The paintings and collages used for Countdown to Perfection Meditations on the  Sefirot combine symbolic images with purely abstract forms and color. They are part of an on-going conversation with myself about focusing visual meditation. This kind of open ended, “don’t know what might develop”  art making is especially pungent during times when one wishes to consciously direct the energy of one’s spiritual work. As such they lend themselves perfectly to  the text that I was given to study by my teacher Sarah Yehudit Schneider about counting the Omer (the seven weeks between the holiday of Passover /Pesach, which celebrates our release from Egyptian slavery, and the Feast of weeks/ Shavuot, which marks the receiving of the Torah, and which is traditionally a time of self improvement and purification.)

The paintings are offered in this context with the understanding that each soul will respond to the colors, shapes and  iconic forms (a stone wall, a human hand, a staircase, tree roots, chaotic or calm colors) in a unique way. The images become both a focus of attention and a mirror for the viewer to learn from his or her own associations and thoughts, emotions and senses, what that day offers and requires.

The intimate scale of the works, most are approximately 5 inches by 7 inches, and the humble “found” paper on which many of the images are painted, supports the notion that holiness is embedded in the mundane ordinariness of our lives.

Some of the images in the book were intended expressly for the book. (some are shown here and are available for sale)  Some of the images in the book are “excerpts” from larger paintings.