Safe Space

It has been a joy and an honor to be the 2025 / 5786 “Days of Awesome” Artist in Residence for the Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles. The experience has been meaningful, in-depth and illuminating. Encompassing Artist Residency; Color; Painting; the Book; Lettering; Text/Writing; Stitching/Sewing; Craft; Fine Art; Conceptual Art; Decorative Painting, Mixed Media, the Built Environment, Architecture, Shelter, Safe Space/Place, Teaching Artistry, Social Practice, Community Collaboration, Installation Art, Environmental Art,  “Public” Art, Jewish Identity; this work integrated many of my collective passions.

Working with the incredible SLJCC team of Rabbi Kerry Chaplin, Producers Jonny Soloman and Curt Neill, Designer Extraordinaire Sharon Eisman,  Marketing Director Babs Gray and Photographer Tiffanie Hsuld, our interactive six part tapestry,  “Let Joy Be Our Warp and Weft” was born, conceived, developed, planned and executed in harmony with the mission and intentions of the SLJCC and its people.

We developed the idea of an interactive tapestry, inscribed with text presented to me by Rabbi Kerry, which would then be stitched in by the community before and after the High Holy Day Services, on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur respectively. Just those two days. The concept had to work.
Former experimental theater designer turned Early Childhood Education Director of Operations Sharon Eisman came up with the brilliant idea of draping the two sided tapestry panels over the front gates. The parking lot-facing side of the panels would hold the text in English, the courtyard-facing side, the Hebrew.

Assessing the Site (watch)
This worked beautifully in terms of structure, logistics, and concept, resonating with the deeper meaning of the “Gates of Repentance” opening and closing through the period of the Days of Awe, a potent metaphor.
One area of the fence holding the gates was obscured on the exterior by a large plant, and this was built into the design of the interactive artwork.

Once the concept and format were determined, it was time to determine the materials and prepare the panels. We knew we wanted canvas as the “substrate”. After trying raw canvas, I found a source of  lighter weight material pre-primed on both sides. Working with six 20 x 3′ panels to be treated on both sides (720 square feet of painting) I knew I had to save on labor where I could, without sacrificing aesthetics or durability. I combined phthalo and ultramarine blue acrylic paint to create a rich, luminous color that could reference both sea and sky, and set to work in the studio, working on one side of two panels at a time. It was incredible fun, what joy to paint all that blue. Labor of love, labor as love, labor is love.
The paint was manipulated to create a flow of dark and light across the surface, something I had done many times in my 15 years as a decorative painter in the Bay Area. The insides of the panels were glazed with an iridescent medium with a bit of the blue paint added to it to create a celestial sky blue.

   

Next came the lettering of the text provided by Rabbi Kerry. Not speaking or writing Hebrew, I had to be hyper vigilante that I wrote the Hebrew correctly, and in the right direction, moving from right to left.

Making sure about the Hebrew text layout (watch)

After trying a few drawing tool, I settled on a white charcoal pencil to sketch out the lettering. I wanted the text to undulate across the six panels to reflect the ideas and imagery in the  visual marketing materials developed by the SLJCC  which depicted water and waves.

 I had enlarged the text texted and emailed to me by the Rabbi, divided both the English and the Hebrew into six sections, enlarged the words and printed those out on 8.5 x 11″ copier paper, then translated the text in larger format on the panels, laying out a faintly drawn undulating line as a guide. The Hebrew was fun to draw out in block letters. I learned a bit about Hebrew vowel forms in the process, and how they are no longer used in written form…mind-blowing.

Finally it was time to paint in the letters using the iridescent silvery white medium used for glaze  inside of the panels. So much fun, and gratifying, magical, to render the lettering alive, and fantastic to work on this scale.

I knew Rabbi Kerry liked sparkle, and I had created this through the iridescent medium used in the glaze and lettering, but wanted to amplify the sparkle through the stitching process. This was achieved by use of sparkly thread in color, as well as gold, silver and copper.

   

I had decided I was going to stitch in the first English word on the parking lot-facing panels, as that was the area of the security fence partially obscured by a bush, so the community would not be able to stitch it, and I did not think aesthetically, or in terms of continuity, I should leave that area blank. Stitching in the “LET” would also give the community a model for the stitching, and allow me to test the process. of both punching the sewing holes with my awl, and trying out the sparkly sewing threads. The process was tremendously fun and worked well.

I then punched the sewing holes in all of the English and Hebrew text.

Finally, time to install the panels! INSTALL DAY! (watch)

 

 

The production team, Curt Neill and Jonny Solomon did a great job, and the process took much less time than we anticipated. Jonny had some strong and solid shower curtain rods he brought from his previous home, and they worked beautifully as extensions of the hanging mechanism into the open space between the gates, creating an entry way that altered the space yet allowed for comfortable ingress and egress. We secured the bottoms of the panels loosely so that they wouldn’t blow around, yet stitchers could reach in-between  two sides of the panels to pull their needles through.

Rosh Hashana morning, all was in place.
SLJCC JLC Grade School Teacher Soren Laskin kindly helped participants choose their sewing threads, already threaded onto plastic needles. And the fun began for the community, who stopped to stitch as they entered the courtyard on their way to services.

We were so fortunate to have Programs Coordinator for Youth and Family, Tiffany Hsuld, documenting the experience.

We did the same set-up on the other side of the fence for the morning of Yom Kippur.

 

 

 

 

 

Who can beat these shoes?

Production Head Jonny Solomon joins in the stitching.
Folks started and ended their stitching where they wanted to. Just about all the text got stitched in.
The stitching represents… IS… a mending, a healing, a repair of the tear, a form of Tikkun Olam, all the more powerful when done in Community, creating something bigger than ourselves.

Photographer Tiffany Hsuld in action,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and a contemplative Executive Director Heather McPherson with Community Member Stuart Jenkins

Thank you for offering this opportunity, acknowledging this work, and providing a Jewish place of Sanctuary to many.
Shanah Tovah, Yom Tov, Let Joy Be Our Warp and Weft. Upon rereading,  I realize I have used the word “fun” multiple times in this post.      Joy, and all.      Shalom.