Emancipation

This etching was created in 2004 while I was attending University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. It was my first exposure to anti-Israel sentiment, after growing up in suburbia. I created this piece after a Birthright trip to Israel. The text to Lcha Dodi- the opening prayer for Shabbat going out into the fields and welcoming the Sabbath Queen- fills the bottom, while people bow at the Western Wall.

I do not want to explain the intentions of my piece, for I have found that every viewer sees something different in it, is affected and reads into it according to their own perspective. As Anaius Nu said “We see things not as they are, but as we are.”

The tribes of Israel each received a different plot and role in the land when they settled it after leaving Egypt, after 40 yrs in the desert.

Everyone has a role, a plot in the land and people of Israel. What do you see in this piece?  Who are you?