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Artist’s illuminations inspired by text
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BY: SUSAN H. KAHN Assistant Editor
Illuminate has many meanings: give light to, brighten, decorate a manuscript, enlighten in mind and spirit.
So it is fitting that painter Jackie Olenick calls her works “illuminations.” Not only are the artist’s richly colored prints decorative and bright, they are inspired by her favorite passages from Torah, prayers and psalms.
“The text comes first; it speaks to me,” says Olenick. “From the words comes the image.”
Olenick of Florida is one of 200 artists participating in the 18th Annual Art in the Village at Legacy Village.
The artist creates her works using paint, paper collage and calligraphy. In “Spread over Us Your Shelter of Peace,” the artist depicts an impressionistic vision of Jerusalem with clouds shaped like wings of Shekinah (Divine Presence) hovering over the land. The title line, executed in Hebrew calligraphy, arches above. From the original works, Olenick creates giclées (high-quality fine art prints). Her works, she says, are intended to bring holy reminders of Yiddishkeit to the Jewish home.
For much of Olenick’s life, art was an avocation. Growing up in Philadelphia, she was an “arty kid” who attended Jewish day school. Her parents did not encourage her to study art, but her early experience with handiwork gave her an affinity for Hebrew calligraphy.
“When I was little, we lived with my grandparents, who were tailors,” she explains. “They taught me to embroider the Hebrew alphabet, which I knew before the English alphabet.”
Olenick married young, and she and her husband Leon moved to St. Paul, where, in addition to raising three children, she held administrative jobs at the University of Minnesota. Over the years, she sought out various mentors and teachers.
“For three years, I studied the classical traditions of Chinese watercolor painting,” says the artist. “My teacher was surprised when I began incorporating Hebrew text into my designs, but I felt this was very much in the Chinese tradition of using lines of poetry in calligraphy within a painting.”
An example of this type of design is Olenick’s print “Generation to Generation,” which pairs the words “L’dor, V’dor” in Hebrew calligraphy with the image of a bird bringing nourishment to its young.
Olenick’s first professional artistic venture was designing Jewish-themed T-shirts. Although she says these became “wildly popular,” the artist did not enjoy the business aspects of that enterprise.
“I wanted to make fine art, especially art that relates to Torah,” she says. “It just felt like a calling.”
At about the same time, Olenick’s husband also felt called to a more spiritual career. The former food broker began studying for the rabbinate. After his ordination, he was offered a position as rabbi/chaplain of a Miami hospice, and the couple moved to Boca Raton. Now the grandparents of nine, the Olenicks share their home with two teenage grandsons.
Olenick tries to work everyday in her home studio. She takes commissions and creates personalized illuminated ketubot (marriage contracts) and greeting cards. A number of Olenick’s images have been selected by the Union for Reform Judaism for its “Shabbat Anthology” songbooks and CD covers. She also presents hands-on workshops for temples, schools and organizations, in which participants of all ages and skill levels can learn about Judaic art. Olenick has been honored as an Artist and Artisan in the Sacred Guild of the Disciples of Betzalel.
The Legacy Village show is the first of four in the Midwest in which Olenick will participate. Numerous Florida art shows fill her winter calendar.
“The shows are fun, and if the weather cooperates and business is good, it is a joy to be there,” she comments. “I’ve met colleagues and made friends.”
Olenick says the impetus to make Judaic art may be rooted in her experience as an impressionable child.
“When I was very young, my mother housed Auschwitz survivors. She fed them and clothed them and helped them find jobs,” she recalls. “I remember wondering, ‘What had happened to all their stuff?’ Maybe that gave me the passion to put beauty back in the world.
skahn@cjn.org
What: Art in the Village show
Where: Legacy Village
When: Sat., June 7, 10-8; Sun., June 8, 10-6
Admission: Free
So it is fitting that painter Jackie Olenick calls her works “illuminations.” Not only are the artist’s richly colored prints decorative and bright, they are inspired by her favorite passages from Torah, prayers and psalms.
“The text comes first; it speaks to me,” says Olenick. “From the words comes the image.”
Olenick of Florida is one of 200 artists participating in the 18th Annual Art in the Village at Legacy Village.
The artist creates her works using paint, paper collage and calligraphy. In “Spread over Us Your Shelter of Peace,” the artist depicts an impressionistic vision of Jerusalem with clouds shaped like wings of Shekinah (Divine Presence) hovering over the land. The title line, executed in Hebrew calligraphy, arches above. From the original works, Olenick creates giclées (high-quality fine art prints). Her works, she says, are intended to bring holy reminders of Yiddishkeit to the Jewish home.
For much of Olenick’s life, art was an avocation. Growing up in Philadelphia, she was an “arty kid” who attended Jewish day school. Her parents did not encourage her to study art, but her early experience with handiwork gave her an affinity for Hebrew calligraphy.
“When I was little, we lived with my grandparents, who were tailors,” she explains. “They taught me to embroider the Hebrew alphabet, which I knew before the English alphabet.”
Olenick married young, and she and her husband Leon moved to St. Paul, where, in addition to raising three children, she held administrative jobs at the University of Minnesota. Over the years, she sought out various mentors and teachers.
“For three years, I studied the classical traditions of Chinese watercolor painting,” says the artist. “My teacher was surprised when I began incorporating Hebrew text into my designs, but I felt this was very much in the Chinese tradition of using lines of poetry in calligraphy within a painting.”
An example of this type of design is Olenick’s print “Generation to Generation,” which pairs the words “L’dor, V’dor” in Hebrew calligraphy with the image of a bird bringing nourishment to its young.
Olenick’s first professional artistic venture was designing Jewish-themed T-shirts. Although she says these became “wildly popular,” the artist did not enjoy the business aspects of that enterprise.
“I wanted to make fine art, especially art that relates to Torah,” she says. “It just felt like a calling.”
At about the same time, Olenick’s husband also felt called to a more spiritual career. The former food broker began studying for the rabbinate. After his ordination, he was offered a position as rabbi/chaplain of a Miami hospice, and the couple moved to Boca Raton. Now the grandparents of nine, the Olenicks share their home with two teenage grandsons.
Olenick tries to work everyday in her home studio. She takes commissions and creates personalized illuminated ketubot (marriage contracts) and greeting cards. A number of Olenick’s images have been selected by the Union for Reform Judaism for its “Shabbat Anthology” songbooks and CD covers. She also presents hands-on workshops for temples, schools and organizations, in which participants of all ages and skill levels can learn about Judaic art. Olenick has been honored as an Artist and Artisan in the Sacred Guild of the Disciples of Betzalel.
The Legacy Village show is the first of four in the Midwest in which Olenick will participate. Numerous Florida art shows fill her winter calendar.
“The shows are fun, and if the weather cooperates and business is good, it is a joy to be there,” she comments. “I’ve met colleagues and made friends.”
Olenick says the impetus to make Judaic art may be rooted in her experience as an impressionable child.
“When I was very young, my mother housed Auschwitz survivors. She fed them and clothed them and helped them find jobs,” she recalls. “I remember wondering, ‘What had happened to all their stuff?’ Maybe that gave me the passion to put beauty back in the world.
skahn@cjn.org
What: Art in the Village show
Where: Legacy Village
When: Sat., June 7, 10-8; Sun., June 8, 10-6
Admission: Free
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