There is a beautiful, long history of hand cut paper art in Judaism. One where you can find fragile fruits spiraled alongside the broad curves of Hebrew text. Where exquisite creatures graze next to homes and candles and trees. Symmetry, symbolism and storytelling. While many of these delicate works have endured over centuries, many were destroyed during the Holocaust. I hold grief for this intentional destruction of memory and history.
Amulet, 2024
Hand cut paper
8.5” x 11”
Created for the birth of a sweet friend’s first baby. This amulet references traditional paper "kimpetbrivl", used to protect mother and child.
Growing upwards and outwards from the central olive tree is a scene of family symbolism, protection and “doykeit”- a Yiddish term that translates to “hereness”.
Jewish Solidarity with Palestine, 2023
Hand cut paper
9” x 11.5”
Using an artform that was part of Jewish traditions and which was in part destroyed during the Holocaust, I denounce the violence enacted in our name. Never again means never again for anyone.
Global Knot, 2024
Hand cut paper
7” x 8”
When numbness or dissociation removes you from the present, you're told to return to your body. Returning, I think of knots. Rigid between shoulder blades, pulled tight in the stomach, tangled in the mind. Here, in paper, this style of knot is called a "globe knot".
I think of some of the unyielding knots of the United States. Militarism, white supremacy, greed, and blood-lust twisted tightly from the same cord. These knots confine and constrict us all. Sometimes we tighten the knots ourselves. They make hosts of our bodies and we are bound up in their violence. May the knots weaken and unravel. This work was made in reaction against the US-funded, Israeli occupation of Palestine and the ongoing US/Israel led genocide of Palestinians.