Exhibit

February 2025

Headspace

February 5 - February 27

Opening Reception on Arts Night Out

HeadSpace is an immersive installation of over one hundred large scale, mixed-media, dimensional illustrations. These “heads” are made of recycled cardboard, paint, hot glue, crafting scraps and trash! This space is meant to be a reminder of just how good it feels to make art for yourself and what it really means to share that feeling with others. 

  • Connor ORourke (he/they) is a line cook for money and an artist for fun! Their work is often cartoonish and silly but considerate in a way that makes you at least hope there’s more to it than bold lines and bright colors. They use recycled materials as well as traditional illustration methods to create an uncanny variety of tangible things. 

    @coldhatkid

January 2025

Nexus: The Ties That Bind

JanUary 9 - January 30

Opening Reception on Arts Night Out

Nexus: The Ties That Bind marks the second annual showcase of talented artists and creative thinkers who formed the Barn Door Gallery Curatorial Committee (2024). Each July, a new collective of creative minds convenes, sparking thoughtful dialogue and shaping a yearlong series of exhibitions hosted by the Northampton Center for the Arts from September through August. This curatorial process ensures equitable opportunities for local artists, championing equity, offering a platform for diverse voices, perspectives, and artistic mediums to shine. This fresh collective builds on the solid foundation laid by previous groups, consistently infusing new energy, perspectives, and talent into the Center's commitment to accessibility and inclusion.

In January, we honor this collaborative spirit with a special exhibition spotlighting the work of Curatorial Committee members or artists they have personally selected. Join us in celebrating this year's dynamic nexus of the local arts community as these creative minds unite, showcasing their work and reinforcing the spirit of collaboration and support within the local art scene. Don’t miss the chance to experience the vibrant expressions of our community!

  • My name is Avery Eberlein. I am a trans man. Everything I write is a biography. Pay attention.

    @eberzine

  • Educator and Innovator Carlos REC McBride (he/him) is a dedicated educator and program leader with over 15 years of experience spanning higher education, multimedia storytelling, and community-focused initiatives. He specializes in leveraging technology and creative arts, such as photography, video, and audio, to foster engagement, address social issues, and support diverse learners. Carlos has taught at institutions such as Hampshire College, Smith College, and Holyoke Community College, designing interdisciplinary curricula on topics like social justice, urban studies, and Hip-Hop culture, Art and Graffiti culture. 

    He is an advocate for equitable education and inclusive learning environments, mentoring underserved students as reflected in his work with The Community Journalism Program at UMASS Amherst. Carlos REC extends his commitment to social justice through his work with incarcerated individuals and those working through mental health and substance use sickness challenges. Additionally, he has traveled throughout the country offering workshops and lectures, mentoring young men who face systemic barriers, self empowerment and healing.

    With a passion for innovation, community building, and student empowerment, his academic credentials include a Master’s degree in Social Justice Education and a near-completed Doctorate in Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Recognized for his impactful contributions, Carlos has received accolades such as the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus’s Latino Excellence Award.

    @rec1ne

  • David (he/him) is a Chicago-born artist currently living and working in Western Massachusetts. He calls his works emotion-provoking sculpture on paper.

    @DrawingsByDavidAndrews

    www.heathergeoffrey.com

  • Heather Geoffrey (she/her) experiences creating art as an ongoing dialogue with the worlds she inhabits and those that inhabit her. She believes that the seen and unseen realms of the physical, imaginary, emotional, and spiritual are in constant conversation. It is this continuous dialogue that she finds magical and is the most curious about and interested in.

    @ouroboros_studios

    www.heathergeoffrey.com

  • Madge Evers (she/her) uses alternative photography, mushroom spores, and painting to depict actual details of landscapes and imagined flora. She has exhibited throughout New England and attended artists residencies in New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Ireland. She lives and works in western Massachusetts; her book about the cyanotype process will be published by Storey/Hachette in June of 2026.

    @_sporeplay

    madgeevers.com

  • Maricela Garcia (she/her) is an urban artist based in Holyoke, MA who utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach in her creative practice. With a deep understanding of art history and a keen eye for the vibrant and ever-changing city landscape, Garcia's work explores the intersection of urban culture and artistic expression. Through the medium of collage, she repurposes materials, creating striking visual narratives that reflect the diverse stories and voices that exist within the urban environment. Influenced by street art and graffiti, Garcia's work boldly challenges traditional notions of fine art to capture the raw authentic essence of the city and its inhabitants. Through her unique storytelling abilities, Garcia's work serves as a powerful reflection of the urban experience and the rich tapestry of humanity within it.

    @revolucionarteco

    revolucionarteco.bigcartel.com

  • Natania Hume (she/her) was born in New York City but spent her formative years amidst rural academia in Amherst, Massachusetts, in a household of artists. Natania earned a BFA from UMass Amherst and a Master's in Art Education from Southern Oregon University. She enjoys many various kinds of artistic pursuits, and when not in her studio, she can be found volunteering as a board member for the Northampton Center for the Arts and teaching art at The Williston Northampton School, where she serves as Arts Department Chair.

    @slow.studio

    www.slow-studio.com

December 2024

WallFlower Wawa

December 4 - December 21

Opening Reception on Arts Night Out

In a mother-son duo exhibition, Wallflower Wawa turns our gaze toward the watchers on the perimeter. Silenced by their own shyness, welling up in tears, passed over for more popular blooms, this exhibition mines figuration’s capacity for introspection. Transforming the Barn Door Gallery in an explosion of color, these paintings and wall sculptures from Nickolas Roblee-Strauss and Jacqueline Strauss seek to understand the melodramas of less obvious party guests. In both artists' work, a sense of exuberance pervades. Color, pattern, and playful reinvention of form make for celebrations. For some it’s difficult not to dance—as figures swivel and sway before us. Still wallflowers peer out from pulsing surrounds with halted commentary, melancholy creatures of celebration’s fringe. Wallflower Wawa invites its visitor to a party, whose somber messaging incites contradictory interpretation. A mix of weeping dancers and twisters on the edge of temptation, the exhibit asks us to look to the perimeter and see what blossoms sprout from the wall.

  • Jacqueline Strauss (she/her b. Amsterdam, 1964) is a textile artist living in rural western Massachusetts. Her soft sculptures explore the spirited nature of seemingly inanimate remnants bringing to fruition a bottomless imaginative population. Playing the wise fool, she probes the puerile medium of stuffed forms for edgie, more complex emotions and shapes. In the past year, she has shown at Greenfield Community College, Greenfield, MA, Club George, Northampton, MA, and the Wendell Free Library, Wendell, MA. Her work has appeared in the local press as well as the Dutch journal Textiel Plus.

    @jezaculear

    jezaculear.com

  • Nickolas Roblee-Strauss (he/him) is an oil painter born in rural western Massachusetts. His work explores themes of queerness, the historicity of the medium, and precarious 21st-century experience. Over the past two years, he has worked under the guidance of established artists in New York City, and his paintings address the evolution of gestural language.

    He has shown at 440 Gallery and Thomas van Dyke Gallery in Brooklyn, NY as well as the Granoff Center, List Art Center, Joukowsky Institute, and Salon 149 in Providence, RI. He holds a BA in Modern Culture & Media from Brown University, where he was a Royce Fellow and Brown Arts Institute grant recipient. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

    @nickrobleestrauss

    nickolasrobleestrauss.com

November 2024

Pliable Entanglements

November 5 - November 30

Opening Reception on Arts Night Out

Audio Timestamps:

Pliable Entanglements Statement 00:00

Eva R. Barajas 02:07

María Sparrow 03:10

Ross Momaney 03:55

We ask that you see our body of work as an imperative call to be present in our shared Pliable Entanglements. Our visual collection serves as evidence illustrating the interconnectedness we inhabit through universal and foundational elements. The experiences we imagine, the instances that could have been, and the concrete histories that make up who we are all intertwine here. Pliable Entanglements offers the viewer the ability to honor their own past, present, and future while simultaneously acknowledging the malleable connections we have to the network of lives to which we are linked. These pieces serve as reflections of the overlapping histories and experiences of the artists, reminding us that we are not the first, the only, or the last to have them.

Through drawing and printmaking, we seek to explore the narratives of the past and their infinite connections to the present. Our shared tactile connection to the earth manifests through ceramic vessels that act as relics of timelines, memories, and experiences in alternative and imagined landscapes. Using clay to construct artifacts of invented experiences reflects the conception of the personal histories of what could have been and serves to fill in the gaps of the unknown. The ever-present threads that connect all of us are expressed through fibers weaving together the communal and personal histories we have experienced, both real and internally constructed. Together, these pieces bind the many histories and experiences of the artists while offering a moment in time to build a shared experience with viewers.

As humans, we are all connected through shared Pliable Entanglements. Our personal landscapes are infinitely malleable and subject to ever-evolving internal and external influences. May this presentation of artwork guide you to value the permeable and unseen links that connect us all and carry the notion that anything we observe, we change; anything observed changes and connects us in perpetuity.

  • Eva R. Barajas (she/her/ella) is a disabled, queer, interdisciplinary artist, educator and cultural producer.

    Descended from Southern Paiute/ Comanche and mestizaje peoples. Currently living and working on the unceded land of the Nonotuck people (Northampton, MA ) pursuing a Master’s in Art Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a focus on accessibility education in the arts.

    Her installations reflect her dedication to exploring disability, craft, grief, stimming, care, collectivity, and joy. An invitation to engage with the intricacies of creative labor, embracing the malleability of experiences and the potency of imagined scenarios.

    Her goal is to craft spaces that resonate with the vibrancy of unspoken dialogues, the malleability of experiences and a celebration of infinite diversity in infinite combination.

    @erbarajas87 

  • María Sparrow (she/they) is a teaching artist based in Franklin County, Massachusetts. Sparrow employs painting, fiber, and printmaking techniques in combination with historical research in order to probe questions of memory, identity, alienation and belonging. With half of their family based in Argentina and half in the U.S., Sparrow’s ongoing “Stains” series seeks to understand racial formation across these cultures. Focusing here on research on racial formation in Argentina, the artist offers a specific case by which Argentine and non-Argentine viewers alike might consider their own cultural racial constructs.

    mariatsparrow.wixsite.com

  • Ross Momaney (he/him) is a visual artist and arts educator. He grew up playing in the woods of West Dummerston, Vermont with plenty of room to roam and explore, letting his vivid imagination run free. As a child, he often played with and built elaborate imagined worlds with lincoln logs, LEGOs, and any other materials he could find. 

    From a young age, Ross knew he wanted to be a teacher. He attended the University of Maine at Farmington where he earned a BS in Elementary Education and Art. He is currently in the Master’s program for Art Education at The University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Prior to his graduate work, Ross was a teacher at an elementary school on Deer Isle, in Maine. There he taught writing and English, as well as third grade before becoming the school’s art teacher. His work in the classroom supports imaginative inquiry and play while providing equitable experiences in the arts for all learners. 

    Ross’ own artwork focuses on process and self-interpretation with an emphasis on constructing imagined worlds and relics from his imagination. At the core of his artistic practice, Ross centers on creating pieces that illustrate how he perceives and experiences the world. His work delves into the ways lines exist in our environment, both natural and constructed, and investigates how these elements can shape our understanding and awareness of the different landscapes that surround us. Most of Ross’ work utilizes clay to create and build relics of personal expression. Ross examines how signs, text, and images function as tools for navigation and communication, as well as how a given object serves as an artifact of personal experience. Ross’ art invites viewers to reflect on the subtle yet powerful ways that visual language influences our perception of the world.

    @theforestboss

    rmm-art.com

October 2024

In Light of Time

October 5 - October 30

Opening Reception on October 5th

We three artists: Mary Ann Kelly, Laura Radwell, and Carolyn Webb, are celebrating our longstanding relationship to the Connecticut River Valley. Individually, we realize how we have been altered, inspired and influenced by our immersion in this special place over time, recognizing and responding to its unique natural beauty. Over time and in its light, we find individual and profound spiritual allure: the lay of the land, the verdant woods, the plentiful waters. Perhaps this exhibition can also be seen as a gesture of gratitude for a community which seeks to protect its natural resources, promoting preservation, public interaction and access to the shared bounty.

Through painting, sculpture, prints, and drawings, we share our journeys of discovery, for the first time together. This immersive installation, featuring a blend of lines, gestures, color, and symbolic forms, is a creative conversation with each other. The distinctive style of each artist complements the others, flowing between the walls and floorspace to celebrate timelessness, resilience, harmony and grace.

  • Mary Ann Kelly made a quality of life move with her family to Northampton in 1997 from Washington, DC.  Here the rich, natural reminders of transformation, metamorphosis and the aging process inspired her to celebrate these themes in her two- and three-dimensional abstractions.  These artworks enable her to pursue her love of light, gestural line, texture, and colorful patinas while manipulating non-traditional and natural materials.  Each work is a mindful journey in space-making — celebrating the simplicity of form, quiet space, and the wisdom of stillness — evoking contemplative presence and timelessness.

    Mary Ann received her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art in 1987. Since then she has studied with various teachers and was accepted to a residency at Vermont Studio Center in 2002. She has exhibited her work throughout Massachusetts, in Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York City.

    “My love of Japanese aesthetic and calligraphy informs my work, including the concept of Ma.” Ma is the pure, essential void between all things.

    - an emptiness, yet full of possibilities

    - a resting space, or a pause between notes

    - silent intervals that give form

    - and therefore an invitation to breathe”

    www.makellyart.com

  • In the early 1990s, while focusing on growing a small communications business, Radwell began capturing detailed images of surfaces that chronicled erosion and decay, and began a process of manually collaging images of real world objects that she transformed into abstract compositions. This work continued over time, enabling her to harness evolving technologies and to make use of digital art forms incorporating both her images and drawings. In 2014, after a long hiatus, she returned to oil painting, but in ways that were informed by the digital work of previous years. Now Radwell paints “from the inside out” and produces lyrical abstract studies using color, texture, and form that retain landscape’s resonances.

     

    Radwell has exhibited locally and regionally. In 2020, she won First Prize in the New Britain Museum of American Art Annual Nor’Easter Juried Exhibition. Several of her paintings have earned places in juried exhibitions in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. She spent six weeks (two artist residencies) at the Château d'Orquevaux in France.

     

    “How does a visual narrative begin?

    Perhaps, in my case, deferring my dream to paint brought a multi-layered storage process of audio/visual observations of natural beauty and the manmade cacophony in the outside world, depositing subconscious recordings of the soft and sweet, sometimes loud and discordant sounds. These contributed to the inventory of impressions collected in my inside world.

    The ultimate result of this process could be described in emotional terms, yet it seems simplistic to describe a creative practice as a reflection solely of emotions; but it is. The world is in chaos, and painting from such a personal place is unavoidable. If the outward expression of the good, the bad, the ugly, the sublime are all mixed together, then what more is there? Having lived with ADHD most of my adult life, I have learned to discipline thoughts and actions in my work life for almost half a century. Now it’s a different time, and the challenge is not to accomplish discrete tasks but rather to let myself be without such careful filtering. In some sense it is an unholy mess, which might explain why the work I’ve done over this past decade varies so much and travels along a spectrum of disharmony and imperfection to serenity and peace. It’s later in my life, and there is much to express; I choose to do it without the pressure of rules. The things I strive to incorporate into my work is a bit of mystery, unpredictability, color, always glorious color, and a touch of light.“

    www.lauraradwell.com

  • Sculptor and printmaker Carolyn Webb has maintained her studio in Williamsburg since receiving her MFA in sculpture at UMASS in 1981. Previously she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where she was awarded a Scheidt Traveling Scholarship and a post-graduate fellowship in sculpture. 

     

    Other awards include a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant for Sculpture, an A.R.T. Grant, a Fellowship Residency at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Pennsylvania Academy, the Hyde Collection, the New York Public Library and the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMASS among others.

    Growth, renewal, and a fascination with processes that build and destroy form are the basis of her life’s work.

    “My original perception of the world through observation of incremental change is expressed in my work, which is often either built over long periods of time with layers of ink in the case of prints or slow carving or laminating techniques in built wooden pieces.  I regard the practices of sculpture and printmaking as intertwined and complementary, as both are material and process driven. I work in many different media. Each is employed for their distinct tonal resonance in service of the work I envision.”

    www.carolynwebb.net

Listen to their interview on WHMP Radio with host Lary Hotts HERE

September 2024

Different Lenses:

Exploring Northampton MA and local areas

September 4 - September 28

Opening Reception on Arts Night Out

Exhibiting our work as a group allows for two separate photographers to capture the vibe and atmosphere of the Northampton community in a dynamic way. With its diversity and urban and natural landscapes, our photography provides stories of people, structures, shapes, colors, light and shadow. We both strongly believe in photographs with very minimal editing and no AI. Images, especially with street photography, are moments captured in time that tell a story. The images will speak to the viewer as they exist in the actual moment of capture.

We are very excited to present our work and to continue to explore the many ways in which we can continue to tell the story of Northampton, its surrounding towns and the many diverse peoples, urban, and natural landscapes.

Thank you,

CC and J

  • Jesse Merrick (he/they) grew up in western Mass. and also spent a lot of time during his formative years in New York City with his Grandma. Jesse has been creating art since he was a little kid and is a photographer, filmmaker and art/technology teacher at a local public high school (Frontier Regional), where he teaches photo, video & other classes full-time. Aspects of J. Merrick’s formal training include Film School at Mass Art in Boston, Video Production and Film Studies at UMass Amherst and a M.Ed in Instructional Technology, from MCLA in North Adams, MA. Jesse comes from an artistic family (including a Croatian great-grandfather who was an influential sculptor) who always encouraged his interest in art.

    Currently, Jesse is most focused on photography work, with a special focus on continuing and expanding the traditions of black & white street photography. Famous street photographers such as Berenice Abbott, Gordon Parks, and Vivian Maier, among others, are influences on his photo work. An interest in documenting real-life moments without adding or subtracting anything with Photoshop is explored in J. Merrick”s photo work. Historic, retro, and vintage imagery that displays a timeless quality are also common themes in J. Merrick”s photography. Jesse Merrick lives in Florence, MA, and is thankful for family, friends, and a positive Western Mass. community.

    In the future, Jesse Merrick is interested in creating unique visuals for local businesses and photography related to anti-racism, LGBTQIA+/civil/human rights, and other historical projects. For more information related to buying photo prints, individual or group photography lessons, or collaborating on photo projects, please contact Jesse Merrick.

    www.jmerrickmedia.com

  • Carolina (she/her), of Dominican descent, was born and raised in Washington Heights, NYC. She currently lives in Northampton, MA, with her family. Carolina is truly self-taught, learning by doing and being in the moment with her camera. She explores digital and film photography through books, videos, and, of course, by getting out there and practicing the art of photography.

    Carolina feels that in her photography, she experiences a sense of connection and gratitude with her surroundings. In college, she was obsessed with classic films, abstract art, and graphic design.

    Artistic influences include artists such as Frida Kahlo, Georgia Okeefe, Salvador Dali, Ansel Adams, and many others.

    Carolina got her 1st camera in 2022. From then on, she has been happily capturing images that she feels create

    an emotional connection with the viewer.

    She enjoys street photography, landscape, abstract, and nature photography. Carolina's passion for creativity and her journey into photography is truly inspiring. It’s wonderful how she has developed her skills and followed her curiosity, leading her to capture images that resonate deeply with viewers. Her story and gratitude make her work even more special.

    @carolina_created

August 2024

emerging artist showcase

Five local emerging artists

august 2 - august 29

Opening Reception on Arts Night Out

Art has always gone hand in hand with community, from the first cave paintings to the Eastern Island Statues. Artists of every status represent the physical voice of their community at that time—and emerging artists are stepping stones into the realm of that expression. In this exhibit, the art of each individual artist is not sectioned off, but organized according to how each painting communicates with the other. If artists from different backgrounds can still find connection through different pieces, then we as a community can find connection to one another. Supporting art, and embracing emerging artists, is one of the many ways we can push back against toxic individualism.

-Forrest Graey

  • Debra Hoyle is an artist and writer from Western Massachusetts with a studio/gallery in the small hill town of Conway. Conway sits on the South River, about an hour east of the Berkshires. Currently she is exploring mixed media using collage, monoprints, and acrylics. Her inspirations come from the beauty of the natural world, a love of history, memoir, mark making, color, texture, and the movement of energy. Pieces often begin with an idea and a personal process which then lead into an unplanned, intuitive unfolding. Debra usually works in series, and formal elements such as design, composition, value, and color are always considered. Her many layered pieces invite the viewer to connect with a sense of mystery and discovery. Art is at the core of the way Debra perceives life. She is mainly self-taught and has studied with a number of artists both in person and online. She has also worked in oils, pastels, and watercolors. Some influences are the abstract expressionists and contemporary artists such as Louise Fletcher, Jane Davies, Judy Woods, and Nicholas Wilton. Debra has exhibited at the Hosmer Gallery in Northampton, MA (solo show), Blake and Co., Orleans, MA, The Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT, A3 Gallery, Amherst, MA, Northampton Center for the Arts, Northampton, MA, and at libraries in her area. Debra has also had a healing arts practice for over 30 years, and has a degree in art history.

    @debhoyle.art.rockpaperscissors

  • Forrest Graey (she/they) is a hobby artist who enjoys writing and cycling in her spare time. As someone on the spectrum, when she paints she finds it’s easier to cultivate inspiration by giving herself over to hyper-fixations and seeing what inspiration comes from them. While she is not currently painting, she is creating another piece of art in the form of her debut novel, “Bloodwater”.

    You can follow her writing process on Instagram, @author.forrestgraey

  • Kari Giordano is a visual artist and educator working in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Her primary work is within the digital realm and she creates photographs and graphic design for commercial and personal use. Her current digital photography work, False Moons, comments on our search for social connection and aims to communicate our search for both individuality and group identities, and how we’re driven by instinct, experience, and collective consciousness.

    http://www.karigiordano.com

  • Rosetta Marantz Cohen has lived and painted in Northampton for 34 years. Her art celebrates the pleasures of everyday life in this community and the intimate world of her own painting studio–a converted garage behind her house. She finds humor and solace in very small things, and seeks to convey those feelings in her work.

    @rosettamarantz

  • Ruthie Baker is a photographer and mixed media artist working primarily with analog and alternative photographic processes. Her work combines photography, collage, poetry, and sculpture, exploring how analog photographic processes can be combined with other mediums to create something strange and new.

    Ruthie is interested in capturing the mundane experiences of daily life to examine themes of memory, tradition, self, and family. Her work centers on the emotional significance of modest objects and interpersonal relationships, as well as the fragility of human life.

    She received her Bachelor of Arts in Film and Media Studies from Emory University and is currently a final-year MFA Candidate at The University of Massachusetts - Amherst.

    https://ruthiebaker.art/

July 2024

Hold Me Close, I’m Re-membering How it Goes

Eli Liebman & Lynsey Robertson

July 5 - July 31

Opening Reception on Arts Night Out

The works of Hold Me Close spring from the desire to question an unthinkable and unknowable world and self. The presented work - a body of quilts, a collaborative “newspaper,” and a few ceramic sculptures - embraces a wide range of disparate parts into familiar and quotidian containers. The gentle fabric whispers, clay remembers gesture and gaze, and Nerve Meter gathers a chorus to tell differently the maladies and ecstasies of today. Visual motifs proliferate to play within and against given ways of being. These paths appear at once all too familiar while still strange, enticing yet insidiously alienating. Suppose it went a little differently.

  • Eli likes to question why we are conscripted to live such canalized lives. In an effort to breach these

    artificial banks, Eli spends time learning how to do things and then likes to learn how to do other things.

    Eli works in whichever media make sense for communicating a concept/emotion, yet with particular biases for the tactile ones often with utilitarian histories (namely clay, fabric, printmaking, drawing, and wood).

    elimack.weebly.com

  • Lynsey is an artist working in sculpture, print and sound to explore performance and ritual in the service of re-enchanting matter. They often work with the multiple in media such as cyanotype or clay, to practice devotional attention to matter and sculptural re-interpretation of myth. Lynsey lives and works in Los Angeles.

    lynseyjrobertson.com

June 2024

Run and Return/ רצוא ושׁוב

Jay Smith

MAY 31 - June 28

Opening Reception on Arts Night Out

רצוא ושׁוב (ratzo v’shov) is a Chasidic concept that emphasizes our dual desires and tendencies to “run” to the divine, to cleave to Gd and escape our earthly existence, and to “return” to our mortal bodies and material world, finding divinity where we are. As Rabbi Arthur Green describes it: “Opting for either world…can only lead to prolonging fragmentation. We see spiritual ebb and flow, moments of absence and moments of presence, as central to the human religious situation…can we step beyond conflict and see the thing as rhythm?” (After Itzik: Toward a Theology of Jewish Spirituality, 1971)

As a trans, American Jew living in a country and time where trans bodies are under threat, and where Jews are implicated and engaged in extreme violence, Jay Smith seeks to explore the pull towards and push from their tradition. Smith’s illustrations grapple with their relationship to Judaism, naming explicitly the comfort, healing, and wisdom that their tradition has gifted to them, while at the same time bearing witness to the tradition being twisted to justify death, exclusion, and alienation. They seek to reclaim their tradition from extremists and cultivate protective Jewish magic for their community: trans Jews in diaspora. Their work asks the questions: what does it mean to run to Gd when we are responsible for immense suffering, and what does it mean to return to our own bodies when they no longer feel safe?

  • Jay Smith (they/them) is an illustrator, clinician, and Judaism enthusiast. They have no formal arts education and credit their grandmother Sylvia with teaching them to paint at an early age. Their artwork reconstructs traditional Jewish ritual for a contemporary audience, and creates protective spells for trans bodies and spirits. They currently reside on Nipmuc/Pocomtuc land in so-called Florence, MA with their partner, Clare, and two cats, Gene and Charlie.

    www.mmmjaysmith.com/contact-wells

    @mmmjaysmith

.scrollup { width: 40px; height: 40px; opacity: 0.3; position: fixed; bottom: 50px; right: 100px; display: none; text-indent: -9999px; background: url('icon_top.png') no-repeat; }