Beverly Sky | Artist

Installed: September, 2006

Commissioned to create a new Ark Interior, Curtain and Reading Table cover in a fabric collage technique for the Chapel at Kehillath Israel Temple, Brookline, MA. The design is based on the Tree of Life motif, with the Torah Scrolls in the branches of the tree of life, the curtains are covered with branches and leaves tinted with the colors of the four seasons. The design extends to the reading table, with branches and leaves twining up the four corners of the table. The setting is a visual invitation to enter the sacred space created by the Tree of Life which contains the Torah Scrolls. As one approaches the Ark from the reading table, and parts the 'branches' on the curtains one is metaphorically in the Tree of Life symbolized by the Torah.

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Keter: (which means Crown in Hebrew)
Fabric Collage, Embroidery, Antique Torah Cover Remnants,
72" x 36", 2005

The Wellspring From Which All Life Flows, was inspired by the Jewish ritual of the Mikvah. The ritual purification bath that Jews utilize to cleanse themselves prior to High holy days, before marriage ceremonies, after menstruating, or to acknowledge a life transition. Keter, represents the Crown of the Infinite Source from which all things emanate. In this collage, I used fragments of old Torah covers that have the Ten Commandments embroidered on them. they are stitched to two trees of life on either side of the cascade descending from the Crown. The fluids represented are; rain, salt water, amniotic fluid, blood, milk, semen, tears, The Black Fabric surrounding this image represents the Universe that we can see, filled with stars, and the universe that we cant see, blackness, yet beyond what we cant see, life continues it's ceaseless flow represented by the continuing cascade of symbolic waters.

The Well Spring of Life, From Where All of Life's Fluids Emanate.

*Click on image to enlarge.

No Reproductions without written permission from the Artist.