Contemporary Modern Jewish Art from the Pop Art Rabbi

I forgot to share on my blog – Facebook seems to be the place for my updates…

In honor of Passover i would like to share a recent painting titled
“Overflowing Blessings”
Acrylic and ink on canvas 30x30in
‘My Cup Runneth Over’ is a familiar expression quoted from Torah. And indeed it is true – at least for my life. All we need to do is look around and count our blessings, to see all the wonderful things G-D has provided of us and the great opportunities we have. Lift your cup and raise a toast- L’chaim to G-D.

Shalom,

For quite some time I wanted to add more paintings to my holiday series -at the moment it consists of my Nine Dreidles, and Hamintashen – I decided I wanted to turn the concept in to a holiday series with a similar piece for each of the Jewish Holidays.
Shavuot – the giving of the Torah, and celebrated with dairy is still a challenge, – what do I do 8 ice cream cones and  tablets?
But for Passover it was fairly clear to me, eight screens of matza, getting smaller each time, and ending up as a matza ball soup.
The only problem was that with all the pre Passover activities, I did not finish the piece in time. Now what good is a Matza painting after passover??
And then I remembered, the biblical mitzvah of Pesach Sheni,  where a group of Jews in the desert were busy doing holy work and were not ritually clean in order to participate in a new Mitzvah - better explained here -  they turned to Moses, who turned to G-D and asked why they would miss out on the opportunity for a Mitzvah when they are performing another Mitzvah.
Turns out they did not miss out, G-D told Moses to create a new holiday for these people 30 days later called ‘Pesach sheni – the second Passover’ where they could get involved in the Mitzvah.
Today we celebrate Pesach Sheni by eating matzos and looking at our lives and where we can strive to do better at something, looking for a second chance.
For me that second chance came in the way of getting an opportunity to share my painting while it was relevant.

And I present you – and yesterday on Facebook and Twitter – my new painting “Matza”
30x30in Acrylic and Ink on Canvas.
Enjoy

30x30in Acrylic & ink on Canvas

Recently i went down to Atlanta for the opening of my show at Hillel @ Emory University.
It was a wonderful experience,  they took great care of me and the work will be hanging for a few months. If you are in Atlanta or have friends there, go for a visit and enjoy the art, as well as their great Glat kosher Deli.
I’m hoping to share a video of my speech some time soon.

Shalom
Moully

Here is a great new article written by Ralph Bellantoni for NJ Press Media. It appeared in the Daily Forward and the Courier news.

I have to say it is one of – if not the best article written about my work and what i do. Thanks Ralph

Enjoy the article, and i hope to have more blog posts soon.

Click to read

In other news,  last night i went to the Jewish Art Salon event in NYC and the presentation by Ken Goldman and Jacqueline Nicholls were amazing and inspiring. It is truly wonderful to see artists pushing the boundaries of Jewish art and expression while honoring and respecting Torah values. I hope to blog about their work soon.

Thanks
Moully