Maker Kollel Week by Week
The Kabbalistic concept of the 10 Sefirot - Divine emanations through which the world was created - serve as our map of the creative process.
1. Keter
The first week was Keter - the crown above the head, also connected with Atiq, the will to have a will, the initial yearning to create. Maker Kollel Artist-Educator Arielle Tonkin led us in mapping our genealogies - the people, places, materials, books, artworks, concepts, traditions, rituals etc. that we draw from in lives and work. Some elements included in our lists: Contact Improv. Flower Arranging. Calvin and Hobbes. Eva Hesse. Greg Bordowitz. Linen. Felt. Minimalist music. Sisters. Ceramics. During their personal work hours during the week, fellows were asked to generate a list of any and all questions that they're ponding about life and the existence.
3. BINAH
We had our first zoom session of the Maker Kollel last night, which was our third meeting for this spring cohort - the week of Binah, which can be described as the Divine womb, the cozy space of safety for growth, the concept beginning to come into articulation.
Naama Sadan, Atiq’s Director of Development and Sustainability and also one of the Maker Fellows this round, shared some teachings about Binah from renowned Israeli spiritual teacher Yemima Avital.
A key snippet, relevant for all of us in these crazy times: “Pushing for instant understanding shows a misunderstanding of the secret of growth. In every misunderstanding is an island of understanding.”
While definitely different than being in the studio together, we were able learn, and share and create in shared space and time. For the moment, dayenu! We’re so grateful for that!
5. Gevurah
Maker Kollel, fifth meeting - gevurah. Gevurah can be translated as boundaries, limits, strength or stern judgement. Gevruah should always be present as a balance to chesed (love) but can become overpowering. Ariel Evan Mayse, Atiq Rabbi-in-Residence shared a text from the Maggid of Mezritch about how gevurah provides structure for chesed so that it does not overflow and overwhelm everything, but still continues to provide access to the infinite vitality and creativity.
Gevurah can at times evoke an unpleasant sense of restriction but it can also point to a sense of safety, security and creative possibility that we can only access through boundaries and parameters. This can be especially meaningful at a time when we may otherwise feel vulnerable or overwhelmed. We oriented ourselves towards gevurah in our work by focusing on a sense of basic action (this might relate to Aron Henne's @theatredybbuk notion of pedestrian action, not sure!). What are some minimalist parameters that I can return to again and again in my work. Rather than having to make choices - the kind of abundance of expression we were orienting towards through the mode of chesed - this is a choice and the permission to be spare, to show up just enough to be able to return to our work in a consistent way.
My saxophone teacher, Michael Maleson, of blessed memory, used to say, "If you don't know what notes to play in your solo, just keep playing one note".
The image included here is from a family clay project - my four year old spent the whole time making snails, rolling out a length of clay, curling into a snail, rolling out a length of clay, curling it into a snail. It was clear though that he was investigating something - what I didn't know, and he might not have either - and the parameters that he was working within provided access to something necessary in that moment.
In this next stretch of work, fellows were tasked with working on their projects orienting towards the question: what are the basic parameters that I will return to again and again?
Sending blessings to all of you for feeling connected to the infinite love within the boundaries and constrictions surrounding us - in GOOD HEALTH!
7. Netzach
Netzach/Commitment (also sometimes translated as victory or eternity)/Right Leg - With Arielle T @arielletonkin back at the helm we wrote reflections on the questions: When have I intentionally suspended my commitment in my creative practice? When has staying in the grey area served me?; When have I committed to/believed in a structure (either of my own design or extrinsic) so fully that I found myself free to create inside of it?
We connected these reflections even more to our projects by drawing a picture of the project we've committed to so far, and then sculpting a reflection on the question: what can I identify (possibly by subtraction) as the core commitment of my project?
Responses were so interestingly varied: I am committing to to creating a vehicle where stories can live and happen. I am committing to a form: orbs. I am committing to feeling other people's feelings. I am committed to the twist.
9. Yesod
Maker Kollel Session 9 - Yesod - Crescendo
What kind of energy is needed to bring your project to completion (even as one phase of an evolving or ongoing work)? Is it the energy of setting a pendulum in motion, in which you continue adding energy into the system even once it’s been shared? Or is it more like a coiled spring or an arrow that gets released from a bow, wherein you as the creator imbue all the creative thought and action into the creation and then release it completely to be received however it will be received? Usually there is some mix of these two, and it can be super interesting to consider the different the types of framing and intention and preparation needed for each of these.
2. Chochma
This week was Chochma - the first note, the emergence of the alphabet soup of possibilities, the tiny letter yud, the zygote. Atiq Rabbi-in-Residence joined us to give an intro to Kabblah, Hasidism, and Neo Hasidism, all of which form that a foundation for our approach to #makerTorah. He also shared a few sources on the role that Chochma plays in the creative process. Then, on a long piece of butcher paper, each fellow shared one question from their list, and then everyone cycled around, adding questions sparked by each other's questions. This process is designed to nudge us in the necessary but sometimes anxiety-provoking direction of making a choice, committing to a path of inquiry, even while the goal is still unclear.
As we move towards our Binah session, Fellows will now be choosing one specific way that their question manifests in their lives, and choosing one material through which to explore that question (and its specific reality in their lives).
4. CHESED
Maker Kollel, cohort 2, session 4 - Chesed - Love! Have you ever experienced - either given or received - a gesture that felt like it was born of pure love?
This summer I got to learn from artist, mentor and friend Shoshana Gugenheim who introduced me to the notion of art created as Gestures of Care, creating not out of utilitarian purpose but purely as an expression of care, regard for that person or thing - for example, writing a poem for a rock.
Love or care is often alloyed with utility or worry or any number of other modes, but what might we make or do when we allow ourselves to center on love? Love that is both specific and expansive at the same time.
Our work this evening involved three exercises: first, making something from a memory of when we’ve given or received a gesture of care or a gesture motivated primarily by love. Second, making something FOR someone or something, centering our making on the modality of Chesed, love. And finally, making something for our Kollel projects that are still emerging - what might you make for something that you don’t fully comprehend, is not fully manifest yet, but that you’re already allowing yourself to be in love with, to feel in relationship with?
In our tradition, Chesed is always echoed by Gevurah - boundaries - so that it doesn’t seep unhealthily or unhelpfully into everything. But it can be quite a beautiful thing, especially at a very Gevurah feeling time - sheltering-in-place and worried as we are - to really inhabit the space of chesed, love for a whole span of time and materials.
6. Tiferet
Maker Kollel week 5: Tiferet (connecting, as we have been to the 10 sefirot as our map of the creative process for our collective and individual work). Layered with this gevurah week in the omer count. Blessed to have Arielle Tonkin @at ielletonkin lead us in a series of exercises to access the centering of Tiferet - the balance between Chesed (love) and Gevurah (boundaries).
This first photo is a sideways glance at our incredibly welcome movement practice to begin, dancing our way into making as we found the center fulcrum in our body, in our rhythm. The second photo is a few paper beads created during abacus Omer counter creating. This lovely version of a time honored interactive Jewish ritual object was designed by Ava Sakaya Rosen @Ava sayakarosen as part of hers and Arielle’s @mutualaidmaterials work. Arielle shared it with us as a way of exploring a sense of living inquisitive creative expression within a set and quite structured framework - a tiferet object in its own right! The third stage of our session involved each fellow sharing their project (at whatever stage it’s currently at) and receiving structured feedback and ideas from everyone in the group.
So grateful for the weekly touchstone of working with these illuminated humans. What touchstones are giving you energy, helping you feel centered and grounded these days???
8. Hod
Hod/ Reverbaration;Splendor/Left Leg - When we encounter our own work with eyes of blessing; when we encounter each other with appreciation and wonder - we create reverberations of beauty that connect us to the Source of Beauty. A note played on an instrument in a symphony hall becomes much more than itself, endlessly more splendid because of the reverberative acoustics of the hall (to use my father R.Dr. Nehemia Polen's metaphor).
This week Ariel Mayse was back teaching us a source from the Alexander Rebbe, about Hod Sh'bHod - the mutual appreciative warmth for friends that stopped a plague in Rabbi Akiva's beit midrash. We exercised our HOD muscles first by making collaborative back and forth drawings (a pretty hilarious proposition over zoom) that all started with the Hebrew letter Heh; and then by sketching an appreciation drawing that kept expanding of our own qualities that we were proud and appreciative of. As we worked we paused with little snippets of songs, whichever song each fellow felt moved to share, in order to take short breaks and then return to our work with a new opportunity for seeing with appreciation.