Nova Scotia along the Northumberland Strait since 2009
times with the hope that I could fit in. I didn’t. Feeling my roots deeply, I continued to search for accessible connections and dis- covered a book: Sacred Therapy by Estelle Frankel, an Orthodox Jewish scholar and psychotherapist whose writing drew inspira- tion from Kabbalah. This book saved my life. I’ve read it three times, copied vast portions into my own notebooks, re-read passages; this is the teacher I was seeking. I’ve con- tacted her and we’ve had a number of ses- sions, and I also update her on my artwork, which is influenced by her writing. My art (I am currently represented by the Galerie
Robertson Arès in Montreal) is intended to take me—and the viewer—upward, to higher realms, and downward, to the most basic and rudimentary levels of being. It’s an attempt to convey the creation myth of breaking apart to recreate, lights shattering and scattering to be gathered and contained once more. The pulse of the sea also embodies this gathering and scattering. I wanted to live near the water, the tide, to take those rhythms into the deepest parts of my being. Though my beautiful Star of David sits waiting in its box on my dresser, I am content in my private and precious Jewishness on this remote shore. n
that was featured on the cover of Women’s Wear Daily and teaching art at Parsons School of Design—when finances forced me to consider relocation, the Maritimes came to mind. I drove up to explore possibilities and came to a small village with a health food store, its own subversive bookstore, and plans for an art centre. I was smitten, and began to plan my home and studio and to navigate the immigration process. I knew of no other Jewish people in this com- munity, however. At one point, I made a friend who attended a synagogue in Halifax, N.S.— which is two hours away. I attended a few
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