As many of you may understand, it has been very challenging to maintain the joy in our normal creative processes under the onslaught of global and domestic bad-news cycles that screech relentlessly about inept, cruel and corrupt politics, Covid fears or uncertainties and the horrors of climate-change fueled disasters.
So, since January of 2020, instead of posting essays here which might risk echoing the words of pundits and news analysts, I’ve focused on making a series of new images to express where my mind has been turning during these pandemic years.
Metaphorically, I’ve often felt like a flightless bird whose wish to fly motivates its dreams and inspired this most recent series of drawings:
If Wishes Were Wings…September 2021:
The Alteration Series 2020, evolved from my fascination with the imaginative possibilities in dressmakers’ mannequins patiently waiting to tell their own stories…
from The Alterations Series: A Creation Archetype, The Navigator’s Illusion and Sanctuary For A Siren
Pandemic Musings 2020-21, is a group of drawings that keep me centered as I negotiate between the clouds of reality and misinformation.
from Pandemic Musings: BrainCaged, Bewildered and Between Chaos & Cosmos
from Flights Of Fancy 2021: Armchair For A Time Traveler, Song Of The SphinxCat and Knight Of The Thimble
A Conference In The Trees, A Game Of War and Memories Of Earth
These drawings are but a selection from many more that are available as gicleé prints at: http://www.magiceyegallery.com
I look forward to hearing your shared creative experiences during this difficult time for us all and to any questions that occur to you!
imaginarius13.wordpress.com 
February 11, 2022 at 7:25 AM |
[…] bird whose wish to fly motivates its dreams” and inspired a series of drawings called “If Wishes Were Wings” that features drawings of imaginary flightless […]
LikeLike
February 11, 2022 at 7:46 AM |
Dear Dr. Achtenberg:
Thank you very much for incorporating my work in your address to Temple Sinai. Your article is intriguing and insightful! Dinah’s story first came alive for me upon reading Anita Diament’s ‘The Red Tent’ which to my illustrator’s mind, begged visuals to accompany it. Since you likely own a copy of my book, Between Heaven & Earth: A Visual Torah Commentary (Pomegranate, 2009), I wonder if I might ask a favor? The book has gone out of print but I have many remainder copies that I would love to see distributed among students, teachers and clergy of all faiths. Would you mind spreading the word that these may be ordered through my web gallery? http://magiceyegallery.com/BookPage.aspx?id=2
Thank you in advance and zei gezunt!
Best,
Ilene Winn-Lederer
LikeLike