It is a tree of life

I posted a couple of months ago (here) about the re-emergence of my love of painting. I have been painting a lot. When I say a lot I mean 4 or 5 times a week, multiple times on a weekend if I can. It has become a bit expensive, but totally worth it. I’m going to take this post to talk about a few of the paintings.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to try my hand at a creation series. I’m pretty happy with most of the paintings, but think I may need to tackle a couple of the days again. For each day I took one aspect or event that always struck me (so Day 1 might seem perfect for “Let there be light!” but I have always liked the “unformed and void” part of creation. So, that is what I chose to attempt to paint. I’m not sure how successful I was, but this was my first try at a series and I know I do want to try another creation series again in the future.

Day 1:

My favorite day was Day 2: separating the waters above from the waters below. I have always loved the idea that the sky and the oceans were at one point the same thing.


My least favorites: Days 5–7. Those I will definitely be attempting again. I found it very difficult to portray the creation of animals, humans, and Shabbat. For Day 6 I kept getting stuck on depicting a soul. How do you paint a soul?

Something else I’ve wanted to tackle is for my favorite translation of the Gevurot:

1) We pray that we might know before whom we stand,
the Power whose gift is life,
who quickens those who have forgotten how to live,
having implanted within us eternal spirit.

2) We pray for winds to disperse the air of sadness,
for rains to make parched hopes rise again.

3) We pray for love to encompass us
for no reason save that we are human,
that we may blossom into persons
who have gained power over our own lives.

4) We pray to stand upright, we fallen; to be healed, we sufferers.
We pray to break the bonds that keep us from the world of beauty.
We pray to be open to our own true selves.
We pray that we may walk in a garden of purpose,
in touch with the power of the world.

5) Praised be the God whose gift is life,
whose cleansing rains let parched men and women rise again.

Rabbi Richard Levy
(From Mishkan T’filah, G’vurot, Shabbat Evening II)

This one is for paragraph 4 above:

I also have an interpretation of paragraph 3, but that one was also a lot more personal, so I’m not sure I’m going to share it publicly right now.

And finally, my tree of life: