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Being Coy

 

Yesterday I was invited to a suburban synagogue and  asked to come up with some ideas for their ark curtain that badly needs to be replaced.  The synagogue is quite beautiful. I think that the a good ark curtain design can make their sanctuary work a bit better both visually as well as symbolically.  it’s nice to work on something that will tweak a good thing to better, rather than working in a space that is terrible.

The synagogue has acquired some real treasures of Jewish ceremonial art. My jaw was on the floor seeing both what this synagogue has for regular use as well as what they have in their museum.

They asked me to come up with a few ideas for them. I came up with five. ( I could come up with more ideas, but five is more than enough.) I’m being coy because I want the powers that be at that synagogue to have the first crack at looking at the designs I came up with. It’s only fair. I am, however showing all of you snippets of each design.

 

I am going to share how I set up my sketches. I photographed the ark and turned the image into a black and white. I then painted my ideas on tracing paper. I scanned my work with the black and white photograph and emailed my proposal to the synagogue. Hurray for technology!

 

This is a gig that I would really like to have. I hope they fall in love with my ideas.princeton 3

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Comments

  1. What a nice complement to you. I hope that they love one of your designs. I find that giving too many choices makes it very hard for clients! They have trouble making up their minds.

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  2. Thanks Nancy K! If I ran the world I would develop what the piece looked like with the congregation...but I don't run the world. I will see what develops...while I was there the rabbi spoke to me about new Torah mantles... It would be soooo nice.

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