Kirby, Barda, and "Women of Valor"

Last week I stopped by the CSUN Art & Design Gallery to see a show titled "Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby" – and it was made of awesome, as expected. Any comic book fan is a fan of Jack Kirby – he created most of the Marvel super heroes, as well as an entirely new pantheon for DC called the New Gods. Stan Lee called him the King.

It was great to see original panels drawn and inked by Kirby, as well as the actual comics made from those panels... but also to see some of the groundbreaking collage work that Kirby created for a lot of the comics he drew. Masterful work.

And of course, it was fun to see some of the characters and comics I'm cutting up for my show (which opens this Sunday, October 18), including Big Barda – one of the New Gods. In a reversal of the stereotype associated with female characters at the time of her creation (in the mid 1970s), Barda is physically more powerful than her husband, Mister Miracle, and very protective of him. They're a cute couple.

Kirby artwork on the left; my papercut "Aleph Barda Gimmel" on the right.

I've got three pieces in my show based on the same stucture, which incorporates the first three letters of the Hebrew alphabet: "Armor Bet Gimmel," "Aleph Barda Gimmel," and "Aleph Bet Gwen." It's the second of the three that features Barda (obviously) and emphasizes the Hebrew letter "bet." The first one features Armor (a young mutant hero in the X-Men), and the third features Gwen Stacy – known early on only as a romantic foil for Peter Parker (Spider-Man) but in recent years an alternate dimension version of the character has arisen as the very powerful (and popular) Spider-Gwen.

Coverage of "Women of Valor" in Santa Clarita Valley Signal newspaper

Nice coverage of "Women of Valor and Other Super Heroes" in today's Santa Clarita Valley Signal – and yes, it's the press release I wrote... but still, it's great to see it in print! Check it out here.

Dream Lab Think Tank at AJU: Post #1

This is first in an occasional series of posts about the American Jewish University (AJU) Dream Lab – a think tank of artists and educators developing a programmatic vision for infusing the field of Jewish education with creativity through the arts.

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I'm honored to have been chosen as one of the Fellows in the AJU Dream Lab program for the 2015-2016 academic year. I'll share more about the program and our plans in future posts, but for now I wanted to write up a few thoughts on this week's Torah portion, after a discussion we had at today's session, the first for our team.

Miriam Heller Stern, the Dean of Graduate Center for Education at AJU, led a discussion on a teaching from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, and technically a "lord" as well as a knight. (Knighted! A rabbi!) He wrote that the creation story consists of three parts:

1. God says, "let there be..."
2. And there was...
3. And it was good.

Miriam followed Sacks' idea that this is a reflection of the creative process: we intend to create, we create, and then we evaluate. But it occurred to me that it also served as a good analogy for the teaching process, which is (of course) part of what we're discussing in the Dream Lab. How so?

1. We need to get our students to accept the role of creator/artist – willing to undertake the effort to make something.

2. The students must engage with the materials and create something, in an authentic and sincere process.

3. The students must be able to acknowledge that they have made something of value – that they are, by definition, creators and artists, and that their work is meaningful.

This all goes to my point that everyone can be a creator – everyone can find the spark within them to make something, in whatever medium they like... but they often need to be first told that they can do this. They need to be told – and shown – that art isn't something other people do, but rather something we all can do. And that the work of our minds and hands is valuable and important, and we are worthy of the title creator/artist.

After all, we are told that the process of creation which began at the birth of the universe is an ongoing process even to this day, and that we must partner with God to continue it. On Shabbat we remember that we are partners with God in creation, and that we must work to make something valuable and important – that is our role, and our destiny.

Hamsa Thwip!

This is "Hamsa Thwip," one of the many new works I'll be premiering in my next show, "Women of Valor and Other Super Heroes." Join me in Los Angeles for the opening reception on Sunday, October 18, 2015 from 3 to 5 pm. The show is being held at National Council of Jewish Women / Los Angeles, located at 543 North Fairfax Avenue, across from Fairfax High; a secure parking lot is accessible off of Clinton Avenue.

Shanah tovah!

May the new year bring freedom and understanding,
sweetness and joy.

Women of Valor and Other Super Heroes

This is it – the official blog announcement about my upcoming solo show, "Women of Valor and Other Super Heroes," at National Council of Jewish Women / Los Angeles.

Click on the thumbnail above to donwload the full-size flyer in handy JPEG format, or just make note of this important info:

Please join me at the free opening reception on Sunday, October 18, 2015, from 3 to 5 pm. I'll be speaking briefly at 4 pm, and we're planning a special presentation as well...!  The show will be open through November 30, 2015.

National Council of Jewish Women / Los Angeles is located at 543 North Fairfax Avenue, across from Fairfax High; a secure parking lot is accessible off of Clinton Avenue.

And apparently, reservations are appreciated (though not required); call Carrie at 323-852-8512 or carrie@ncjwla.org to let her know you're planning to come. (But even if you don't call, please do come!)

Save the date for my next solo show: Sunday, October 18, in Los Angeles

Please join me in Los Angeles at the National Council for Jewish Women on Sunday, October 18, from 3 to 5 in the afternoon for the opening reception for “Women of Valor and Other Super Heroes.”

Details are coming soon – but for now, please save the date to be there as I premiere a bunch of new work incorporating cut-up comics featuring all of your favorite heroes, including Wonder Woman, Gamora, Supergirl, Black Canary, Silk Spectre, and more.

Last chance to see "Heroes and Villains" exhibition in Maryland

These are the last few days to see the "Heroes and Villains" exhibition at Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center in Maryland, featuring three of my papercuts (including "Jacob and Esav," which won a juror's award in the show). The show closes August 23.

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!

Virtually in Toronto

I am so pleased that I'm going to be a part of the High Holidays at Neshamah Congregation (in Canada) this year. My work will be featured as "visual tefillah" for worship services, and I'll be leading a discussion (virtually, thanks to the internet) on my process and my "paper tefillah" series.

The congregation is led by Rabbi Erin Polansky, with whom my wife and I have been friends for 20 years – she was there when I first started cutting paper, and I'm proud to call her a friend.

For details, please visit their website.

We're making a movie.

This is me in my studio, being put under the microscope of a movie camera. I'll be having a crew in the studio now and then for a little while, because they want to make a little movie about me. Exciting times!

Details about this, my upcoming shows, a big new commission, and plenty more to come – all right here on the blog.

What happens when you give knives to a bunch of teenage campers? Magic.

This was my ninth summer teaching papercutting at Camp Newman in Northern California.

Nine years driving my mobile studio up to wine country. Nice years eating in a dining hall and sleeping in a faculty cabin. Nine years living and praying and making with my camp community – my camp family, really.

It's a great experience to make art in a different physical space – sometimes I'm lucky enough to find a different mental space as well, allowing me to experiment with new ideas and new approaches. But no matter how conducive I may find it to my own art, it's always a wonderful experience to show a room full of campers what I do, and to show them how they can do it as well. How they can develop ideas and make art that expresses something within them.

Papercutting is a new medium for many of these campers, and maybe that's why they're so successful. They might have had time in their 15 years to learn to say "I can't draw" (unfortunately) but it's the rare high school kid who has enough time holding an X-acto knife to know whether they can do it or not – and so, not knowing any better yet, they succeed. Each camper gives it their all – they commit to the process, and they find they are more than capable of expressing themselves with knife and paper.

It's a real pleasure to see them surprise themselves with their newfound ability – it's like seeing Barry Allen realize that the lightning bolt has given him super speed.

The first project the campers work on is a mizrach, an ornamental wall plaque used to indicate the direction of prayer (east) in Jewish homes. We brainstormed as a group to get some ideas going, but each student designed their own, and then backed it with comics. One idea that had everyone starting in the same place, but every mizrach was unique.

 Our second, BIG project was (as usual) paper midrash – each camper had to identify a story or character from Jewish tradition, and explore and develop it with the aid of knife and paper. Some worked with one of the session rabbis to find fascinating little tidbits, others made up their own commentaries, and all of them created stunning work.

"Jacob and Esau" receives juror's award at Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center

I'm so pleased to share the good news: my "Jacob and Esau" papercut has been awarded a juror's award in the "Heroes & Villains" show at Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center.

I have three pieces in the show, which is open through August in Maryland.