![\"photo](\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/jul-26-VA.26.Devorah-Stone-Bee-Circle.jpeg\")
<\/a>\u201cThis year\u2019s theme is \u2018animals\u2019 and since my name means \u2018Honeybee\u2019 in Hebrew, I went with that,\u201d Devorah told me. \u201cThe bees in my work are all hand-felted, a technique that involves pocking at wool and shaping the form. I decided to present the bees in circles because they are so crucial to the circle of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The artists\u2019 works are up for six months in the shul\u2019s social hall. Devorah has been involved with the event for the last 10 years. Rabbi Brechner gives a lecture on the theme and how it pertains to Jewish traditions, sacred writings and thought once a month for five months before the celebration. This year, his teaching focused on the significant symbolic and ritual roles animals play in Jewish texts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve learnt so much about both art and Judaism attending the rabbi\u2019s lectures,\u201d said Devorah. \u201cAnyone can join \u2026 you don\u2019t even need to be Jewish.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Calling All Artists project is run by self-proclaimed \u201cden mother\u201d Barbara Pelman. She said there is a chapbook written every year with an explanation of each artist\u2019s creative process and a copy of that is given out to guests.<\/p>\n \u201cIn last year\u2019s Calling All Artists, I did the kohain gadol<\/i>\u2019s (high priest\u2019s) breastplate with references to all the various colour and gem stones as described in the Torah,\u201d said Devorah. \u201cThe only difference was the mannequin I used was a woman\u2019s so I pretended that there might have been female priests at the time of the Temple!<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve also done a collage of a person wearing a tallit and the burning bush, a three-dimensional piece of the Rosh Hashanah dinner, and another collage on a wooden cradle of the story of Abraham and Isaac.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Devorah has always been fascinated with art.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a child, there was nothing better than a box of crayons and endless paper,\u201d she said. \u201cI drew space ships, planets and alien worlds. I also drew castles and princesses. I loved it. My imagination had no limits.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In her 20s, Devorah spent four years at the University of Victoria, earning a bachelor of fine arts. All the while, she felt inspired by Emily Carr and Indigenous art.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved the way Carr personified nature and her magnificent trees,\u201d she shared. \u201cI marveled at the complexities, elegance and craftsmanship of the First Peoples of the land.\u201d<\/p>\n