 (including domestic shipping), and the proceeds are being split with the Union for Reform Judaism. To order, please visit my online store.

Miriam's Well – Embrace the Possibilities

I'm very pleased to share with you a photo of my latest completed papercut — "Miriam's Well"— a commission celebrating and honoring the outgoing president at my synagogue, Temple Ahavat Shalom. It measures 26" x 40" and, as usual, features cut-up comics.

While the Jewish people wandered through the wilderness they were accompanied by a wondrous well which would provide water for them at every resting-place. God created this well for the sustenance of the Israelites in recognition of the merits of Miriam, which is how it gets its name. The well followed them on all their wanderings — and wherever they halted, it halted, too, settling in position opposite the Tabernacle. The leaders of the twelve tribes would appear and chant to it, “Spring up, o well,” and water would gush forth from its depths, and shoot up high as pillars, then discharge itself into great streams. These streams demarcated areas for each of the twelve tribes to camp in, and were so powerful that people were obliged to make use of ships to visit one another. The water led beyond the encampments, where it caused to grow every conceivable kind of plant and tree; and these trees, owing to the miraculous water, daily bore fresh fruits.

This president has dedicated her time a similar nurturing of the synagogue community (as well as the larger community), welling forth with tikkun olam and justice. Her leadership has sustained this community, and helped to create an environment in which everyone can “embrace the possibilities.”

The water of the well is backed with cut-up comic books featuring famed female comic book leaders and heroes, notably Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Batgirl. Within the swirls of color can be found speech bubbles that reflect on her presidency and her dedication to helping others.

The well is represented by the hint of a Torah scroll from a synagogue brochure, while the twelve spaces surrounding the well represent the twelve tribes, and are backed with cut-up temple materials. Above and below the well and the tribes are desert landscapes created from cut-up comics and photographic imagery of the desert in which the Israelites wandered.