What a year so far!!! The war in Gaza continues. The war in Ukraine continues. Equador is taken over by drug lords. And it seems every time I turn on the radio I hear about Trump, and not that he is going to jail but about his campaign. Meanwhile icebergs are melting. Extreme climate events are happening. And it seems EVERYONE is continuing to shop. Imagine my amazement the other day when I learned that with a push of a button I could get a plastic Ariel-Little Mermaid Doll complete with accessories delivered by the end of the day for $12.00. But meanwhile people are having to set up go-fund me pages to get necessary medical care.
Roy and I have been playing a cooperative climate game called Daybreak. The cards for Daybreak all have special abilities and require certain resources to be activated. They represent real things that can be done to help with the climate emergency, such as planting trees, investing in solar, public transportation etc… One also must build resilience because there are crises cards and if you do not have infrastructure, social or ecological resilience you can get social unrest which limits your ability to draw project cards. All the project cards have QR codes so you can go and learn about the various projects and how they help with the climate crises. Interestingly one of the most powerful cards when it is in play is “Tax the Rich”
As for art…I did something I have wanted to do for years, which is to somehow address my complicated relationship with Judaism. Many artists have used their Jewish Heritage in their art. And there is a certain aesthetic that Jewish art tends to have, which is not my aesthetic. And It was not clear to me what would happen as I tried to make a drawing that not only engaged me as an artist but also captured the nuance about what it means to be a Jewish American post October 8th. As always I started with a still life. And after many failed attempts I finally found my voice when I took the Tallit out and started drawing the folds. I have an obsession with folds. They show up in my drawings of knitting, my drawings of Bernini’s clay angels and my drawings of origami. I can get lost in them. And somehow it is always through drawing tangles and folds that these emotions emerge unexpectedly in my drawing.
I honestly did not know how my Tallit drawings would be seen by those who are Jewish and by those unfamiliar with Judaism. Could one tell the Fabric and tassels belonged to a Tallit? What do non-Jews see in the image of the folded fabric. When I showed the initial idea to my critique group where there are many who are not familiar with the imagery of the Tallit, they were enthralled by the abstraction and told me they could sense it was about grief. So with that encouragement Itook out a larger sheet of paper and went to work. You can see the first sketch and the final drawing below.
The second drawing started off as a sketch as well. In fact I almost gave up on it. But something in me kept on working and then at one point I realized I had created a drawing that scared me. The hooded Tallit is stabbing a body or itself. Bodies are underneath. It is looking at both. Too many are using religion as a cloak to hide their nefarious behavior. A perfect example of this is Hebrew Senior Life where my mother is in Long Term Care. The whole facility as luxurious as it is, was donated by Sheldon Adelson, a Trump supporter and a person whose politics are very questionable and damaging. And yet he and his offspring hide behind a religious cloak that makes them seem charitable and moral. What happens when rich people do bad things that harm people and then donate money and so they can look charitable? Were the Rockefellers as bad as the Sacklers and Adelson? What about Gates? Too many questions.
