Sarah Bryant visits the Lab!

What a great session we had last Monday, November the 12th, when printmaker, letter press printer, and book artist extraordinaire Sarah Bryant came to visit! Sarah holds an MFA in Book Arts from the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa. Her recent artist's book Biography is the winner of the 2011 Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) Prize and the 2010 Award for Artistic Excellence at Pyramid Atlantic.

Be amazed by her work: Sarah's website.

At the JCC, Sarah showed us her beautiful books and spoke about her inspiration and process. Then, she conducted a workshop on simple, book making techniques. Here are some pictures of the evening:

 First, Sarah showed us how to handle the paper:

Then how to fold it and crease it:



Marc (in background) threading the needle:



Stitching with Audrene and Clarice:



Judith carefully folding her book:



Maida and David at work:



Men at work:



The stitched book:



Our finished products: a stitched book and an accordion fold:

A Flag Book out of Sarah's "box of wonder": 

-could this be our next workshop? ;)

The happy Lab co-facilitators, Natanya and Jody with their special guest:

Introducing the JCC Artists' Laboratory 2012-13 Emerging Artists

Michal Jubelirer, originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina belongs to a family of artists. She works in a wide variety of media encompassing both fine art and design, and is equally as comfortable painting on canvas as she is creating computer animation.  Go to Mijal's website to see some examples of her works and process.

A native of Maryland, David Hercenberg is an educator as well as the photographer and videographer owner of the award winning Documented Video Productions, LLC. David and his company have an active web presence, though he is especially proud of his inclusion in the Internet Movie Database (IMBd)

Through their participation in the laboratory, both David and Mijal will be creating permanent works for the community. 

And speaking of young talent, here is a sneak peak at "Noah's Arc" by last year's emerging artist Benno Rothschild:

Once finished, it will be transported to the JCC where community children and their families will help the artist paint the arc and make clay animals to inhabit it. See what else Benno is up to: his website HERE! 

The "mother" of all texts

To start our Jewish study, Jody brought in a Torah scroll. Indeed, the "mother" of all texts, each scroll is also a timeless piece of art which has been lovingly written in the exact same way (mistakes and all) by specialized scribes, for thousands of years.

BRUCHIM HABAIM (WELCOME) to the 2nd year of the Milwaukee Jewish Artists' Laboratory!

We have a new topic and several new members who joined last year's cohort, including two young emerging artists. Stay tuned to find out who they are and what we do while we study and work together.

We also welcome the Madison, WI and Minneapolis, MN recently formed Jewish Artists' Laboratories. They will be working with the same topic, and we will have a chance to meet both virtually and in-person. 

OUR TOPIC THIS YEAR IS:

TEXT/CONTEXT/SUBTEXT

TEXT: the original words and form of a written or printed work.

CONTEXT: the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning.

SUBTEXT: the implicit or metaphorical meaning [of a text].

The above definitions are the first ones found for each word, on the online version of the Merriam- Webster Dictionary . Of course, if you keep reading or look elsewhere, you will find many variations. How many definitions can you find? How can these be applied to the creation of works of art?