When I was 18, I lived a year on Kibbutz Urim in the Negev Desert in Israel.
I was adopted by the amazing Kudler Family. They consisted of Tova and Eli (of blessed memory) Carmit and Nirit, and Yochai, my 16 year old brother. Well Yochai has become quite the beer brewer in the last few years, and is very close to opening his own brewery in Israel. It will be one of three other microbreweries to exist in Israel. There are beer brewers in Israel, such as Maccaabi and Goldstar, but they are akin to the Buds and Millers of the US. I.e. not very tasty. To learn more about his accomplishments click here
He is getting alot of demand for his beer, which is very exciting. What is exciting and a high honor for me is that he asked me to illustrate the bottles.
This has always been a dream of mine since I’ve become a beer drinker ( around age 22, I promise). I’m definitely guilty of purchasing a 6 pack of beer based on how cool the label looks. Yochai worked with a graphic designer to come up with the print and logo, and stuck my illustrations behind it. The result is posted below. I look forward to being in Israel next time, and ordering NEGEV beer, and seeing my art draped over his delicious beer.
On May 17th, my sister Jenni and I schlepped down to Fredricksburg Virginia to participate in the Marine Corp Half Marathon. It was wet and rainy the whole day, but we ourselves an amazing time!
I got a real challenge with this one. The lovely couples wedding theme was “simple”. And so they wanted a ketuba that was just that: Simple. Specifically, they wanted it to be black and white. I knew that Anne was a crafty lady, having been employed by the trendy shop Anthropology, so I was inspired by her to break out the sewing machine to add to the texture of the piece. I’m really happy with how it came out, as was the lovely couple.
Well, I’ve officially finished the first full page of writing. Im writing at least three lines per day. Of course, for every line I write, there’s usually a mistake or two. These mistakes will require me to go back later (i.e. once I learn how) with one my blades to scrape away the ink, and rewrite the letter.
I met with a master Sofer names Rabbi Youlis. He runs an organization called Save A Torah. He does amazing work, finding Torahs that were thought to be lost, be it from the Holocaust, or from Hurricane Katrina, and he works to refurbish them and put them into use again. For an incredible story about him and his work that will have you in tears, click here:
Anyway. I went to see him with the work that I’ve done so far, and his comment to me was that I should stop writing, and practice my letters some more. OY! I was hoping to have the megillah done by Purim, which is in March. But now I feel like I’m right back at the beginning. NOw Instead of writing my megillah, I’m just writing alephs over and over, as well as a few other letters. Still I love it, and the connection to the tradition of writing such ancient texts on parchment using a quill is powerful beyond words. I guess that’s the crux of it, I’m using words as a meditation to move beyond them.
After a week or two of doing some practice writing, to get in the swing of things, I have finally started working on the megillah! Very scary. Megilliat Esther is 20 pages worth of writing. And each page has 21 lines of writing. That means I have 24 weeks to do it, which means I have to do about 2-3 lines per day. Oy. So far I’ve got 3. The writing above is the actual writing, and the writing below is the photocopied version of the text that I’m copying from.
Also, here is a photo of the quill that I use.
It’s a goose feather that I’ve cut using some seriously sharp surgical knives
For the last 6 years I have been learning Sofrut, the ancient Jewish art of calligraphy for the use of writing sacred texts, on and off. I started in Cleveland, continued in Jerusalem, and now in Maryland, I am going to being my first work, a Miggelah (scroll) of Esther. I’m very excited and scared about this endevor. My hope is to complete it by Purim, so that my students can read from it for the holiday.
This is a photocopied version of the text that I will be using as a guide. Beneath it is a piece of parchment. Very thick paper-like material made from the skin of a cow.
These are feathers from the wing of a goose. They will be transformed into a quill, called Kulmus in hebrew.
This is a special ink used to write on the parchment.
This is an almost completed version of the cover for Teva Tunes, the album creating the buzz all up and down the charts….in the woods. If you’re interested in a copy, go to www.tevacenter.org
