The Place of the Cure of the Soul: A Commission for Robert Kirkman and Skybound

This is “The Place of the Cure of the Soul,” a papercut I was commissioned to create for Skybound Entertainment (Robert Kirkman! The Walking Dead! Yeah, those guys.)

The papercut is a representation of the Ancient Library of Alexandria, one of the largest libraries of the ancient world and dedicated to the Muses. According to legend, an inscription above the library’s shelves of papyrus scrolls read, “The Place of the Cure of the Soul” — and what better way to represent Skybound Entertainment, whose work serves that same goal — with its body of work encompassing comic books, television shows, merchandise, games and more.

This papercut is made of a single sheet of cold press watercolor stock, thematic selections from the Oxford English Dictionary, and cut-up comic books from Skybound Entertainment including:

Birthright #8 (Jun 2015), #12 (Dec 2015), #13 (Jan 2016), #16 (Jun 2016)

Invincible #121 (Jul 2015), #123 (Sep 2015), #126 (Dec 2015), #128 (May 2016)

Manifest Destiny #14 (Apr 2016), #15 (Jun 2015), #18 (Oct 2015), #19 (May 2016), #20 (Jun 2016)

Outcast #12 (Sep 2015), #15 – #17 (Jan – Mar 2016)

Techjacket #10 (Jun 2015), #11 (Sep 2015), #12 (Dec 2015)

Thief of Thieves #28 (May 2015), #30 (Aug 2015), #31 (Sep 2015)

The Walking Dead #142 (Jun 2015), #149 (Dec 2015), #150 (Jan 2016), #151 (Feb 2016), #153 – #156 (Apr – July 2016)

"Rise Up"

This is my newest papercut, "Rise Up" (click it to see it bigger), which I unveiled last night at the annual Temple Ahavat Shalom Gala and auctioned off LIVE to raise money for the synagogue community. My wife and I were proud the be honorees at the gala, the theme of which was "The Art of Jewish Living." Our thanks go out to everyone who contributed and supported us and the community!

"Rise Up" presents the figure of Bezalel standing in front of the parted curtains of the mishkan, revealing the ark and ner tamid of Temple Ahavat Shalom within. Its title comes from a speech bubble in Bezalel’s cloak: “Simply rise up to the task at hand,” reflecting the choice that each person must make to contribute to the building of a community.

A FEW MORE LIMITED EDITION SIGNED, NUMBERED GICLEE PRINTS ARE STILL AVAILABLE – CALL AARON SOLOMON AT TEMPLE AHAVAT SHALOM AT 818-360-2258 TO ORDER YOURS TODAY! (ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE TEMPLE)

In the Book of Shemot (Exodus) we read that Bezalel has been named by God to build the mishkan — the desert tabernacle which houses the tablets Moses received on Mount Sinai. The name “Bezalel” means “in the shadow of God,” and it is written that God granted him skill in all of the arts in order to design and build the mishkan — but he was not solely responsible for its construction. We are told that all of the Israelites — each member of the community — contributed what they could: their goods, their talents, their commitment to the community’s goals. In "Rise Up," Bezalel represents each individual Israelite then and now, coming together in a kehillah kedoshah — a sacred community.

Midrash tells us that God showed Bezalel a heavenly model for the mishkan, which Bezalel represented in his plans; the blueprints he holds in this papercut reflect the movement of planets and heavenly bodies in the skies. Bezalel’s hammer and his clothing are constructed of cut-up Thor comics; just as the person who can lift Thor’s hammer is deemed worthy to control its power, so too does the person who commits to picking up a hammer (or any gift) in service of the community find the power to help; it is the choice to rise up and serve that gives one the power to do so.

The blue, purple and crimson of this papercut match the colors of the mishkan as described in Shemot 36:35-37, while at the same time, the brown wood of the ark and jagged lines of the ner tamid (eternal light) are modeled on the sanctuary at Temple Ahavat Shalom. There are speech bubbles and panels throughout the piece, hinting at more midrash. The bit of green grid in the blueprints comes from a Green Lantern comic; John Stewart was an architect when gifted with the green will-powered ring, and many of the creations he built with it to protect and defend others reflected his original calling.

The background comics include:

• All-Star Western #3 (January 2012)
• Automatic Kafka #1 (September 2002)
• Batman #23.3 (November 2013)
• Buck Rogers #2 (July 2009)
• Daredevil #49 (September 2003)
• Etc.: Book One (1989)
• FF #1 (April 2014)
• Green Lantern #165 (June 1983)
• Justice League of America #7.3 (November 2013)
• The Names #3 (January 2015)
• Promethea: Book Five (2005)
• Revival #16 (December 2013)
• Secret #1 (May 2012)
• Shazam! Power of Hope (November 2000)
• Silver Surfer #9 (August 2015)
• Superman Unchained #9 (January 2015)
• Thor #395 (September 1988), #616 (December 2010), #615 (November 2010), #619 (March 2011)
• Thor #2 (October 2007), #6 (February 2008)
• Astonishing Thor #1 (January 2011)

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!)

"Tower of Babel" at the Pacific Design Center

This is "Tower of Babel," which will be included in "One for the Road," an exciting group show being held this Friday, January 31, at the Hudson|Linc gallery at the Pacific Design Center.

This papercut is made with cut-up and reassembled speech bubbles. It's probably obvious why. On the left is the piece in its frame; on the right, a detail shot.

It's Hudson|Linc's last show in this space, it's only for one night. It's a "cash and carry" show, with all works priced at $1000 and under. It's suite B215 at the Big Blue Whale from 5 to 8:30 pm. Artists in the show include:

Anthony Ausgang
Jaime Becker
Debra Bianculli
Dave Bondi
Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik
Gavin Bunner
Sam Dahl
Walpa D'Mark
Chuck Feesago
David French
Tm Gratkowski
Kio Griffith
Paul Guillemette
Zeal Harris
Brian Hollister
Thomas Isaac
James Johnson
Ben Junta
Kohl King
Shannon LaBelle
Olga Lah
Leanne Lee
Nick Lisica
Chris Mercier
Miriam Noske
Mary Anna Pomonis
Steven Poster
Max Presneill
Dominic Quagliozzi
Mike Reynolds
Sandy Rodriguez
Andy Romanoff
Yoshie Sakai
Danny Schaefer
Julia Strickler
Ami Tallman
Christa Toole
Philip Vaughan
Marjan Vayghan
Mike Vegas
Tracey Weiss
Renelle White Buffalo
Steven Wolkoff
Peggy Zask
Essi Zimm

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.

Happy Tenth Anniversary, Disney Hall!

Ten years ago I took some photos of the Walt Disney Concert Hall as it was being built — and today is its ten-year anniversary as a Los Angeles landmark. I was lucky to be working down the street during its construction and opening, and got to see it come together. If you haven't yet been inside to see a show (or just to marvel at its beautiful pipe organ), I recommend it.

Adath Jeshurun entryway commission complete!

I'm so pleased to share photos of the new entryway at Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Louisville, Kentucky. Last year the congregation completed work on their new ark doors, which are an adaptation of my "Burning Bush: Flame On" papercut (see here for details and pix), and now five of my "paper tefillah" papercut series have been produced in metal for the entryway to their synagogue.

From left to right are V'ahavta, Shalom, Yotzeir, Avot, and Mi Chamocha; you can see the whole set of 16 paper tefillah papercuts in this PDF.

They are EXTRA LARGE and very well-executed; I'm so pleased to have my work included in the redesign of the synagogue.The ark doors and the entryway are both featured on the front page of Adath Jeshurun's redesigned website.

Smallville

This is a photo of "Smallville" — a papercut premiering at my next show, at Brave New World Comics in Newhall (Santa Clarita), California.

Please join me at the opening on Saturday night, April 27, from 7 to 10 p.m. Details here.

"Smallville" is 18" x 24" and backed with cut-up Superman comics primarily featuring Smallville, the town where Kal-El was raised; as well, the piece includes bits and pieces of Superman's Fortress of Solitude, and a little Metropolis as well.

The papercut explores the immigrant experience in America – the Statue of Liberty being the entrypoint for many a new American, while Smallville is Kal-El's Statue of Liberty; it's where he becomes an American (an Earthman, really) and where he learns what it is to be human. It's where he learns to be a part of our civilization... but of course he also has his special place to be alone, his Fortress of Solitude – where he can truly be himself, amongst Kryptonian architecture and artifacts. This papercut is an exploration of the dichotomy between staying true to one's origins and assimilating into the larger culture.

The papercut includes pieces from:

• Action Comics 839 (Jul 2006), 903 (Sep 2011), and 15 (Feb 2013) — Geoff Johns, Kurt Busiek, Renato Guedes 

• Superboy 8 (Aug 2011), 10 (Oct 2011), 15 (Feb 2013), 16 (Mar 2013) and Annual #1 (Mar 2013) — Tom DeFalco, RB Silva, Rob Lean

• Superman 3 (Jan 2012), 15 (Feb 2013) — Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort 

• All-Star Superman 5 (Sep 2006), 11 (Jul 2007) — Grant Morisson and Frank Quitely 

• Adventure Comics  455 (Jan-Feb 1978) — Juan Ortiz and Vince Colletta 

• Teen Titans 7 (Mar 2004) — Geoff Johns and Tom Grummett 

• Supergirl 15 (Feb 2013) — Mike Johnson and Mahmud Asrar 

• Superman: Peace on Earth (Jan 19990 — Alex Ross and Paul Dini 

• Shatter (1988) — Peter Gillis and Mike Saenz

• Etc. Book One (1989) — Tim Conrad and Michael Davis

New ark doors at Adath Jeshrun feature "Burning Bush: Flame On"

As you can see in the image above, the design of the new ark doors at Congregation Adath Jeshrun in Louisville, Kentucky, is based on my recently completed papercut, "Burning Bush: Flame On."

The doors were made by Todd Deetsch of Interior FX, Inc.; he adapted the design into a three-color application in cooler colors, having been directed by the congregation to avoid warmer colors.

Inspired by the first chapter of the book of Shemot (aka Exodus) in the Torah, in the papercut I tried to convey the sense of wonder and awe that Moses felt upon encountering the Burning Bush in the desert and hearing God's voice speak to him from its midst. The background is made up of cut-up comics (including quite a few variations on the Human Torch, from the Fantastic Four), but also a bit of a Chumash that was destined for the genizah. And of course, just to the right above center the eponymous words, "Flame on!"

Todd tells me that the gold colored lead is Dutch metal, and that he used both standard gilding and a "broken gilding" technique to create the different values of gold. The blue-colored leaf is actually real silver leaf that is hand-dipped into an acrylic resin, and the silver-colored leaf is actually aluminum, also done in a "broken gilding" technique. You can see the colors nicely in this detail of one of the doors:

The papercut will be on display (and available for purchase) at my upcoming show this fall in Northern California; I'll have details here on my blog later this summer.