Image of the Week: The Hebrew Lesson
© D. Yael Bernhard
This is my most recent painting done on a rice paper collage – a technique I invented years ago for creating a unique surface, which has surprising effects. The interaction of the hand-prepared surface – a crude grid of rectangular shapes – with whatever image cuts across it creates a quilt-like texture that I would never be able to paint directly. I start with a dominant color – in this case dark red – and then proceed to "knit" surface and subject together with blended fields of color until harmony is achieved.
Here's what the collage looked like before I started painting. Pretty crude, right? If I hadn't done this before, I wouldn't believe it works. Trust me, I'm not in control of this process. I merely pick a variety of textured rice paper scraps – some of which date back to the last century – and glue them down on a piece of matboard. Then I start painting. The image that cuts across the patchwork background must be of contrasting geometry – it must be diagonal or curvy, creating many intersections with the rectangles, and an uncanny sort of tension.
I never tire of exploring these "visual physics." This particular technique feels more like conducting an orchestra blindfolded than painting. I move my brush first frantically, then patiently, finally dabbing with tiny strokes and dots until somehow it all blends together into something more than the sum of its parts.
As for the subject – a parent and child studying the Hebrew aleph-bet together – I did several sketches before I settled on the simple composition above. I wanted the Hebrew letters to float upwards, fluttering across the field of vision like so many butterflies rising from the book. Each letter is unique in color and shape. Both Hebrew print and script are shown here – all of which fascinated the child in me as I learned the 22 letters of the aleph-bet along with my 5-year-old daughter fourteen years ago. For her, decrypting the sounds and shapes was a game. For me it was a challenging puzzle that stretched my middle-aged brain and connected me to the ancient tongue of my ancestors – the language of both Biblical scripture and modern Israel. I was – and am – determined to master this foreign language with its strange vowel system and mind-bending verb constructs.
I tried to make my letters look playful and alive, as a child might see them. I loved practicing Hebrew with my daughter, even though she left it behind as a teenager and hasn't looked back. Perhaps someday she'll find her heritage again by looking forward, and rekindle her natural ability to learn foreign languages. You never know.
The Hebrew Lesson is part of my self-published calendar The Jewish Eye 5782/2022 Calendar of Art. The original painting is for sale, and will be on view in my upcoming art studio sale on August 28 & 29. If you're local and would like more information, please inquire.
The Jewish Eye 5782 Calendar of Art is available in my webstore and on Amazon. If you order it from Amazon, please consider writing a review!
You can view the entire calendar here.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard