Bring Home The Light: A Collage Workshop for Hanukkah

Join BJ member and collage artist, Michal Nachmany, for a Zoom workshop in collage art. Each person or family will be invited to create a collage centered on the promise that in dark times, even small actions can add light to the future generations of our family community. 

Imagine the lives and hard beginnings of our parents and grandparents, who lit just a ‘small candle’ to allow us to live a life of joy in New York.  As such, you may use old family images (copies), past and presence, in your collage, mapping a journey from yesteryear to 2021. You may use old images (newspaper and magazine clips, photos, old recipes, envelopes and letters, postcards, etc.) as elements in your collage. 

Nachmany’s artistic motto is, “Every Person and Every Object Has a Journey.” Think about the journeys of these images and objects and create a story using them.

Michal Nachmany is self-taught mixed-media and collage artist who has exhibited in solo shows in the U.S., Taiwan, and Poland. She is also an educator who teaches modern and liturgical Hebrew in rabbinical schools, synagogues, and elsewhere. Nachmany grew up in Jerusalem, where the mixture of cultures, people, architecture, objects, colors, sounds, and smells from the streets and the markets of Jerusalem shaped her awareness of the past as a foundation of the present. In recent years she had opportunities to exhibit in multiple locations in New York City and nearby. She also had two international exhibitions, one in Taiwan and another in Poland. Learn more about her work on her website. 

How to prepare:

• A base, either a wood panel (see link to purchase below), or any hard cardboard that you might have around the house (12” x 12”)
• Glue stick (such as UHU)
• Scissors
• Copies of pictures of family’s history, old newspapers, receipts, letters, magazine pictures, etc. – Select 5-8 images to be used on the collage
• Optional: paints, color pencils, stencils, etc.
• [If interested, reach out to Michal for a more detailed step-by-step instruction about the art of collage]

Where to buy:

• Wood panels – package of 3
• Glue stick: such as UHU (package of 3)