Finnished

Bridge Ketubah

It's not a title typo. I actually completed a ketubah a few weeks ago that was half in the traditional Aramaic and half in Finnish! Soon after I did a name print for someone in Hebrew, English and SANSKRIT which required an act of God, Vishnu and Buddha to get the font to work on my Mac.  And my most recent multi-cultural expression was this Turkish/American ketubah, complete with a New York skyline, the wooden fence along the Jersey shore, Libra scales, the bridge over the Bosphorus or the San Francisco Bay or the East River (take your pick), the Sultan's signature, the Turkish flag, three evil eyes, an Istanbul skyline and a plethora of pomegranates (the name, in Turkish, of the groom's ancestral home). They've actually asked to change the sky to more of a periwinkle, which, thanks to the Photoshop magic wand, I can probably do. And then I'll finally be finnished too and ready to welcome a baby into this vibrant, connected world we've created.

Abundance

The thing I love most about my work is my interaction with clients. Even by email or phone. But especially when it's someone local who comes over to the studio for a consult. Such was the case a few weeks ago when a lovely couple came over to discuss what they wanted in a ketubah. They weren't sure if they would just choose one of the ones from the portfolio or they wanted something of their own design. We talked about ideas and themes and in the end they decided to trust me to create the imagery surrounding the elements of their partnership they hold most sacred. Really? It blows me away every time.

And, after having made a handful of these, I finally don't feel like I'm going to barf the minute the clients leave the house. Let's hear it for confidence! that fickle bitch... So this is their ketubah. Most prominent are the pomegranate trees bursting with fruit. Apropos pomegranates (fertility symbol) the bride works at the hospital where I delivered both my kids and she's doing some fund-raising for my midwife's clinic so we had a short conversation about having babies. And then her fiance fell out of his chair and died. Just kidding.

They got engaged at the Western Wall in Jerusalem so we decided to include some of that imagery. The images on the bottom signify their love of cooking and their origins in wine country. And the shabbat evening table they intend to create with their family every week. The scales were a must for the groom. He's a lawyer and I guess balance is something they're working on as a couple.

It was interesting for me to watch them discuss what they wanted and diplomatically negotiate the elements to include. I have a good feeling about these two...

Nest

This ketubah was such a joy to create. The client basically gave me total freedom but also had some really great ideas to offer. Like adding the Hebrew letter "tzadik" to the roof of the bird house. It stands for righteousness and is also the the symbol for the sun sign shared by bride and groom - Aquarius. Love it.

When I have a second I think I'll make it available as a blessing for the home. But in the interim, Nest is settling into the ketubah section of my ETSY shop.

Happy Passover!

Under Contract

I'm out of hiding for a just a moment to show you what I've been working on the last few days. A while back someone contacted me about purchasing one of my ketubah prints. And while she liked elements of all of them, she wished she could patch together something that incorporated elements of this piece and this piece and this piece and this piece and this piece.  Well this was a project I couldn't resist even though commissions scare the crap out of me. I decided to give it a whirl.

So here's the final sketch she went with, but asked that the tiny village in the corner look less like a tiny tenement. No problem.

The first round is always very flat. Straight color. But then, and this is my big watercolor secret so don't tell anyone, I go over every thing in orange (did you know that orange and aqua make the loveliest shade of green?). And then all the under colors start to glow and turn other colors or deeper shades of themselves. That's my favorite part.

And now I have to go in a add some lime in a few places that are too red. That will bring it down a notch. We don't want it too peppy. It's a marriage contract after all. Serious stuff. Plus the text which will take some maneuvering. Anyone who's worked with Hebrew text in illustrator knows that it can be a little sensitive (type shows up backwards, upside down or both). Takes patience and understanding - ingredients for a good marriage I'd say.

Corner View - Contrast

The first ketubah I ever made was for my brother. I was 20. I'm not really sure how it came to pass that I would do this for them. They probably saw prices for ketubahs in the Judaica shops (this was before ketubah.com) and decided baby sister needed to pitch in. I never even discussed it with them. I just drew what I wanted. A giant colorful tree and the Jerusalem buildings I'd been drawing for a while. And I think they gave me a photo copy of some text they'd found. And it came out beautifully considering I put very little thought into it. That's probably what made it so nice. It wasn't wrought with ketubah-making anxiety. These are the only pictures of it that remain. It's my brother putting a nine iron through it when he got divorced four years later. Not his best moment.


I've since done four others: my other brother's (I'm happy to report they are going on 17 years I think), my own, my friend Heidi's and most recently for my friend Adam. Here's where we encounter the contrast. With Aaron's ketubah, I just painted what I felt like painting. No consultation. Total freedom. No stress. It was for my brother who I knew would be happy with anything I came up with. And he was. Adam's ketubah was a different story. I was doing this as a "professional" or at least semi-professional. It required hours of consultation to figure out the exact imagery that best united two very different people and two very different aesthetics. And by contrast to Aaron, whose idea of Judaism is listening to Matisyahu while drinking a beer on his balcony, Adam is a professor of Jewish History at a seminary in Los Angeles. And by contrast to the rabbi for hire at Aaron's wedding who didn't even read the ketubah aloud during the ceremony, Adam's would be read under the chuppah by a world renowned Aramaic language scholar (a buddy of Adam's). One thing I'll say, even though I was cursing through the process of creating Adam's ketubah (sorry Adam) I learned a lot about what it takes to do this as a business. In fact Adam himself once said he doesn't feel bad for being my most annoying client. It's good to get that one out of the way early. And he was right. I am the master of customer service now. And more importantly, I trust my creative instincts. I loved my brother's ketubah and, despite the challenges, maybe because of the challenges, I loved how Adam's ketubah came out. And I loved how much they loved it. Now I'm just trying to reconcile that 20-year-old artist who doesn't care what the world thinks and paints from her heart with the 36-year-old artist who worries too much about screwing up.

Recently someone ordered Adam's ketubah as a print for his own wedding so I finally had the impetus to stitch together the six scans of the original (which was much larger than my bitty scanner) and digitize the whole thing. Hopefully it will live long in many people's homes. And never come in contact with a nine iron.


For more interpretations of contrast, visit Dana and the rest of the corner views.