As the Dawn Turns to Sunset

Today's Artists' Lab began with an interesting question. Why are you artists? asked Rabbi Davis. The answers flew out, tripping over and jostling each other, as we each weighed in on what drove us to create art.

A way to understand the world, a thinking process, a distillation, a clarification, a way of seeing, a lens on the world

A process of feeling, sensitivity, refining and maximizing the senses that we have, a spiritual experience

A full possession of body and mind, an alignment

A way to communicate, to observe and confront questions

Some of us weighed the thinking side more heavily, others the feeling, some saw it as a way to align thinking and feeling and for many the communication to others is equally important. One of the observations that I found most meaningful is that it isn't static.

When I reflect on my own experience as an artist I think about the early days when I painted just for me, because it gave me pleasure and stilled and focused an over active mind. At its best it was a meditation and occasionally I created something that delighted me, that left me a bit amazed that it was my creation. That evolved into a communication to others. Enough so that I overcame my reluctance to speak publicly because it was more important that I give my artwork voice. What drove me as an artist grew and changed as I grew and changed and I suspect that was true for each of us.

As I pondered these issues, I realized that we had switched directions to review a passage by Michael Fishbane in the book Sacred Attunement. Fishbane speaks of the ruptures of our everyday routines that can happen through a jolt, perhaps a sudden death, an intense love or an creation of culture. He posits that these experiences can change us and through that charged moment direct us towards a course of action. Artwork too can act as a crossing point to challenge our daily awareness. He then contrasts artwork with theology which he believes experiences all of existence as filled with crossing points.

We contrasted this rather dense passage with a commentary by Bahya, an early rabbi, on Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3:1) Bahya writes of Mose's growing perception of the burning bush as he gradually distinguishes the fire, the angel and the presence of God. The text talks of the goal of knowing God and describes the nature of the pursuit as "not all at once, but gradually 'as the dawn slowly but surely turns to sunrise'.

Is the creative experience a rupture or more akin to dawn turning to sunrise? The general consensus was with Bahya.

For the creative portion of our exploration we were joined by Elisa Berry Fonseca who shared her artwork which focuses upon light and also makes use of wire to create spatial drawings. Elisa also shared a number of artists with us who create artwork using light. Among the better known ones are James Turell who makes use of the physicality of light while Dan Flavin used light as a painterly medium. She shared Andy Goldsworthy who used snow and ice in a series of artwork and reminded us of Jim Hodges whose work is currently at the Walker Art Institute. Elisa also noted artists who make use of everyday elements in their artwork. Among them is Tara Donovan (see left) who uses styrofoam cups joined together to form large organic forms that interact with light. I observed her work at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and found it quite stunning.

Other artists she shared included Olafur Eliasson, Aurora Robson, Alyson Shotz, and Soo Sunny Park.

We were then turned loose with wire and translucent colored materials to create our own sculptures. Add light and voila!

To view information on lab artists and lab discussion links and handouts, please go to theJewish Artists' Laboratory website.

*The Jewish Artists’ Laboratory is an arts initiative through the Sabes Jewish Community Center featuring 25 artists exploring the theme of Light through study and art making. The project is funded through The Covenant Foundation and similar projects are being done in both Milwaukee and Madison. Artists explore how the theme of Light is relevant to Jews and non-Jews, to religious and non-religious, to the community and to the individual, to the artist and the non-artist.

Posted with Blogsy

A Plague of Darkness

With Pesach fast approaching, our focus in the Artists' Lab was on how darkness is dealt with in the Passover story. But first we began our session with a song based on a phrase about light; Yom Zeh l'Israel orah v'simchah, Shabbat m'nuhah. This day for Israel is joyous and blessed with light, happiness and Shabbat rest.

Rabbi Davis often uses song to mark the beginning and end of a discussion and I found myself wondering if the ability to carry a tune is a rabbinical requirement. Fortunately I don't aspire to such.  Having sung of light in a happy context, we then turned our attention to its opposite, darkness, specifically the plague of darkness visited upon the Egyptians as a prelude to the release of the Israelites (Exodus. 10:21). 

What does the plague of darkness represent to us? we were asked. "Fear, the unknown, hopelessness, a violation of the laws of nature (darkness during day) " we responded. This evolved into a discussion of our experiences with darkness, some which were quite unusual. One of our group recalled eating at a restaurant in Israel at which the wait staff was blind and the meal was served in darkness. A light code of sorts was enforced with a guest asked to remove his glow in the dark watch.

We discussed how darkness makes one appreciate its antithesis. But darkness is not always a negative. When one is in the womb, we float in darkness. It is light that shocks us upon the moment of birth. And in a world without artificial light, the phases of the moon were especially important for a full moon allowed one to see.

Coming back to the plague of darkness we were asked to imagine the response of the Egyptians when the power of their sun god was extinguished by darkness. The rabbi shared the relevant passages from the Torah together with excerpts of medieval commentary.

The interpretations sometimes grew out of disparate translations of words. Rashi argued that the verb in a key passage came from the word meaning "to grope" as in "you shall grope at noon as a blind man gropes in the dark (Deuteronomy 28:29)" arguing for a thick darkness, one of mass. Still other interpretations spoke of the darkness as a blinding light. 

Interestingly the Israelites were noted as having light in their dwelling, even as the Egyptians did not. We considered whether the term dwelling meant a home or perhaps our body, the home of our inner light.

In addition to the Egyptians, the plague of darkness also affected those Israelites who did not want to venture out of Egypt for forty years of wandering. According to the Midrash, twelve million Israelites died in the darkness.

So what are we to learn of darkness? Hiddushei haRim notes that the greatest darkness is when we fail to see another person, a failure to empathize. Yet another interpreter Even Haezel references language that states the darkness was as thick as dinars (gold coins) meaning that chasing wealth "increases selfishness and darkens the eyes".

Meryll Page then shared a Haggadah created by David Moss. As we are asked to imagine ourselves as someone who came out of Egypt, Moss assists us in this effort by embedding mirrored sections among images of Jews. Traditionally Jews have added to the Haggadah through illustration, thus illuminating it. As we learn in different ways, Passover makes use of many methods. We talk, taste and look. Our final exercise of the evening was to consider how we would add to our Passover Seder through image or text and what our message would be.

 To view information on lab artists and lab discussion links and handouts, please go to theJewish Artists' Laboratory website.

*The Jewish Artists’ Laboratory is an arts initiative through the Sabes Jewish Community Center featuring 25 artists exploring the theme of Light through study and art making. The project is funded through The Covenant Foundation and similar projects are being done in both Milwaukee and Madison. Artists explore how the theme of Light is relevant to Jews and non-Jews, to religious and non-religious, to the community and to the individual, to the artist and the non-artist.

Posted with Blogsy