On to the Next Challenge

The January challenge for FibreArts Toronto is "Graffiti". I had trouble with this one. Unless the "artwork" is commissioned or sanctioned by the property owner, I view graffiti as vandalism, no matter how artistic it may be. So my association had to be that most graffiti is the "artist" leaving his/her mark. While trying to think of a marking, I remembered a book of Yiddish stenography that belonged to my Aunt Nechama. When she had to give up her apartment in Brooklyn to move into a nursing home in Buffalo (closer to Toronto, easier to visit, long story), I went to New York and helped clean out her apartment. Since I was in my Yiddish phase at the time (i.e. studying Yiddish at U of T for my B.A. in Jewish Languages and Literature), I took all of her Yiddish books. I guess the concept of Yiddish stenography fascinated me. Anyways, I looked for symbols for words which might be appropriate and found two. In the middle square, the top squiggle is the word "mazel" (luck) and the bottom work is "bracha" (blessing). I chose these words because the words are the same in Yiddish and in Hebrew. Then for the other markings, I turned to braille (in English, although there is also Hebrew braille and perhaps also Yiddish -- I'll have to google that). From the top left hand corner, going clockwise, on the organza are my rendition of the braille for "luck", and also going clockwise from the top left hand corner, on the other fabrics are the braille for "blessing". And the overall feeling is one of softness, which contrasts the harsh feel of graffiti.