2024 (20”)

Acrylic on Canvas

Accepting Commissions

This 20” square canvas is comprised of 100, 2" squares, each representing 1" of the world’s population. The small gold rectangle is approximately 1/5th of 1%, or in other words, 0.2% of the entire canvas. The gold bar, resembling a mezuzah, bears the Hebrew letters shin, Daled, and Yud, one of the names for G-d. The Squares are each layered and messy, like humanity, bleeding into one another. Dark but shimmering with shades of colored, electric light. This gold bar, this precious sliver of space remains apart, swimming against the current. A tiny, yet ancient minority, a beacon of light, stubborn, loving and bright. This is the actual space the Jewish people as a population occupy in all of Earth’s humanity. The small gold rectangle is approximately 1/5th of 1%, or 0.2% of the entire canvas.

In the United State of America, Jews form 2-2.4% of the population. This means that the non-Jewish majority is 97.6-98%. That is the largest ratio of Jews (2-2.4%) out of any country in the world, apart from Israel.

Approximately 47% of world Jewry resides in Israel, the only country where Jews form a majority, approximately 74% of the population. This means the Jewish holidays, calendar, language, origin stories, spiritual norms and values are congruent with the majority population.

Outside of Israel where Jews live as a minority, Jewish existence means typically doing what the majority is not. Mainstream culture is dictated by what is normative in society, and that means followed by a majority or significant enough segment of the population.

Living in a community with a strong Jewish presence means Jewish culture, time, holidays, dietary needs, etc, are accessible and somewhat normative. Living in NYC for example means Yom Kippur is part of the city and school calendar, kosher markets are available, and on Hanukkah, menorahs are visible in many public spaces, etc.

Living in a Jewish community also means there is less pressure to assimilate and potentially give up important traditions, and aspects of Jewish identity, allowing for Jewish continuity and a thriving, living Jewish presence.