Filtered Lights: Colorwork on Akhashverosh

Here's a link to a video showing the progression of colorwork on the first image for our Megillat Esther:

http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

The Madeleine Amulet: Producing the Amulet

This brief video shows the process of designing, drawing, calligraphing, painting, and illuminating an amulet for my sweet little kabuchki Madeleine.

Designing the Madeleine Amulet

This 2 minute video shows the design stages in the production of an illuminated amulet, The Madeleine Amulet. It also describes the conceptual foundations of the images I developed for the amulet.

The Madeleine Amulet, complete

Having just completed the Madeleine Amulet/Shiviti, I am creating a full video of its creation, from conception to birth, but in the meantime, here's a sneak peak, a 15 second video spiraling around the completed shiviti.
For those who do not know the term "shiviti" (which I spell shivvetee), it is a Hebrew word meaning "I have set" or "I have placed". Line 8 of Psalm 16 states, "Shivvetee Uddoniy l'negdee tammeed": "I have set God before me always." And thus the word got transferred to the object, in reverence of the Divine.

Video: laying gold leaf

This 3 minute video shows me laying gold leaf on an amulet I'm making for my granddaughter, Madeleine. The voice-over provides explanations of what I'm doing, as well as some technical details that may be of use to craftspeople who want to learn about the process. The background music is entitled "Midnight in the Greenhouse" and was written and produced by Kevin MacLeod.

Sofer writing a Megillah scroll

The video below shows Jeffrey Shulevitz working on writing a Megillah scroll (scroll of the Book of Esther). In the audio portion of the video, I talk about some of the advice Jeffrey has to offer.

Alkemmek Man and Chaenjing Fasez

I've just finished the last two big pieces that will accompany the poetic text for my soon-to-be published ebook, The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 1.
Here is a 30 second extended moment of Elmallah, the messenger of the Lor, experiencing the existential crisis of human thought and emotion, as he descends from his heavens into Ertha. It is entitled, Alkemmek Man, Storm ov Ertha:

And this silent, 12 second video, shows two of the multiple, superposing identities of Ertha, as they morph states. It is entitled Chaenjing Fasez:

Arrownd her klay silluwet, 2

As I re-think the images I'm creating for my ebook, The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 1, I began experimenting with ways to represent changing states of consciousness.

Below, you will find a 27 second experiment, as I develop my ideas. I'd love to hear your critical feedback. It will help accelerate my growth and development.

You can also view a higher resolution version of this video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/cbNwadWdlKo

Arrownd her klay silluwet

In my previous post, Feb. 15, 2013, Song of Elmallah, image 2, I uploaded a highly superimposed image that will become an illustration for my in-process ebook, The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming, Bouk 1. I also briefly discussed the conceptual foundation for using superimposition as a means of expression.

As I was reworking the image last night, Nancy looked into my study, so I asked her what she thought of the new version. She didn’t like it. Undecipherable and lacking visual coherence. Well, Blake was right, corporeal friends are spiritual enemies (and vice versa). In this case, acting as my spiritual friend, my wife didn’t withhold her bad news. And, being my own spiritual friend, her comments made sense.

Part of the problem is that superimposing images is a process, and the process gets lost in the reduction to a final version, a single image. I thought of that life-changing experience I had, walking the beach in Provincetown lifetimes ago, in which the whole trek from MacMillan wharf to my cottage sandwiched between the Penny Farthing and the Green Monster, a 25 minute walk, took place in a single instant. No, I didn’t take one giant step, boom, and I was home. And no, I didn’t slip thru a wormhole (best as I can figure). Rather, my sense of time dilated. I knew every single thing that would happen on that 25 minute walk, every person I’d see, every detail I’d experience. But in that dilated moment, nothing seemed strange to me. It was simply a moment like any other. It was only after I got home, saw where I was, came back to my “normal” sense of time and understood what happened, that I fell smack-down in utter astonishment, looked up at the starry sky, and tried to figure out what just happened.

So, folks, here’s an opportunity for you to experience a dilated moment. I’ve taken my “instantaneous image”, and dilated it into a 42 second image, including some periodic voice-over coupled with overlaid text. Now, this experience won’t necessarily help you to like my aesthetics, but I hope it will help you understand and appreciate the image, and a bit of the poem that the image is meant to illustrate. And maybe, it will even give you a taste of one kind of mystical experience, dilated time, so that you can experience directly how limited our consciousness is, and how much more is possible and even/almost within our grasp.

You can also view the video in slightly higher resolution at
http://youtu.be/gQKxZbtauVw

pups rough-housing

Just a little fun, here, to lighten the day...
Sanani and Nikki duking it out, 2 videos:

Song ov Elmallahz Kumming: video 2

On 1/31/13 I posted a video for my ebook of Bouk 1 of The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming. Here is a slight revision, with altered text fonts, based on your feedback:

Song ov Elmallahz Kumming: video

I am preparing an ebook edition of my poem, The Song ov Elmallahz Kumming. Actually, it will be 6 ebooks, one for each book of the poem. The first book is the shortest, about 300 lines or 8 pages. However, the ebook will have both stevetok and normtok versions, audio tracks of the poem in 2-4 stanza clips, a complete reading of the poem, and will include many illustrations and images as well. It will also include at least one video, an impressionistic interpretation of the opening scene of the poem, 28 seconds long (without title and credits, which I'll add later).

Here's the video. Naturally, I would greatly appreciate your critical feedback.

The Eternal Jew's Tale, Part 2, complete

On August 3 I uploaded a preliminary version of Reading 2 of The Atternen Jewz Talen (The Eternal Jew's Tael). That upload was just the soundtrack and a single slide/image. This is the completed video, composed of 90 stills, and is 3 minutes and 7 seconds long.

The setting is Jerusalem, 33 CE. The Atternen Jew describes his meeting with a local revolutionary.

Your feedback is welcome and desired.

Atternen Jew: reading 2, preliminary

This is a preliminary version of the second reading from The Atternen Jewz Taelen, without visual accompaniment. I'm not sure about the music underlays, and will build another version tomorrow. May also change the accent of the voice.

Your critical feedback, as ever, is desired, appreciated, and of great value to me.

Aternen Jew: a reading; a video

I have been preparing a series of recorded readings of my current work, The Mith ov the Aternen Jew, since, for some reason, many people seem to think my poetry is hard to read. Go figure!

I've been told that listening to the poetry makes it a lot easier to "decipher." My mother used to have my father (both of blessed memory) read them to her, and then she'd exclaim, "Oh, so THAT'S what he's saying! Why doesn't he WRITE it that way!"

As I've mentioned before, this is a retelling of a myth that is at least a thousand years old. It has morphed into  innumerable versions, some anti-Semitic, some philo-Semitic, some using the symbolism and narrative to pursue existential and philosophical topics unburdened of religious charge! My poem is the first TRUE version. (smile). The section of the poem from which I have been preparing readings, is The Aternen Jewz Taelen, the Eternal Jew's version of history as he wanders around the Middle East and Europe. You might think of it as his diary.

So here's a short video, less than 3 minutes, to kick off the series. As always, your critical feedback is of great value to me, so don't hesitate to comment or email me.

Enjoy!!