Visual Art

In my work, I attempt to find new emotional and spiritual centers in ideas, characters, and objects from Jewish religious and folk lores, particularly those of magic, monsters, death, and healing. I am trying to push back against narrow grooves of synagogue and home life that are left to us by the cultural overload of American society, and the modern world. We’ve lost stories and rituals, segulot (charms) and refuot (remedies). We no longer hang amulets to protect ourselves during childbirth from shedim (demons) and we no longer rejoice when the baby is safe and the amulets come down. We’ve lost the rituals, the rue and cloves and lead, for protecting ourselves from the evil eye and without it’s shield we suffer the jealousy of those around us. What do we do when we fear the previous owners of our house or occupants of our offices? My images are reimaginings, new images of old ideas made with new tools and old textures. I love fabric and colored paper, dolls and bug wings. I love broken pottery and bottles of horse teeth. I want to bring them all together and sift through them until I find the Garden of Eden.

Art from the Jewish Magic and Monsters Trading Cards Project

https://ko-fi.com/adnesadeh/shop

Image Sources for Digital Collages

Ziz

1. Old yellow car png, diary sticker
   Source: RawPixel
   Copyright Status: Royalty Free Transparent PNG
2. Heron (Reiger) (1911) print in high resolution by Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. Original from The Rijksmuseum. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.
   Source: RawPixel
   Copyright Status: Public Domain Free CC0 Image

Giant Frog

1. Frog by a Dandelion with Flies (c. 1877 – c. 1938) Jan van Oort (Dutch, 1867-1938)
   Source: ArtVee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
2. Oasis Pres Des Pyramides Charles Théodore Frère (French, 1814 – 1888)
   Source: ArtVee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain

Sheydim

1. Doll. Coloured ivory, Roman work, second half of the 2nd century CE. From the sarcophagus of the Grottarossa mummy, Via Cassia Km 11.
   Source: Wikimedia Commons
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
   Attribution: Palazzo Massimo alle Terme Collection
   Photo by Jastrow (2006)
2. Pachnoda sinuata, Cetoniinae, isolated wings 2012
   Source: Wikimedia Commons
   Copyright Status: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

Banim Shovavim

1. Cellar (1873) Willem Linnig II
   Source: ArtVee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
2. Small girls sitting on cellar door, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
   Source: Library of Congress
   Copyright Status: Public Domain

The Bone Luz

1. Skeleton Woman Back
   Source: Wikimedia Commons
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
2. Old Jewish Cemetery of Wroclaw (Poland) – German Grave
   Source: Wikimedia Commons
   Attribution: Emmanual Dyan
   Copyright Status: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Tzohar

1. Noah’s Ark with straw marquetry work and about 100 animals, Grünhainichen, 1850-1900
   Source: Wikimedia Commons
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
   Attribution: Museum für Sächsische Volkskunst, Dresden, Germany
2. Olivine on Earth
   Source: Raw Pixel
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
   Attribution: NASA

Asenath Barzani

1. The Jewish wife of a Kurdish chieftain by Antoin Sevruguin (C. 1890-95)
   Source: Jewish Women’s Archive
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
2. Sefer Torah on parchment written in Hebrew in a Sefardic square script in the 18th century. 05 mm x 9870 mm. Chester Beatty Library Heb 777
   Source: Wikipedia Commons
   Copyright Status: Public Domain

Memunim

1. On The River Of Life (1896), Hugo Simberg (Finnish, 1873 – 1917)
   Source: Art Vee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
2. Une clairière en Provence (Étude), Henri-Edmond Cross
   Source: Art Vee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
3. Landscape with Stars (ca. 1905–1908), Henri-Edmond Cross
   Source: Art Vee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain

Sabbateans

1. The Library of Thorvald Boeck (1902) Harriet Backer (Norwegian, 1845–1932)
   Source: ArtVee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
2. ‘Ah, you little thief!’ said the farmer in an angry voice. (1925)
   Source: ArtVee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
3. The Chimera Gazed at All Things with Fear (1886)
   Source: ArtVee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
4. An owl with red eyes.
   Source: RawPixel
   Copyright Status: Public Domain

Ghost Exorcism

1. Bedrängnis (around 1923) Karl Wiener
   Source: ArtVee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain
2. Model in the Garden (1930) Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863 – 1944)
   Source: ArtVee
   Copyright Status: Public Domain