"Heroes & Legends" Opens Tuesday, November 14, in San Diego

 

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.

 

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.

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)

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.

Studio Stories – Kol Haot

  

​As the global health pandemic continues to change artists’ lives and practice, Chicago-based artist Lilach Schrag is sharing stories of how artists have adapted to lockdown and the new reality, in a series called “Studio Stories 2020,” hosted by Kol HaOt. This week they profiled my work during lockdown, including my golem series and how Rabbi Shawna and I have been trying to keep Paper Midrash going. Check it out!

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

How Can We Serve God with the Works of Our Hands?

[This post originally appeared on ReformJudaism.org]

This week, as we begin the Book of Leviticus with Parashat Vayikra, we read about the eternal flame in the Temple in Jerusalem — a symbol of God’s Presence amidst the Jewish people. The smoke rising from the altar was a remnant of our communications with God — physical evidence that we had engaged with the Eternal.
Cantor David Berger writes that “As moderns we have fully embraced the transition from Temple service to ‘the service of the heart,’” citing Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 2a:

To love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart” (Deut. 11:13). Which is the service of God that is performed in the heart? You must say that this is referring to prayer.

We could take this to mean that as we no longer make physical sacrifices, rather than serving God with our hands, we serve with our hearts and minds. And yes, we have transformed Judaism — the work of our hands, turning substance into flame and smoke became the work of our minds, turning words into music and praise. But where does that leave our hands? I suggest that we still have the power — and the responsibility — to serve God with our hands.

The altar smoke — “of pleasing odor to the Eternal” (Lev. 2:9) — is akin to a finished work of art created by a painter or sculptor. It is the lingering echo of music after an orchestra plays or the warmth of a room that has been filled with dancers exercising their bodies. A painting is the evidence that we have painted — and art about the Jewish experience is evidence of our efforts to commune with our people across time, and with the Divine.

The Jewish-American artist Barbara Kruger said, “Making art is about objectifying your experience of the world, transforming the flow of moments into something visual, or textual, or musical, whatever.” When we use the work of our hands in concert with the work of our minds, we can transform our personal experience of the world and the Divine into a shared moment — into a part of the continuing conversation that has been part and parcel of Judaism since the Divine creation of the world.

Our history reveals a continuous connection between art and Jewish practice — from the carving of the Ten Commandments in the moments before the first Shabbat at the end of Creation (Pirkei Avot 5:6) to Bezalel leading the Israelites in the building of the desert Mishkan (Ex. 35), to the commandment of hiddur mitzvah, “beautifying the commandments.” In Midrash M’chilta d’ Rabbi Ishmael,it says:

“I shall glorify God in the way I perform mitzvot. I shall prepare a beautiful lulav, beautiful sukkah, beautiful tzitzit, and beautiful tefillin.” (Shirata, Ch. 3). The Talmud adds, “a beautiful shofar and a beautiful Torah scroll which has been written by a skilled scribe with fine ink and fine pen and wrapped in beautiful silks” (Shabbat 133b).

Our hands still can — and must — do the work of connecting us to the Divine. We can paint, draw, weave, cut, carve, and inscribe — in the service of our people and the Eternal. We can tell our story, praise God, and promote the ideals of tzedakah, emet and shalom.

"Altar Flame" and "Altar Smoke"
[click to enlarge]

 In my work as a papercutter I am in constant engagement with this task, cutting up and collaging comic books and other found materials and using them as a lens through which to study Torah and make “paper midrash.” My papercuts “Altar Flame” and “Altar Smoke” are two explorations of this week’s parashah: attempts to find meaning in superseded ritual practices.

Both of these papercuts reflect the connection between the Jewish people and the Divine, in ancient and modern practice. Within the flames rising from the altar can be found Phoenix, a superhero member of the X-Men with godlike powers, as well as Wonder Woman, whose story is one of constant back-and-forth between gods and human beings. Tucked into the sacrificial smoke are comics featuring godlike heroes like Superman and Thor and also very human heroes like Batman. Our narratives about the relationships of these super-powered beings, and how they connect with the people around them, an inform our ideas about our relationship with God. We ask ourselves what it means to communicate directly with the Divine, and for what purpose we praise God with our hands and hearts.

Jews have always made things of beauty — for ritual and observance, and also to inspire people and praise the Divine. The work of our hands is vital to the work of our souls.

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.