Woman Is a Tree of the Field
I’m a visual artist whose life and work is deeply grounded in Torah and hasidut. One of my rituals is creating visual midrashim, especially those that add a needed female voice to our often male oriented tradition. Years back, studying Pirkei Avot (Wisdom of the Fathers), I recognized that women also had wisdom to add. I created a body-shaped textile work from whose breasts flow the words of women who’ve been like mothers in my life. The piece is called Pirkei Imahot, Wisdom of the Mothers.
For the past several years my new work has been inspired by trees: the torah as a tree of life, the mystical Kabbalah tree of sefirot, the mother tree discovered by scientist Suzanne Simard. Of course, כי האדם עץ השדה, has played over and over in my mind. I know this is often translated as “a person is a tree of the field” but, in fact, the subject of the sentence is clearly masculine: adam, man. So, respectfully, I used my art once again to add the feminine. Here’s my work entitled: Woman Is a Tree of the Field.
Susan Kaplow is a NYC-based artist deeply inspired by Jewish tradition. A long-time member of the Visual Artists Beit Midrash led by artist Tobi Kahn, her work has been shown at the Heller Museum of HUC, Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Bernard Museum of Temple Emanuel as well as both Ceres and the Riverfront Gallery. Her work is currently featured in the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam, Holland.