FIRST MEGILAT ESTHER

BS"D



Winter 2003: Writing the very first words ("And it was in the days of Achashverosh...") of the Megilat Esther for Shaarey Tefilah. I'm leaning on a sheet of paper so as not to touch the qlaf & reading from a tiqun to ensure everything is written properly. In front of me lie rolls of qlaf & my book on sofrut, Liqutey Sifrei ST"M.
(photo credit: Chana Joffe-Walt)

& yes, you can see some hair in this snap, but I wasn't married yet, so if you don't like it, don't look.

I am still working on my second Megilah, this one illustrated, but between this case of the blues & a terrible cold (my girlfriend Maya's baby sneezed on my chin last week), I have been having a restless, sluggish, unproductive day. So I switched from writing to painting today. That was an adventure.

In Vancouver there are about a bazillion art supply stores, my favourite being Opus. But we are not in Vancouver right now. We are visiting Joel's family in Washington State, a little working holiday, & we are functionally away from civilization. I did not bring gouache with me, my preferred medium for decorating parchment, as I didn't know when we left home that I was coming down with a cold. This cold has thrown me for a loop & I can't maintain the necessary intention to properly form the letters, so - painting...

Joel's brother Jeremy & I headed into "town" & we started at Artists' Edge (no gouache, but a funky sharpener for rectangular pencils), then we went to JoAnn's (I hate big-box stores because they are one of the things which are destroying the planet, but I *really* needed gouache. They had none), & finally to Michael's (gouache). Success! Not only did they have gouache, but they had a full line of Bob Ross paint brushes, which I've never seen in Canada.

You remember Bob Ross? The gentle, funky Viet Nam vet with the 'fro who taught America how to paint oil landscapes on PBS? I loved those shows.
"Now we're gonna make a little tree down here by the brook. Look at that. What a nice little fella. Happy tree. Now let's just give him a little snow to wear..."

Anyway, I own plenty of high-quality paint brushes, but when I saw that there was one called a "Wildlife Finisher", I couldn't resisit but fight off an imaginary animal in the aisle. "Take that! & that!"

This cold has stoned me or something. (in a Van Morrison way)
& no kosher cold medicine out here in the tulies, so I'll just have to get over it the old fashioned way.
Anyway, we are now back & I am painting. Yay!
I hope this post makes sense, because I am REALLY sick!