Counting the Omer with Visual Journaling - Day 8

Today is the 8th day, making one week and one day of the Omer.  In 2011 I wrote:  "So glad we started with Chesed and not Gevurah, or this would feel unbearable - "   It felt like an abrupt shift to move from the week where Chesed, or Lovingkindness, was the overall container of all the other qualities. In my visual system it was moving from a large circle of yellow gold to a large circle of red.  The Gevurah qualities of strength and discipline felt so stern compared to Lovingkindness.

It helped that by the ninth day I started using a less intense red for the big circle, and as the week progressed I began to appreciate the value of Gevurah energy, as you will see.  Even though today's quality is of Chesed within Gevurah, or Love within Strength, it still was difficult for me in 2011.  This year I know how much I need Gevurah's strength.

Counting the Omer with Visual Jouirnaling - Day 7

Today is the seventh day, making one week of the Omer.  The tenth Sefirot, Malkhut (Malchut), or Kingdom, is also Shekhinah (Shechinah), the Queen, or the indwelling presence of God.  I chose white for this Sefirot, surrounded by a black circle:  no color and all colors, an integration of male and female.  As I wrote at the bottom of the right page:  "Beyond Understanding."

I still find it to be beyond understanding.  There is a reason I collaged one of my favorite phrases on the left page: "Intergalactic Jewish Space-Jockeys Have Hijacked Your Mind. "

Counting the Omer with Visual Journaling - Day 6

Bonding within Love - sounds good!  Yesod (the ninth of the ten Sefirot) is the quality within Chesed today.  Since Yesod is associated with sexuality, it is nice when it is the quality in the week of Chesed, or Lovingkindness.  I had fun using collaged images on the left page, and writing "sexiness for connection and attachment," and  "Love your body,"  back in 2011.

This year, I took my collograph print called Betrayal over to DaVinci Art Alliance, an artist's co-op where I am a member, for a show in collaboration with Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre featuring art inspired by their production of Othello.  Do we need a more vivid picture of what happens to our relationships when they are torn by jealousy, mistrust, revenge, and betrayal?  It is the shadow side of Bonding within Love!

Something on the collograph plate actually tore through the paper in this print, leaving an area in the paper that looks like punched out teeth.  It was unintentional at the time, but I like the effect.

The emotions connected with betrayal and feelings of jealousy and mistrust are part of the human condition - something all of us have experienced in our lives at one time or another.  It is good to have a whole day to feel the energy of Bonding within Love, Yesod withing Chesed, as a reminder that those qualities are something to be nurtured with awareness.

Counting the Omer with Visual Journaling - Day 5

Today's quality is Humility within Lovingkindness, Presence within Love:  Hod within Chesed.  On the left page of my journal I glued an Omer counting aid from a 1986 Jewish calendar, one of many I have saved because of their wonderful photographs and images.  I had colored in only eleven of the forty-nine barley sheaves.  In 2011 I wrote "Whoops.  In 1986 I lost count.  It happens."  "Intention counts."  "Forgiveness of oneself."

This year I am aware that tomorrow at dawn Christians around the world will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This evening we watched 5 BROKEN CAMERAS, an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature.  http://www.kinolorber.com/5brokencameras/.  "Shot by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, Gibreel, the film was co-directed by Burnat and Guy Davidi, an Israeli filmmaker. 5 BROKEN CAMERAS is a Palestinian-Israeli-French co-production. 

I'm not sure how the confluence of Passover and Easter, and watching a documentary filmed by a Palestinian Muslim co-directed with an Israeli filmmaker, seen through the eyes of a child, relates to Humility within Love, Hod within Chesed.  I think the eyes of a child holds a key...

Counting the Omer with Visual Journaling - Day 4

Today's quality is Endurance and Persistence within Lovingkindness, or Netzach within Chesed.  Because it is also Shabbat, I used a spiral stamp inside the large yellow-gold circle of Chesed.  In 2011 I wrote "I could never grok Netzach.  Maybe I'll finally get some clue from counting the Omer this year..."

I still find Netzach elusive, but I got a glimpse of it from last night's historic 5th night of Passover Seder for Food Justice.

 

Yes, there were actually tomatoes on the seder plates at each table!  We learned about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Fair Food Program, and the sub-poverty wages, denial of overtime pay, benefits, or right to organize, and the sexual harassment and threats of physical violence to farmworkers in the fields - a form of modern day slavery.

The endurance of the farmworkers in their daily lives and the persistence of their fight for justice and fairness, along with their supporters from the faith communities, students and others, is surely Netzachdik. It's non-violent approach is within a wider value of Chesed, Love.

I'm old enough to remember Cesar Chavez and the rise of the United Farm Workers. Back in those days I stood by the door of a supermarket handing out leaflets run off on a mimeograph machine (what's that!), asking people not to buy grapes.  Last night I learned from a young college student about her time in Florida participating in a two week walk, of fifteen miles each day, with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

I am struck by the persistence of the struggle for justice and social change over time.  Much has been achieved, and there is so much more that still needs to be addressed.  Netzach:  Endurance and Persistance within Love!

Because Netzach falls on Shabbat this year, (as it did in 2011,) it will be the guiding quality and presence for the next six Shabbats.  May that give us extra strength and clarity, patience and persistence, for whatever each of us is called to do.

Counting the Omer with Visual Journaling - Day 3

Beauty and Balance within Lovingkindness - the quality of Tiferet within Chesed - what a special combination on Day 3 of the Omer Count!  I designated Tiferet (in the heart chakra area) as green, so the other circles of Sefirot are a combination of green with the yellow-gold of Chesed. 

Apprently the 3rd day of the Omer was also Earth Day in 2011.  This year I was at wonderful lecture / slide show, The Global Art Scene:  Philadelphia to Shanghai, presented by Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof of www.theartblog.org. They are critics who stretch my mind, challenge my thinking, expand my learning, and nourish my soul.   

Much of what they were pointing to in their comprehensive slide show of contemporary art, even when some of the images were difficult or painful, was the need to balance "beauty" in the larger sense with compassion and lovingkindness.  Art that makes astute commentary on our social ills, whether relating to race, class, gender, the environment, war, or poverty, is in a sociological, and indeed spiritual, sense coming from a place of compassion, in the sense of desire for a better world.  How could that not be the case at this point in history?

Counting the Omer with Visual Journaling - Day 2

Today's quality is Gevurah (strength, discernment, justice, discipline, awe),  within the week of Chesed (lovingkindness, compassion, mercy), the big yellow-gold circle.   I chose to designate Gevura with red, so the Gevura circle is red, and the other five are a blend of yellow-gold and red. 

Since the day's message is Strength within Love, or Gevurah Sh'b Chesed,  I added one of my favorite quotes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. because it is a wonderful commentary on the blend of Chesed and Gevurah and their balance and need for each other:

"Power without love is reckless and abusive.  Love without power is sentimental and anemic."

The Reverend Doctor King sums it up!

On this page I use a ladder stamp with red ink.  You can use stamps that you may have, or collaged or hand drawn images. Or use ephemera you have on hand that may have personal memories for you, perhaps pertinent to the qualities of the day. Use whatever you wish to make the page your own.  Personalize it!

Counting the Omer with Visual Journaling - Day 1

Counting the Omer is a 49 day ancient practice which starts tonight - the second day of Passover.  Omer means sheaf, a sheaf of barley once ritually waved to insure an abundant harvest.  In museums you can see elaborate and beautiful objects like the one above, to help keep track of the count.  Omer counting evolved to keep track of the time from the crossing of the Red Sea at Passover until arriving at Sinai and experiencing Revelation on the 50th day (the Jewish holiday of Shavuot).

As a child I thought it was an archaic practice, perhaps still practiced by a few Orthodox folks - certainly no one I knew.  Later I learned that in the 16th and 17th centuries it became a mystical seven week practice, with an elaborate system aimed at deep preparation for revelation.  More recently I have come to appreciate the myriad ways the practice has been modified, elaborated, and modernized - made accessible as a spiritual path to many.  There is even an iPhone app for counting the Omer!

In 2011 I developed the following visual journaling system to help me count.

Every evening the count is preceded by a prayer:

BA-RUCH A-TAH ADO-NAI E-LO-HE-NU ME-LECH HA-OLAM ASHER KID-E-SHA-NU BE-MITZ-VO-TAV VETZI-VA-NU AL SEFI-RAT HA-OMER. Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.

I used a Strathmore journal of 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper because I chose to use watercolor.  If colored pencils or markers are used, or other dry media, other paper would work.  It was helpful however to have a binding that allowed the journal to be opened flat to be worked on.

The yellow circles represent the lower 7 Sefirot, or power points in the body that have certain qualities. 

Each of the seven weeks is permeated by the quality of one of the seven Sefirot.  This first week starts with Chesed (Hesed), or compassion and mercy.  I chose to designate Chesed with a golden color, and because this is Chesed's week, that circle is larger.  You can choose your own color system, but whatever you choose, it is helpful to stick with it.  

The first day's quality is Love within Love, (Chesed Sh'b Chesed).  Therefore the other circles are golden yellow mixed with golden yellow.  

Follow my daily Omer Visual Journal posts and you'll see how the colors change from day to day and week to week, and which circle is the big one.  The color system highlights which qualities are blended that day. It is a system that you are free to adapt to your own purposes in your own way.  My journal entries are very personal, often quite mundane.  When I made the journal I never imagined anyone would ever see it - it was just my personal aid for counting.  

Now I am happy to share the journey.  Posting daily for the next weeks will keep me counting and hopefully, with your comments and input, remembering why we bother to do this...

Life Before Text Messaging

"I love you.  P.S. I'll bring a bread home for lunch."  Today it would be a text message, abbreviated and eventually deleted.  I am touched by the poignancy of my Dad's handwriting, his little drawings, the gold stars stuck on these seemingly daily notes to my mom in the early 1940's.  She had saved them all in a heart shaped Whitman's chocolate valentine box, which I discovered when I was cleaning out their apartment ten years ago.  These love notes are documentation of a vibrant, loving, and sexy marriage, and also of the zeitgeist of an era.  They are a treasure.  

I started this altered book project using Sayings of the Fathers / Pirkei Avot, a compilation of Jewish traditional ethical teachings and maxims with many layers 

of commentary over the centuries. My altered book is still a work in progress. The more I work on it, the more it feels like I am adding my own contemporary commentary, through the story I am telling from my dad's love notes and doodle poems and my mom's jottings.  In Jewish tradition, commentary on any text is also an ongoing work in progress..

 

The two little girls on the right are my mother and my aunt Judy.  I superimposed them on the text that talks about how arguments for the sake of heaven endure.  They loved each other fiercely, disagreed and argued often, but held hands to the end of long lives and did anything to help each other.

I will keep you posted as this project unfolds!

If the Shoe Fits... Take the Leap

It has to be postmarked by January 15th to meet The Sketchbook Project 2011 Tour deadline. Mine will be finished in time, including the on-line profile. I am one of 28834 artists from 94 countries who are participating... very humbling and exciting at the same time. Everyone picked a theme. Mine is "If You Lived Here". The title is If the Shoe Fits... Take the Leap.

Along with an assemblage using an antique wooden bird cage I got in a thrift shop, this sketchbook is the first work done in the new studio. I'll post it as soon as I scan it.

Starting February 2011 the sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums across the country. Digitized versions will be on the Brooklyn Art Library website, http://www.arthousecoop.com/library.