THE NEW YEAR: Connections
In this time of interruption and restraint, I have welcomed opportunities to reach beyond the conventional art networks into new realms with shared interests. I am honored to be featured in the current newsletter from the Arpana Aneesha Studio operated by Aneesha Parrone. Aneesha is a weaver/fiber artist and teacher in Longmont, Colorado, where she is surrounded by dramatic skyscapes with the Rocky Mountains as backdrop. She filters the ephemeral, transitory nature of her surroundings through a contemplative inner process into richly textured weavings and tapestries radiating with light and energy.
While we work in different media, subject matter and commercial worlds for our art, we share a similar internal process for the filtration of the things that inspire us and a commitment to community process. Her newsletters feature young artists in the classes and workshops of the Arpana Aneesha Studios and Guest Artists – those who are part of her circle of creatives.
Lustrous and grounded integrity are hallmarks of the art of Sandy Bleifer. The scope of her developed expression includes personal history, social debate, political and environmental discourse. Fluidity between the statement and the creative keep her audience fully engaged piquing intellect, heart, and creativity on every level. Audience dialogue is a flowing of energy with a letting go of bias; boundaries are expanded, more inclusive. Her primary material is paper, and as an artist, Sandy is in dialogue with all elements of her creative ventures. Sometimes the dialogue takes on a visceral interaction, sometimes poignant, sometimes transformative, uplifting all to a new level of understanding.
TO CONTINUE READING THIS PIECE, PLEASE VISIT ANEESHA’S NEWSLETTER.
HOLY SPARKS: An Initiative of the Braid, an innovative performance/art space in Los Angeles where contemporary Jewish topics explored through stories on stage were also being examined through fine arts, inviting audiences to engage more deeply with myriad themes.
In the early stages of the Covid shut down in 2020, I was contacted about a project of the Jewish Women’s Theatre, Los Angeles called Holy Sparks: Celebrating 50 Years of Women in the Rabbinate. It was an invitation to Jewish artists to create artwork about the pioneering women rabbis who had been interviewed and whose stories were archived.
I don’t consider myself a portrait artist, but I was intrigued by the challenge to “channel” a particular rabbi’s values and vision through art. I was given recorded interviews with Rabbi Jackie Tabick, the first woman rabbi in England, and selected what I thought were two defining elements: her consistent motivation to serve the community beyond the ritual functions of the rabbinet and her commitment to interfaith work. I wondered, “Did I have a visual vocabulary for a narrative?”
Ultimately, I drew on a technique I had utilized in 2009 in my Paper Becoming Me/Paper Becoming Chest/Paper Becoming Hip Series of cast Hosho paper for visualizing the hands of (I.e. the work of) G-d. I then tried a new photo transfer technique I was learning to make use of newspaper photographs I had been collecting for years. A photograph of a fleeing Syrian mother resting in a field with her children had been eating away at me and now I could present her situation as an object of the rabbi’s interfaith initiatives in the refugee community.
If you have yet to visit my new website, I invite you take a look to see the breadth of my work. I look forward to making more art connections as the year continues. Please reach out if you hear of opportunities.