omer drawings day 6 & 7

day 6

day 7 (this seemed apt)

omer drawings day 5

omer drawings day 4

in the park today saw someone who has not been able to just say hello and ask me how I am doing.....

I am left stumbling and awkwardly mumbling.

still here.... am I still here....?

omer drawings day 3

omer drawings day 1 & 2

every year I try to count the omer (the 50 days between pesach and shavuot). every year at some point during that time I fail, I forget, I stumble. I lack basic discipline. This year I will (try to) count the omer doing a drawing a day. but not just any drawing. the omer goes from the time of pesach, freedom from the narrow spaces to shavuot, a time of listening and receiving. my aim is to walk every day, find something in the street that seems part of the detritus, the discarded stuff of living. the remnants to bring it back to my studio and draw it. and with apologies to the artist On Kawara, to title each one 'I am still alive.'

(I am blogging this because, despite this being a deeply personal journey for me - the reclaiming of the rejected and discarded, I need to make it sort of public, for no other reason than to make sure I actually do this and not just give up half-way...)

day 1


day 2

ghosts and shadows

it has been a while since I last posted.... but my mind has been churning. I have been invited to be an artist-in-residence on the sisterhood blog at The Forward (an American Jewish newspaper) and so I've been busy with that project. I'm planning on doing a series of clothing pieces - each one based on the different ways clothing is used as a metaphor for meaning. there should be around 10 in total. I'm excited to do the work and get stuck in.

But.. this is what happens. You start working on one idea and then others pop into your head, whisper in your ear and tempt your imagination. Defeated, I have to admit that this would be a really interesting avenue to go down. A series based on the women in the Talmud who are unnamed and yet are a vital part of the story. They lurk in the shadows and haunt the text. Never really having a body, a full fleshed out character - they remain a ghost-like presence on the page...



First up is Rabbi Yochanan's sister. Married off to Reish Lakish to legitimise her brother's chavrutah, she alone is left when the two men argue to death and insanity. She is like the Shechinah, trying to hold the two opposing opinions together under her shelter. But she cannot overcome stubborn men who know they are right, and becomes a lonely widow....

this won't be a series of dresses... or it might be... right now it is just an idea that is forming. it may be more paper-cutting - but playing with the shadows. it might be layers of embroidery on transparent ghost-like fabric...

but whatever it will be. I think I need to find these women and tell their stories.

getting ready

the armoury project has met with certain pitfalls. Between the three of us, we have had death, divorce, miscarriage, and illness to deal with. It's been a bit of a summer. But we've got on with it and now the end is in sight, and despite everything we've individually gone through, we've managed to produce something...


Unazia Karim's beautiful handwritten amulet prayers to be placed on the amulet shirt made by Victoria Burgher


my embroidery on the amulet shirt - using one of Unazia's designs


hand-knitted silver wire, chainmail in my piece

the finished artwork will be installed next monday for the 3 Faith Forum's exhibition for Interfaith Week Event