Text speaks to our ratio, but paintings speak to our emotions...

I would like to express my deepest and most heartfelt gratitude to the ROI Community founded by Lynn Schusterman for giving me the opportunity to publish my first art catalog.

My art is rooted in the inspiration I receive through symbols and religious and spiritual texts such as the Tanach, the Talmudic Midrashim, the Kabbalistic Book of Zohar and other sources. My art has become an inner passion for a greater spiritual reality that exists in my mind and soul. For the last five years I have been exhibiting my artworks in Sweden, Austria, Israel, and Slovakia. In 2013 I am planning to organize exhibitions of my artworks in Bratislava, Prague and Berlin. The art catalogue includes artworks of mine, explanations and ideas. I am delighted to use the Micro grant for publishing my first art catalogue which is a great promotion material during exhibitions and will involve people in learning about Jewish culture, texts and ideas through art.

As a Paideia fellow I came across the concept of spreading Jewish knowledge and meaningful identity through Jewish literacy. Yet I understood that valuable Jewish texts from Midrashim or mystical sources are not easily accessible for many people in the Hebrew or Aramaic original. Therefore I wish to use the universal language of visualization in order to illuminate spiritual concepts and inspire the observers and try to make them understand that our Jewish tradition can be seen as a colourful mosaic. Text speaks to our ratio, but paintings speak to our emotions. And through using one you can awaken the excitement for the other, to be used in Shiurim all across the J globe.

Alisa Poplavskaya

Link to the catalog:

http://cl.ly/3F3b0w303o0I