Welcome to the gallery sampling the paintings from I Will Wake the Dawn: Illuminated Psalms. The 150 Psalms of the Hebrew Bible have spoken to the hearts of Jews and Christians for more than two millennia. In my second book, I Will Wake the Dawn: Illuminated Psalms, published by the Jewish Publication Society in 2007, I illuminated a carefully-chosen anthology of 36 psalms, chosen for their particular prominence in Jewish prayer, their expression of love of Israel, their use in traditional Jewish folk-song, and emotional relevance to ubiquitous human situations. Each psalm’s illuminations include the original Hebrew and the 1985 Jewish Publication Society translation. Following Rabbi Harold Kushner’s moving foreword and introductory essays by renowned scholar of Hebrew literature, Arnold J. Band and myself, the illuminations are complemented by my commentary explaining the symbolism in each, along with literary analyses by Arnold Band. Each psalm’s commentary also includes information about its Christian liturgical uses, which I prepared with the help of leading Christian bible scholars. The illuminations were accomplished on kosher slunk vellum, the same calfskin used in the finest Torah scrolls, with ink, gouache, gold leaf and powdered gold, and palladium, as well as papercuts.

If you would like to read my introduction, please click here. To read Arnold J. Band’s introduction to the Psalms as literature, please click here.

I Will Wake the Dawn: Illuminated Psalms received enthusiastic reviews. Please click here to read the reviews.

I was honored to be asked to offer a talk on I Will Wake the Dawn: Illuminated Psalms at the Library of Congress in 2008. Please click here to view the webcast. The paintings from I Will Wake the Dawn: Illuminated Psalms are available as limited edition prints. Please contact me to inquire about prints, or other questions relating to this work.