Art and Scroll Studio Season Finale features collage artist Karen Kassap: April 17

by Shelley Werner

(AJNews) – The finale of the fourth season of Art and Scroll Studio will be on April 17, 2024 at 7:00 pm MDT. This free zoom series will bring to a close to the year a series of 5 artists, each individual and fascinating.

Karen Kassap is a story teller who uses elements of hand painted paper, photography, drawing and text in English and Hebrew to create powerful imagery in colour and texture. Her image “Scarlet Wook” appears on the cover of the Edmonton Passover edition of Alberta Jewish News.

Inspired to capture the elements of domestic motifs that define the lives of women, Karen illustrates in a vibrant palette the challenges of the feminine journey. Her work invites the viewer to appreciate pattern and movement as the variety of design elements combine to express a powerful message.

She has been working as a mixed media collage artist for more than18 years. She enjoys this form of expression because the process of layering paint and paper becomes a part of the beauty of the completed work.

Technically, she creates the materials and then reuses them in compositions. Collage also allows room to include painting, drawing, sewing and lettering.

Her work is a personal expression of her identity as a Jewish woman, a mother, a wife and a feminist. She finds inspiration in the contradictions and the struggle between the ideals and realities of feminine power, and between the freedom and confinement of an idealized woman.

Many of her early works were a response to the proverb אֵשֶׁת חַיִל (Eyshet Chayil) expressing her conflicting desires to embrace the idealized Woman of Valor, while struggling against her boundaries. That tension is the source of my creativity.

She recently discovered the tradition of Tkhines which are supplicatory prayers, written in Yiddish and German specifically for women, and mostly by women. This tradition began in the mid 1600’s and continued up until WWI. These prayers are written in a very intimate style and shed light on the inner lives of Jewish women.

Her recent work is most strongly connected to Hours of Devotion Fanny Neuda’s Book of Prayers for Jewish Women, published in the 1850’s. (Edited by Dinah Berland 2007) It is her idea to create illustrations that connect to the kavanah or intention that inspired these prayers. These expressive supplications use a vocabulary that she finds viscerally connects to the female experience, and contains a sincere honesty that sets them apart.

While many references are specific to Jewish life, she believes that there are universal aspects to the milestones represented. Drawing upon the beauty and meditative nature of Medieval miniature prayer books such as the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, her works also have prayerful text and illumination.  She explores changing the scale of the traditional miniature by enlarging the small milagros, messengers, and creatures so as to amplify the volume on the women’s voices in prayer.  A best seller in Germany for more than a century and translated into Yiddish and English.

Original publication included a preface “A word to the noble women and mothers of Jerusalem” encouraging their connection to Judaism – women of this time were allowed to learn secular subjects and foreign languages. (Unlike the religious men) Many intermarried.

“It is my idea to create illustrations that connect to the kavanah or intention that inspired these prayers. These expressive supplications use a vocablulary that I find viscerally connects to the female experience, and contains a sincere honesty that sets them apart. While many references are specific to Jewish life, I believe that there are universal aspects to the milestones represented.”

Excerpts from the prayer that inspired the works 

Released my eye: At Morning

You have once again released my eye

From slumber’s shadow

So it can freely perceive the beauty of nature

And awaken me to renewed energy and purpose,

To a new delight in life, and to love.

As a visual artist she tries to focus on the emotional details and imagery within the text, so that the words are important, but secondary.

Karen Kassap will be the featured guest on April 17, 2024, 7:00 pm MDT on Art and Scroll Studio: A zoom series that celebrates the makers and creators of Judaic art. To register for the virtual and free program please click here: https://bit.ly/KarenKassapTickets

To view a short preview click here: https://bit.ly/KarenKassapPreview