New License for Mitzvah Invitations with Carlson Craft

Beyond excited to announce that my entire Bar and Bat Mitzvah Invitation Collection has been exclusively licensed to Carlson Craft, a division of Taylor Corporation which is the worlds largest wedding and social stationery print manufacturer. 

A top priority this year has been to find a new home for our very successful Mitzvah Invitation collection, which our studio has been producing for almost three years. We connected with the lovely folks at Carlson Craft and presented our collection and our vision. They were instantly receptive and welcoming and we knew that we had found the right production/marketing/sales partner for this special collection.

The Invitation collection has been wildly popular with families seeking an artistic invitation, something beyond the cookie cutter invites that seem to saturate the market. Carlson Craft produces a Mazel Tov Album which 7000 dealers nationwide use to show and sell invitations for the lucrative Bar and Bat Mitzvah niche market. Our entire collection will be featured in the Mazel Tov album as well as showcased on Carlson Craft's websites for easy online ordering, available this Spring.

We made the New York Times

"...this piece of paper, this beautiful piece of art, is the sign of our covenant.” ~Sally Austin

Christians Embrace a Jewish Wedding Tradition~ New York Times(click to read)

A sweet mention in the New York Times!! The article features Sally and Mark Austin, one of our Ketubahtree.com wedding clients who wanted to incorporate the Jewish tradition of signing a Ketubah (A wedding certificate that combines beautiful artwork and wedding vows) into their wedding ceremony. We were thrilled to be able to recommend one of our couples to be interviewed for the New York Times article and even happier to see acknowledgment of this growing trend. Then again, our studio has been proudly creating ketubot for Jewish, Interfaith and Non Jewish couples for over 10 years ;) We wish the best to the Austin's and thank them, for their kind words about our art.

 

Ketubah Featured in Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine

What a sweet surprise to see a beautiful picture of one of my Ketubah (custom fine art wedding certificate) designs featured in a wedding spread within the Fall issue of Martha Stewart Weddings magazine!Amanda and Douglas's storybook wedding took place in Italy at Villa del Balbianello, a stunning chateau on Lake Como. The couple looked picture perfect and the setting, sublime. I am honored that they chose my popular Ahava Ketubah design and thrilled to see a great photograph of Doug signing the Ketubah on wedding day. Click hereto see more beautiful photos from this enchanting wedding on MarthaStewartWeddings.com.

I invite you to visit my Ketubahtree.com website to see all of my fine art Ketubot, Wedding certificates and Mitzvah Invitations 

 

Artist Inspiration - Egon Schiele

Austrian Painter, Egon Schiele (1890-1918)

"At present, I am mainly observing the physical motion of mountains, water, trees and flowers. One is everywhere reminded of similar movements in the human body, of similar impulses of joy and suffering in plants." E. Schiele


I had the pleasure of closely viewing many of Schiele's drawings and sketches at the Neue Galerie in New York a few years ago. His figurative works are easily defined by the detailed bone structure he managed to capture...the bones, muscle and joints beneath the skin. Notable was the absolute delicacy of each often heavy, line...a talent to express strength, grace and sinew all within the same line...don't you think?


Having studied and worked alongside fellow Modernism heavy weights such as Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoscha, many of his portraits, erotic in nature, have a tense beauty that seems to come from within. Schiele favored geometric shapes and his portraits have a twisting, bending, jerky, angled presence about them. Favoring a muddier palette, his work was often punctuated with jolts of intense color. His paintings and sketches are both visually

stunning and unnerving at the same time.

 

Georgia O'keeffe Abstractions Exhibit


I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for~ Georgia O'Keeffe


A recent visit to the Phillips Collection museum in Washington DC to see the Georgia O'Keeffe Abstractions exhibit left me newly inspired and exhilarated. Featuring more than 100 Watercolor and Oil paintings, this gorgeous exhibit focuses on O'Keeffe's lesser known Abstract works...beautiful gems, delicate and serene.

I have seen O'Keeffe's work up close before...notably her most famous, and easily recognizable paintings of animal skulls, seashells and sensual flowers. However many times I stood before those famous works, as lovely as they were, never was I moved to silence. I viewed the art and certainly enjoyed the simplicity of the way in which she seemed to so effortlessly capture objects, but that's where it ended for me. I never had a "Gustav Klimt Moment" as I like to call it....a moment where, when viewing a piece of art, all else falls away, leaving just me and the painting alone in the room...my own breath and heartbeat, the only sounds I hear. That is, until I saw the Abstractions exhibit.

This collection of paintings is so gentle, sensual, evocative, erotic and dreamy. Her color palettes go from soft and serene to joltingly energetic. Her lines are exquisite and each piece evokes feeling, emotion, sensitivity and thought. There is an honest integrity in O'Keeffe's work. A genuineness and a purity of soul that comes through so strongly in those brushstrokes. In the end, her abstract paintings ultimately feel like an abstracted portrait of a woman who simply wanted to paint what she felt inside. And I can't help but relate so deeply to that part of her.

And so, with that clarity of thought filling me, validating me, empowering me... I pick up my paintbrush, turn up the music and simply, paint....

Free Style

One morning, while on my recent trip to the ocean, I woke before sunrise and walked to the beach. A quiet place, the beach, at that early hour, I savored those moments of solitude…just me, my ipod in hand, walking along, searching for shells, in anticipation of the rising sun.

I soon came upon a man who was floating along in the cold Atlantic current. At first, I barely noticed him, his presence was so calm and quiet, as if one with the waves. And since one of my favorite things to do is to simply watch people as they move within their own space, I silently sat at the place where the softness of sand meets the smoothness from receding waves. Me, a meditative, quiet form, sitting patiently, breathing slow, listening to my music, just watching him float and roll with the water flow.

It was some time before he noticed me there, but when he did, I perceived a brief moment of self consciousness wash over him. He casually looked around to see if it might be someone else I was intently gazing at…something else within my path of vision. Resigned, he now left the passiveness of floating and began to swim…beautiful long arm strokes, kicking legs slicing the surf spray. He dove headfirst through oncoming waves…stood, shook his head, ran his fingers through his hair, spun around and around. He was clearly enjoying being watched, being noticed. And I smiled because I was joyfully watching him, happy to give him this moment in the early morning sunshine spotlight.

And it occurred to me, isn’t this what we all want? To be noticed in a gentle, non obtrusive way ~ To be appreciated for the good we inherently possess and have to offer ~ To not be judged by others for decisions we make and paths we choose ~ To be allowed the freedom to just be, in stillness or movement, however we wish within our own spaces?

We all move about so quickly in the daily chaos that is our lives. Take a moment to breathe deep, notice, appreciate and share the beautiful, unusual, unexpected gifts that are all around you. They are there…just open your eyes and ...watch.