Midnight: the second stage of opening to “heART”
Noah’s Art
1986 :: Dallas, Texas
The opening of Scriptures n’ Spirits was crowned with success. It was a significant statement to come out with huge Hebrew letters dancing on my silk tapestries. That act of courage also coincided with my becoming bat mitzvah (“daughter of interdependency”). To the question “what now?”, the voice pointed out the Torah portion I had read was just before the story of Noah. Moreover, I had been commissioned to paint elephants. I was now sent on a new mission: self-discovery and healing by way of Noah’s Art.
That show was a lot of fun! Yet where was the “Art” of Noah’s Art? The show itself was rather expected: nothing very thought-provoking about it, just some water, a few pairs of animals, and a vision of Peace… Yet it would take a scholar to realize that the Biblical flood got somehow rewritten: there was the picture of a whale, which was deliberately out of context. The Art was in that exact disruption, as the whale belonged to the Books of Prophets and not to the Torah, where Noah’s story unfolds. It belonged to another story, this about a reluctant prophet, Jonah, trapped in the dark night of the soul, that is, in the belly of a whale. I knew that reluctance quite well, as I was wakening up to the directives to embody the teaching everyday. Quite frankly, I wanted to run and go into the opposite direction! Back to the exhibit, I had been waiting for a devotee from my synagogue to point this incongruity. Finally, the-Rabbi-from-the-Big-Temple came to see the show. He was wearing the most magnificent dark blue tie, embroidered with lots of little red whales! It was a wink from “God” and a bug in my ear, saying; “keep going, I Am here for you…”
“The Whale that Came from the Sky”
Silk Painting (24″ x 30″)
Private Collection
“A bug in the ear”
Silk Painting (11″ x 14″)
Private Collection
Full vision of the entire Noah’s Art exhibit: Here
Timing Is The Essence Of Life
1986 :: Dallas, Texas
The invitation-card above was sent, towards an exhibit opening on the 16th of October, 1986, in Dallas, TX.
The concept of time had always fascinated me, and now I got to study its every aspect, painting it with my sweat and blood. I am actually literal as one piece of the show was picturing the pituitary gland, and the cycles of ovulation. The piece was called: “the curse,” as a redirect from what a religion lived as patriarchal had done in exiling the sacred feminine. Besides my story, which was that I was happily married to a French baker, and that we would soon be pregnant, this show was also offered as a prayer for an auspicious synchronicity to bless potent emigration challenges. 1986 was a year of life changing events. Texas celebrated its sesquicentennial, an anniversary acknowledged in a piece I enjoyed calling “Waxahachie, France.” People would ask, is there a Waxahachie in France, and I would say: “nope, but there is a Paris in Texas!” The piece was a delight: it had an armidillo on a skateboard, the Eiffel Tower turning into oil derricks, a bluebonnet on a red chapeau… Back to 1986, New York City also had an anniversary, more exactly its Statue of Liberty was 100-year young! My husband and I went to NY at that time, to celebrate our 6th and last anniversary. Timing, hum? I didn’t know when I started that theme that I would be in Time Square, NYC, when I felt how obviously dysfunctional my marriage was. I didn’t know how angry it made me. I didn’t know that Senator Meese was going to attack gay people. The whole thing combined in Meese Liberty. The graffitis on silk augured an upcoming divorce…
“Meese Liberty”
Silk Painting (3o”x 44″)
Available. POR
Full vision of the entire Timing is the Essence of Life exhibit: Here
Numbers & Letters
1987 :: Dallas, Texas
How could I lie to myself for so long on the nature of my marriage? Yet who is counting? I was reminded that the Hebrew alphabet is a full numerical system, and heard to engage into the painting of the alphabet, as a path to Self-mastery: heck, if Jesus did it, why couldn’t I? Clearly, my quest for humility was yet to be fulfilled. As it happens, I came from a family that played cards and read cards: I had known for long that the 22 Tarots are an illustration of the esoteric dimensions of 22 Hebrew signs: Torah/Tarot: quite similar, indeed! Both systems ease the archetypal journey of the hero. The Fool is the first step of this journey, an innocent soul who doesn’t even know how low he’s going to have to fall, to move from foolishness into wisdom… I could definitely relate! That show was extraordinary: it opened at Temple Emanuel, on a Friday night. The entire Jewish congregation was present, asking the same question again and again about the piece that is on the wall, below the Fool… The question was: “is there a swastika on this piece?”
Aleph the Fool
Papier-mâché sculpture on a silk pillow
Private Collection
The Chariot
Hebrew Letter Chet, Tarot 7, Torah 8.
(Yes, there is a swastika in the upper part of the “S” of TOPS)
Private Collection
Full vision of the entire Numbers & Letters exhibit: Here