Sanctuary

It's been a year since my last post.  I submerged myself in my garden this year as a means of getting through the demoralizing news cycle.  Being winter I took refuge again in my studio and was provided with a most wonderful assignment, which I describe here.

Judith has recently designed, built and moved into her new home in the Baca. She hails from New York but has been looking for somewhere that would resonate for her as a true home.

She has loved my work for sometime and asked me to create a ceremonial homecoming piece for her that celebrates her home as a sacred space.

Judith has been coming to a group that meets at my studio on Friday afternoons to do Hebrew chant. She is not Jewish, nor for that matter are any of the other participants outside of myself, but she is a singer and loves the sound and mystery of the chants. She’s even teaching herself the Hebrew alphabet. Consequently, she wanted a Hebrew word included in her piece that meant “Sanctuary.” That word transliterates as mishkan. Mishkan (in Hebrew) appears in the central cutwork backed by turquoise mirror.

We talked about other elements she equates with a personal sacred home space to develop a highly personalized symbolic self-portrait. Those symbolic elements included a Sri Yantra, something verdant (gardener that she is), transformative animal totems (the peacocks and dragonfly) and a chicory flower, which she particularly loved in her New York garden.

Despite the quantity of disparate elements and the size limitation of 18”x18” with an arched roof, the design flowed together easily, the patina that developed was fabulous, flaming brought life to the sri yantra as did the small drill points of light.

Somehow the chicory and dragonfly danced together and was brought into resonance with the rest by means of some iridescent enamel. I am sooooooo pleased and she is too.

Call and Response

She, who sits in the gardens

Friends hearken to Your voice

Enable me to hear You

Song of Songs 8:13

Call and Response 
Acid-etched copper with ink oxides, mounted on mahogany
19"x21"

After coming out of the acid, it took some time to re-find and polish the intricate arabesque patterns.  I had no sense of how to proceed from there.  About a week later my hand picked up a sanguine ink pen which began outlining the forms around that very busy, verdant outer world of Asiah.  It looked like the inside of the design wanted a color so I began with phithalo blue (don't you  just love the name of these colors?), which also moved into the next inner layer of Yetzirah. The flow was right but the color of the Asiah level was not right.  I remembered my heat gun and blasted the inks that were laid down to keep them in place, then overlaid the blue of Asiah with a verdant  leaf green. That was "it".  Here's how it started to look:

Wonderful.  I also began to see the emerging color relationship between the flow of worlds all embedded in the world of Atzilut, the copper spaciousness.

As you can see, the points of light encircling the center (the world of Briah) are outlined in sanguine, then Briah itself is saturated in sanguine, with the letters outlined in phithalo blue.

A bit hard to tell, you'll have to trust me on that.  I really was there.

After a good flaming came the piercing of the lights.  It all began to move.

A subtler reflective glow comes from brushing Everbrite sealant over all but the Atzilut expanse. 

There is much for me to learn and feel around this illumination.  The original Hebrew words can be unraveled in a myriad of ways.  I have placed it now above my kitchen table to feel more of its Call and Response.

As always, happy for any response of your own, either personally or in the comments of this blog.

Apples & Roses

Apple Rose Plate - $400

Just completed.

Gardener that I am, I was thinking of all things garden when this design dreamed itself up. What you see is a food functional brass plate with an apple tree and a rose - symbols from the Song of Songs of love and union. 

I could see it filled and placed on the table for Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot,  Tu B'Shevat and all joyous occasions that combine food with love and celebration.  

A 14" diameter brass plate (easier to come by and considerably more affordable than copper) served as my canvas for this etching.  Colorful metallic waxes give it a kind of folk-artsy feel.  I did seal the surface with a clear shellac to preserve those colors and then added a removable glass plate that fits into the center section (not seen in the photo), to keep usability pretty simple.  The glass can be washed after use and the brass plate can be lightly cleaned with a soft damp cloth.

The Hebrew verses around the raised border come from Shir Hashirim and Shir Hama'alot (126): “As an Apple amidst the trees of the forest (right); "As a Rose among thorns”(left); “those who plant in tears" (lower);  will harvest in joy” (upper).  These sweet references speak to earthiness - of  our being both planters and that which is planted. They speak of envisioning ourselves as uniquely beloved and they point to the sacred nature of life that conspires for our happiness, carrying us through trials of tears and hard work towards wholeness and fulfillment.

May your plates be filled to overflowing with a joyous new year and a fruitful harvest.

L'Shana Tova!

Love Tokens

The more I considered the Yizkor candle settings I was creating the more I began to focus on life.  To be honest, I wasn't getting much pleasure out of focusing on death, grief and the initial moments of being torn apart.

There needs to be incorporated, not initially perhaps but down the line, a sweetness of remembrance that evokes the stories of connection - the living part of a relationship that doesn't cease when one side of the bond steps over the boundary of physical existence.

When my father died, even decades later, people would find out that I was his daughter spontaneously tell me their most beloved stories about the life he shared with them.  I searched out his desk after he died and found a whole page of sayings that he had assembled like "An atheist is a man with no invisible means of support." Of course I've updated that one to be somewhat more inclusive but continue to delight in having one in my back pocket.

I have my mother's recipe for Passover popovers, the seeds from a Cinderella pumpkin that my beloved buddy Yoanna brought back to me from a roadside farm stand in New Mexico, the silk robe of my dear friend and mentor Jacob Goldberg, z"l , falling apart after all these years.  Legacies. Stories. Love tokens.

A woman named Wendy Rosen, whose husband died four years ago, told me recently that she's come to the conclusion that what really matters after someone has passed can easily fit into a small box.  I was bewildered at first, but the more I thought of it the more joy it gave me. I started to make a list of the sorts of things of real significance I could fit into a small box.  Here are some of the things I came up with, though each person I have loved would have chachkis included that would be particular to themselves:

• tickets from a ball game or Broadway musical which we attended together
• a snippet of fabric from a favorite dress or old tee shirt
• a favorite recipe
• some idea or thought written on a paper napkin 
• a word or phrase from a magical moment that would bring it all back
• a dried flower from a garden; a seed
• stories written on a sheet of paper and folded small from those who were compatriots

"one rubber band, a hand full of sand and even a rusty nail" are song lyrics from Bruce Kates about the stuff of stories that he packed up in his valise.

I'd love to hear what you'd add to this list and the story that goes with it.

As you can tell from the top image, I have redesigned the Yizkor candle settings to include a box - a Living Memory Yizkor box.  I changed out the base as well and am making it from aromatic cedar, which in many cultures is identified with the Tree of Life.  With the help of a 1/2" square of plywood wrapped in copper foil it now serves as the lid for the memory box.  I also updated two of the copper backplates to include the word "L'Chayim" - "to Life."

I've finally gotten these as well as the Tikkun Olam settings up on my Etsy store: Moresca   Since they work so beautifully on their own, I'm also offering just the lids of the boxes as candle settings. 

I've changed the base of Tikkun settings over to aromatic cedar as well: 

Love,

Shahna

Homing into liberation

 Psalm 84:4 

Gam tzipor matz'a vait oo dror kain lah

"The bird (too) has found a home and the sparrow her nest"

or

The soul has found her home --  & freedom is her nest

Flying Home - 18.5" x 19.25"

Flying Home is the culmination of a series of synchronistic events relating to the theme of "liberation".  It began with a visit to the Savitri House mid-May during a discussion of Sri Aurobindo's The Synthesis of Yoga.  "There must awake in us a constant indwelling and enveloping nearness, a vivid perception, a close feeling and communion, a concrete sense and contact of a true and infinite Presence always and everywhere." I remember the ensuing conversation leading in the direction of a consequent liberation.

The following week I received a call from an acquaintance in New York. She called thinking I might help her with a chronic, debilitating physical pain in her neck that resulted in miserable headaches. I had no idea what would help but I did believe that her body and its intrinsic wisdom would know.  I suggested she direct her attention into the pain, describe it's shape, texture, color and emotion as ask it what it needed to be released.  I was beyond gratified when she reported being told to get into some Kundalini yoga position (that she particularly detested) and do some specific kind of breathing.  She put down the phone and did as directed. When she got back on the line she actually felt more space space between her cervical vertebrae.  What I felt was Liberation!

Well, the next issue was really uncomfortable.  A smoldering resentment reared it's ugly head over which I couldn't escape obsessing. I'll leave out the specifics on this one.  Let's just say it had to do with being manipulated by a person of means around my art over several months during a time of serious financial vulnerability. I called my dear friend Peggy, who directed me to hold that person in my thoughts and ask for them to be released from whatever enslaves them - and me too.  I told her I didn't know if I could honestly say that. Peggy said, "it doesn't matter - JUST DO IT".  I did. Wow. What an immediate visceral response. Hard to believe. I've been doing it ever since, any time I am irritated by some personality that rubs me the wrong way: 

"May so-and-so be released from whatever is enslaving them, and me too." 

It's really humbling to get in touch with ones subtle and not-so-subtle internal and external enslavements.

There's more that added to the theme but the symbolic language and impetus to translate these liberating experiences into art came during a gathering of friends when asked what I saw in the mint leaves of an empty tea cup.  What I clearly saw was a bird with extended wings flying above a nest.  This Rorschach Test brought to my mind the line from Psalm 84:4 : Gam tzipor matz'a viat u d'ror kain lah, "the bird has also found a home and the sparrow her nest."  Tzipor - "bird" is the soul, and D'ror is both a sparrow and the word for "freedom."  

THE SOUL HAS (ALSO) FOUND A HOME & FREEDOM IS HER NEST

You can see the Hebrew words u d'ror kain lah written into the tail

Here is a detail of the nest cutwork backed in textured clear acrylic and a translucent blue washi paper that adds to the sense of spaciousness.

May we all be released from whatever enslaves us so we may experience the expansive divinity of who we really are.

Ciphering the Sacred

Or Zaruah garden threshold illumination

We live in a world that ceaselessly seeks to decipher - to take things apart to uncover the secret of their existence; to break the code.

As an artist, I feel drawn into mirror world, the realm of ciphering - to participate in the act of creating a space that holds the secret. 

Aleph ciphered medallion*

When I think of "cipher" my mind immediately goes to the Hebrew root SAMEcH PEI RESH - the root for words like number, counting and recounting (mispar); telling a story (misapair), book (sefer), library (sifria);  the one who writes sacred texts (sofer), sapphire (sapir) and the Spheres of Emanation (s'firot).

Adrinka ciphered medallion*

The English word "cipher" sounds suspiciously related to words like sphere and sapphire.  It does indeed come to us from the Semitic root, though not directly from Hebrew but from the Arabic of Al-Andalus - the Golden Age of Spain where words like "sifr" and "shayfara" created a whole new concept in mathematics that sparked a revolution of thinking, that of the space holder, the concept of zero. As one philosopher put it: 

"Zero does not mean "nothing". Zero is on a border between things identified and not identified. Once the identification is set in, or something is appointed it's name or meaning or characteristic, then one appears."

This mystical mathematical addition gives rise to irrational numbers, with which I identify wholeheartedly!  

To participate in the act of ciphering is to reside in the experience of number, story and the sacred space that borders the real and imaginary worlds where intention has an opportunity to lean a wish into a manifestation.  

Mem ciphered medallion*

*For more information on the ciphered medallions shown here as well as others available you can go to the following Facebook link;  Ciphered Medallions  .  The link to place an order is: Paypal link. You can also just send me an email at moresca.copper@gmail.commoresca.copper@gmail.com

Lute Rose Windows

Toward a Higher Fidelity Series: Umanut,  -  closeup

What is a "lute rose"?  It is the opening that is cut into a lute to create a soundbox.  The lute as musical instrument derives from the oud, an ancient instrument of the Arabic origin carried to Al-Andulus, that is to say Spain, during its Golden Age. Al-Oud العود becomes La Oud which settles into "lute" in the Renaissance vernacular.  The lute rose (or oud shams - shams meaning "sun") maintains its characteristic arabesque form.  In my own work I have found the lute rose form to have a beauty and movement that goes beyond the compass and straight rule into a fluidity which lends a kind of roundness and femininity to an angular world. 

Kaddish  detail

According to Friedemann Helwig, who seriously researched the symbolic geometric language of lute roses,  the lute rose as pierces through the visible into the invisible worlds.  The 6-fold forms which predominate among lute rose patterns symbolizes the intrinsic harmony of the universe.

Lute Rose window from The Cosmic Dervish copperwork illumination

For me these forms have become windows peering into the numinous, co-present nature of reality, as expressed in the Song of Songs 2:9 : 

Here it stands behind our wall, winking through the windows, twinkling through the openings.

Flight for Life - A love song      Lute Rose detail.

I draw from the broad resource of Islamic geometries to find an appropriate lute rose window for an illumination.  Any form that functions as a window through the worlds can qualify.  The beauty of these geometries is that any form is only a snapshot of an infinitely extending reality, a harmonic moment captured within the boundless celestial symphony.

Dynamic Intervention

The Process of coming to light

Shams Enlightened  17.5 H x 33.3 W 

This is my most recent illumination. Its title is Shams Enlightened.

I have taken a few photographs at various stages of the process in order to provide a glimpse into what goes into the creation of a copperwork illumination.

Above you see a piece of copper sheet that I have cut approximately into form with an open throat shear.  The pattern has already been transferred onto the copper and the pattern scribed in using a sharp stylus. Asphaltum (liquid asphalt) has been applied to the areas that are to remain high - that is, not to be eaten down by the acid (I use ferric perchloride to do the deed).

Here the copper has been through the acid etching bath (around 4 hours) as well as the solvent bath to soften and remove the asphaltum (between 5-7 days).  I have also begun some polishing and even begun adding some blue to the tree to make the flowing geometries and calligraphy stand out.  You can also see a portion of the original pattern that I transferred on the far right towards the top. That pen looking object to the right of the copperwork is the stylus used to both scratch the pattern into the copper and to bring up thinner areas of the design, especially lettering, during polishing. For thicker areas, such as the petals, I use a fiberglass pen for polishing.

Here's a closer look to see the petals and internal sunflower geometry coming alive through polishing and the sepal natural patina amplified with a coating of shellac. There is also the polishing and outlining of the lettering.  You can see the right side of the image is still in its original condition from the acid and solvent baths.

In this image you can see the right side tree brought up with polishing and the amplifying effects of engraving over the lettering with a wriggler (with the black handle) seen in the picture.

Here the internal sunflower cutwork was accomplished with a scroll saw at its lowest speed setting with a very fine metal blade  and filed with needle files; the cutwork around the top perimeter of the trees was accomplished with a jeweler's saw.(If you check out the banner on my Facebook page you will see examples of those tools used in other illuminations, facebook.com/studiomoresca). Here you can also see the outlines of the sepals have been engraved to give them more definition and coloring has been added to the tree form on the right.  Framing is all that is left to do.  From inception to completion Shams Enflowered took ~ 3 months to come to light.

Who's that in the mirror?

Singularity mirror detail

The final illumination associated with the series "Toward a Higher Fidelity" is called Singularity. Singularity reflects the development of the self, the human soul, as it takes on the responsibility of inherent holiness and moves closer to the Source of Being.  In the Hebraic Mystical tradition this quality of soul development is called YEcHIDA or Singularity.  

The central geometric illuminated cutwork is twelve-fold or twelve around one, "one" being the flame. In three dimensional space this geometry become a dodecahedron.  The dodecahedron has twelve faces formed from pentagons, so it also has a 5 nature. This is significant to me since YEcHIDA is the 5th level of soul development. I also sensed a musical aspect to this form suggestive of the circle of 5ths. My son Noah studied at the School of Music in Eugene, Oregon.  He had told me that sometimes the students would stand around and each take one of the twelve tones (comprising the black and white keys on a piano within an octave). I found myself rather reeling from the numeric diversity of this assignment - 12, 5 and 1 (as in Singularity) and asked him what it would mean were he to commit to an ascending note of the twelve tones.  He said it would depend entirely upon the resonance (not tempered as it is on a piano) of the tone of the person standing next to him - in other words, it was a matter of relationship and resonance.

Singularity, then, is a self-portrait of anyone who looks deeply into themselves and commits to the unfoldment of their intrinsic divinity expressed in relationship to those around them.  

Who's that in the mirror?  

It is you and the faceted jewel that you are. 

Be beautiful. 

Be holy.

After completing this work, I was directed by a friend to a canto from the epic poem Savitri by Sri Aurobindo: Canto III Book 1 of The Yoga of the Soul's Release.

All here must learn to obey a higher law.
Our body's cells must hold the Immortal's flame
Else would the spirit reach alone its source
Leaving a half-saved world to its dubious fate.
Nature would ever labour unredeemed;
Our Earth would ever spin unhelped in Space
and this immense creation's purpose fail
Till at last the frustrate universe sank undone.

Symbolic Language of Human Holiness

 וִהְיִיתֶם קְדֹשִׁים, כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אָנִי 
"...you have been, will be and are holy, for I am Holy."

Leviticus 11:45

Toward a Higher Fidelity: Being Holy 

19.5 "x  19"

The copperwork series entitled "Toward a Higher Fidelity" explores the triune nature of human holiness.  The initial call came while chanting from the daily Hebrew liturgy: The One who triplicates in 3's HOLINESS for the One Who is Holy. The internal impulse made it clear that there were three aspects of human holiness that I was to discover and find symbolic language to express.

In short, after many failed attempts, I sat down one Sunday afternoon, admittedly in a state of boredom. to listen to New Dimensions on the radio.  An interview was just beginning with British poet, adventurer and author David Whyte concerning the conception of his book The Three Marriages - Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship.  Stunned out of my own stupor, I grabbed a pen and began taking notes.

The Aramaic work for "betrothal/marriage" is kiddushin. It is a feminine plural form of the root KDSh - "being holy."  You can see why my mind went BINGO! upon hearing the book's title.

Three illuminations make up the Higher Fidelity series.  This blog will consider the symbolic language of the first one: 

Being Holy.

Beginning at the root, engraved in Hebrew are the words: 

Ha'mishaloshim b'shalosh - "the One who triplicates in 3's."

Moving up to a 3-petalled heart center are 3 Hebrew letters that represent the 3 aspects of human holiness: cHET (lower left), YUD (lower right), and ALEF (top).  They stand for cHupa ("marriage canopy". i.e. relationship), YecHida ("Singularity" - the 5th, most cultivated level of human soul development, closest to merging into divinity) and Umanut ("skill/ artistry" from the same root as Emet - "truth").

Above the 3-petaled heart is a Kiddush cup engraved with the word kiddushin - "marriage".  The gematria of wine = secret (70).  Here resides the mystery.

The overarching, unifying symbol of the illumination is the Tree of Life/Burning Bush.  I was amazed and delighted when this image arose since I have heard the burning bush described as a bush and fire dancing together without one consuming the other.  I can't think of a more appropriate definition for "marriage."

Crowning this burning bush is the 3-branched letter SHIN.  If you look closely you can also make out a 3-pronged crown on the branch farthest to the left. SHIN is a fire letter whose gematria is 300. Though I heard instructions for the SHIN to be placed as it is, I cannot say for certain what its function is.  My imagination wanders to David Whyte's book and his proposal that, should a person find a way to balance Relationship, Work and Self without compromising any of the three, one might indeed attain to a new level of human experience, the Marriage of Marriages. 

Perhaps we are looking here at an evolutionary potential of humanity that each of us is capable of cultivating within a single lifetime.

Breath of the Compassionate

Oh beloved, I savour and swoon to the taste of that which is

the Breath within the Breath.

 attributed to the Sufi poet Alcragujar 

Breath of the Compassionate Series: Breath

The traditional Islamic cosmological worldview speaks of  the 18,000 universes were created through the Nafs Ar-Rahman - "the Breath of the Compassionate."  An elegant geometric intertwining expresses this concept throughout Islamic art and architecture as the octagon star and cross.

Beginning with a square as the symbol of "matter," it expands from the center into the out breath of an octagon star.  The square then contracts into its center in an in breath.    

In Hebrew as in Arabic, "breath" and "soul" are intertwined.

Compare nafs (Arabic) to nefesh (Hebrew); ruh (Arabic) to ruah (Hebrew); nasama (Arabic) to neshama (Hebrew). All are expressions both of "breath" (with the inference of wind, breeze...) and "soul."

Breath of the Compassionate Series: Reunion

This intertwining has become a significant source of inspiration for many of the copperwork illuminations.

Mihrab Ar-Rahman - "The Mother Nature of Divinity"

Nafs Ar-Rahman is generally translated as "The Breath of the Compassionate." The meaning of the Arabic rahman, however, yields a meaning far more informative than "compassionate" or even "merciful." The deeper meaning, comparable to Rahman and Rahamim in Hebrew, is reflected in its 3-lettered root R H M. That three lettered root renders us the word "womb."  Far more concrete and personal than the abstract concept of "compassion,"  this God name, foremost among the 99 names, is the "mother nature of divinity."  Ar-Rahman, then, describes an intimate, creative, nurturing and ferociously protective Source of Being.

I welcome you to add archetypal "womb-ly" attributes to enliven our mutual understanding of this most fundamental of divine names for the Source of Life and our own being.

Gazing through the Lattice

 “When Alice stepped through the looking glass, she entered the realm of imagination.

…This “going through” is an essential aspect of Eros, the great principle that connects us to things beyond our egos. 

excerpt from Words as Eggs by Russell A. Lockhart

The archetypal language of lattices in the form of fluid geometries opens to us a secret view into worlds beyond the apparent.

Bee Light detail

Geometric forms communicate in symbolic language to the foundation of our being. We, and all of life, are made of geometric interlacings. Those of us who take the time and space to attune to this universal geometric language find ourselves resonating through its fluid movement.

I love the way that dance feels.

Cosmic Dervish detail