Welcome to the gallery of paintings from The Song of Songs: the Honeybee in the Garden! In these, the paintings and papercuts for my first book, I found a way of reconciling the two seemingly mutually contradictory ways of reading the Bible’s love song. Read literally, this book offers 117 verses of passionate, human love poetry, whereas in the traditional Midrashic understanding that has expressed core values of Judaism through the ages, it is understood as the love song between not humans, but God and the Jewish people. Walking along the beach, not far from our San Diego home early one morning with my late first husband, David Band, z”l, I realized that setting the poems as a series of daydreams of a young couple (most of the poetry is in the voice of a young woman) within a Second Temple period walled garden in Jerusalem would enable me create a visual interpretation true to both these readings—you will find the fruits of that inspiration here. The Jewish Publication Society published this work in 2005, and the exhibit of the original paintings toured the United States and Canada for several years. The illuminations include the original Hebrew text; the book’s commentary materials on each illumination include an original translation by David Band reflecting the most current linguistic scholarship, along with the 1985 JPS translation. The 13”x15” paintings and papercuts are accomplished on kosher slunk vellum (the same as in the finest Torah scrolls), in ink, gouache, and gold.

If you would like to read my Introduction to The Song of Songs: the Honeybee in the Garden, please click here. If you would like to read the remarkable reviews of this work, please click here.

I was honored to give a talk on The Song of Songs: the Honeybee in the Garden at the Library of Congress in 2008. Please click here to view the webcast. Many of the illuminated paintings from this work are available as limited edition prints. Please contact me for more information.