i haven’t been posting much here in a few months. part of that has been work-related - putting a lot of my time into illustration projects that i can’t share, & also doing a lot of prep for a local Hanukkah market i both co-organize & vend at (which happened this past weekend). i tend to use this space as a sort of less-formal gallery, only posting work i consider “finished” or reblogging things related to projects i’m involved in. in the past i’ve been more talkative & more apt to share WIPs & personal things on my other social media (Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky), which is still true even though i’ve had to take several steps back from some of those platforms lately for my mental health.
all this is to say that if you only follow me here, you haven’t seen me make any kind of statement about the crisis in Israel/Palestine, because that isn’t how i’ve been using this particular site. i do not think of my art as apolitical & i am not secretive about my politics, but over & over again, i find myself followed by people who appear to be shocked to learn that i am proudly & actively anti-Zionist. i have been for my entire adult life. as a Jewish artist making visibly Jewish work, this puts a target on me, not only from garden-variety antisemites but also from fellow Jews who feel “betrayed” by my solidarity with Palestine & threatened by my vocal opposition to colonialism, apartheid & genocidal violence (as well as the very idea of ethnostates). in fact, the harassment & abuse i receive online is primarily from Zionists, which is not something i would have ever expected with so many white supremacists & neo-Nazis crawling all over the current internet!
so, this is just me cleaning house now & again. i don’t feel the need to post signs shooing away folks who should be getting that message very easily from my work (if you hate queer, trans, fat, disabled & Jewish people i truly don’t know why you’d follow me), but it’s very easy for Zionists to see much of my Jewish-focused work & decide they like it, only to turn verbally abusive when they realize i don’t share their views. here’s your sign! if you want to bail, do so quietly & civilly like an adult please. thank you.
the Jewish TTRPG renaissance continues! there’s 15 days left to back my latest project, a collaboration with other amazing Jewish creators that funded on Kickstarter in 15 minutes (!!!) & includes some fun add-ons & stretch goals we have yet to hit.
also, how great is this video that animates some of the art Shari Ross & i made for this game?
בצלם אלהים / b'tzelem elohim / made in the divine image, 8x10 linocut print, 2023
ALT
as much as i’d love to be able to print my own shirts from this block, it’s far easier & more accessible to put a vector version up on my Threadless shop! this was always intended to be worn in addition to being a print - and of course there’s a reverse now if you’re like me & you only wear black ♥
your most recent piece is absolutely beautiful, but are you not worried about having one of the names of hashem mass printed on something that naturally is going to get worn, dirty, and possibly thrown away, etc? I don't mean any sort of disrespect! just curious because I have had especial care for any of the hebrew names taught pretty thoroughly.
thank you! personally, no - i fully respect other folks feeling differently, but for myself i only avoid using the 4-letter name that way. i’ve seen another artist who makes “b'tzelem elokim” patches with a ה/ק substitution for this reason, but i decided against something like that as i really just love the word as it is & also enjoy the potential for it to not be a specific/proper name (as a plural noun for deities or spirits). i’m an extremely non-traditional Jew with my own unique relationship to observance & i think many folks who resonate with my work fall somewhere under that umbrella too. i’ve had more strictly observant Jews object to several of the things i make, which is not a big surprise to me as a queer/trans weirdo making a lot of art about Jewish monsters & demons! everyone is entitled to their own opinion - i’m very passionate about Jewish pluralism & the many ways we all have of interacting with our culture/traditions.
As a fellow jew who is also anti-zionist I want to say you speaking out really helps all of us so thank you. May your laktes be crisp and your candles burn bright this Hanukkah.
i appreciate hearing this! may all your dreidels land on gimel ♥
Hey uh, I just wanted to say a quick thank you. I just finished teaching a class on Jewish supernatural creatures to highschoolers, and your art was very appreciated in my slideshows. The kids also *adored* your zine on Dybbuks enough that I have convinced our Rabbi to buy the rest the zines in that series for our library. So yeah, thank you so much, and know your art is inspiring young jews
what a sweet message - thank you so much! this means a lot to me as a (former/not currently working) teacher <3
it also makes me so happy to know that younger generations of Jews have access to things like classes on Jewish supernatural creatures?? of course, different Jewish communities have very different relationships to our folklore/superstition - i had a wonderful conversation recently with a Hasidic-raised Mizrahi Jew who grew up steeped in stories of dybbuks and demons - but i know many US-based Ashkenazim like me who were raised in very assimilated Reform or Conservative communities & never encountered any of this. that’s a big reason why the zines exist! i’m so glad there’s more space now for kids to explore the weirder & wilder parts of Jewish culture, i feel very strongly that it can make a big difference to the weird/wild kids in connecting to their heritage. my inner little weirdo is really glad.
I reset my tumblr password just so I could post these fan arts of the characters/creatures from When The Angels Left The Old Country by Sasha Lamb. Uriel and Ash have my whole heart ;-;
usually i reblog things elsewhere but i’m making a main-blog exception for these outrageously good vis-dev sketches by my sister (an animator looking for work!) who just finished my friend @kuttithevangu’s spectacular novel. please join me in welcoming Rae back to Tumblr & daydreaming about an animated adaptation of Angels
also i’m putting “sibling animation collaboration” on my to-do for next year, so hold us to it, yeah?
ALT
ALT
ALT
