This is a schematic of the painting for my final project in my painting class. It contains a word some people find offensive. As my high school English teacher said, when no other word will do, the offensive word is proper. I tried, but cannot find another word that conveys the same anger that I feel. Not everyone enjoys a post containing that word, so I decided to put a warning on the post.
The blank spots are for kidnapped posters of 2 pre-school age children, one infant, and an antisemitism poster. Those get glued on. The painting will be shown to the class on 12/7/23…..a couple hours before sundown when Hanukkah begins. When I think about it, it’s a fitting time for the “unveiling.”
Depending on how angry I am next month, I may have a photo of the painting printed by Spoonflower on fabric and turn it into an angry quilt. Being on the receiving end of a hate crime has permeated my life. The stress I feel now is the same stress I felt in law school. I’m forgetting things. Today, I made the wrong turn out of the campus parking lot and headed towards the interstate to go home rather than heading to the post office to pick up my mail – and that was after I reminded myself when I turned the car on that I needed to go to the post office. I have a hard time multitasking under the best circumstances, but now I can no more multitask than I can flap my arms and fly. It’s going to be a long time before the #$%*#@*(!!! on campus and the _#$*#@@!!! caused by Hamas ends. I fear the $%(*@*!!! on campus is going to get worse and will become violent. I hate being scared. I hate feeling alone. I especially hate what the hate criminal did to me and the lasting effects of the hate criminal’s actions. I tell myself that what has happened to me is nothing compared to what happened to Jews, and anyone else hitler didn’t like – during the Holocaust but those words don’t reach the fury in my gut.
I’ve finished the embroidery on the quilt top. The original was a painting that was always intended to be a study for the quilt. I’ve done some reworking and tweaking of the design. The piece contains the past, present and future of the Jews. Our traditions come from 5000 years of our history. The stars are our present. The leafs on the tree of life are our future. I embroidered 18 leaves. Hebrew has numbers but no numerals. The number 18 is represented by the Hebrew word for life.
I’m not sure the colors came through on the photos. I used Razzle Dazzle for the tree and the stars. Copper for the stars, a multi-color brown for the tree. The leaves are green embroidery thread.
My art has always been dark. I create about death, suicide, mass shootings, isolation and depression – all the happy stuff. At the moment, my art is even darker. Instead of being just a kick in the gut, it’s now a kick in the gut delivered with a steel-toed boot worn by someone consumed by fury.
Am Yisrael chai!
The people of Israel live!
Deb's Art 