The new portraits, a part of the Essence series have provided the understanding that I needed to organize the inspirational book I am writing about UnGraven Image and my work. Although this will not be the title, part of the pitch is, “A Visual Alphabet Soup for the Soul.”

The Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise series became the one I concentrated on creating enough work for a show after I read several books that advised creating a body of work in one series and preferably using one media (such as acrylics, oils or watercolor) as supposedly that is what galleries are looking to show. Most of the solo shows I have seen in Chelsea recently tend to bear this out, but not fully in relation to the media part. The Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise series uses the text of Genesis Chapter one, from that comes the idea that the letters of the words spoken by the Creator symbolically represent the essences (now known as pre-particles, membranes or strings in physics).

When I first experimented with using the Hebrew letters for the strokes in a painting by copying out original Bible texts, I found a way to show a scientific reality that lies beneath what we see that I had hoped for since high school when I was experimenting with painting atoms and turning them into a larger image. Those first paintings were all of sunsets or sunrises, but then I branched out to other imagery. What I knew at the onset of the Hebrew letter experiment was that I following a religious belief held by all branches and denominations of Christians and Jews and also mentioned in the Koran, so held by Muslims, too (admittedly I know some Muslims hold to this but whether all sects do I have no idea).

What I found out, little by little over the past three years is that Torah font Hebrew is also a binary font, the only fully binary font in any written language I can find. Also, I discovered the font is binary in two different ways! Being binary meant that it also symbolically referenced branches of science in addition to elementary physics, such as genetics, PC programming, biology, etc.

Then I began to discover the religious or spiritual paths also referenced by the binary or dualistic font. First, I accidentally discovered through a Google search for “binary” that the Tao is fully binary or dualistic. I have just read the Tao and it sure is binary! Then came information that Buddhism, Hinduism (think yin-yang) and of course the Abrahamic religions again (good-evil), plus other religions have important dualistic concepts. [Note: For more on how Hebrew torah font is binary and why this is so important to my art see Artist Discovers Hebrew Letters are Binary in Two Different Ways -- Part 1 and Artist Discovers Hebrew Letters are Binary in Two Different Ways -- Part 2  ]

I prayed for guidance, but on many levels it just seemed obvious that the series to lead off with is the Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise series. In addition to everything mentioned previously the series is about beginnings, a sunset is a beginning, but also an ending. Once again, an obviously way to begin.

The early Genesis text paintings often included trees and usually those works had some additional significance. Of all the series, the only one that has any mystical of symbolism or surrealistic imagery became the Trees of Life series, although again, most of the works are based simply on real trees in nature. The Trees of Life series began to be also about how we present ourselves. For instance, in the Seasons of Trees set, which are available as prints there is the glorious tree of autumn, then the stark winter, the tree in full spring bloom and the lush green tree of summer.

Wild animals inspired another series, called Written on the Wind. The Wild animals who survived the tsunami, and almost all of them seemed to, did so the same time that my locality was experiencing a blizzard, which if fairly rare for us. The birds in my own backyard were also successfully surviving although once the blinding, howling storm was over their forage was hidden who were successfully surviving a real blizzard and its aftermath when their forage was hidden under a deep blanket of snow. The Written on the Wind series is about listening to that “still small voice” or another way of comprehending, call it instinct, intuition, inspiration or going with one's gut.

Once I had the portraits how to organize the book suddenly became clear about a week ago as I rode into New York City.

The Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise series is about beginnings and endings. Beginnings are always preceded or accompanied by a kind of Ah-Ha moment when we realize or perceive something new (whether we like it or not) and we purposefully or inevitably begin a new course of action. Life is crammed full of these moments and events, most of them seem commonplace (such as awakening and getting up, finding a parking space, realizing there is an errand that must be run) and offer little real challenge, so we overlook that they are endings and beginnings. We do recognize the big events that are life changing: graduations, weddings, births, major illnesses, and deaths.

We need that Aha! moment, that moment of awareness, especially self-awareness to grow and move into more of who we want to be or achieve what we now understand we want to accomplish. Thus, the Genesis Sunset-Sunrise series.

Then to become or accomplish we need to learn – to listen or see new ways of being and doing. That is what the Written on the Wind series is about.

Then we become it and we embody our new understandings with our actions. In a sense who we are is what we do. We recognize other people's character by their actions and sometimes the ramifications of those actions. Even the very wealthy and celebrity superstars are known for their actions, which can earn them more accolades or consequences with the public, the box office, in business or even with the law. This is what the Essence series is about.

Finally there is our outward reach to our family and friends, communities, and society in general. Here we can influence others and even the world. Here is the artist who changes the way we see the world, including ourselves as opposed to the artist-designer who creates interesting packaging, a jingle or slogan, or clever illustration. For instance, when Andy Warhol was illustrating shoes his work is lyrical and clever but has not reached this expanded level, when he paints soup cans and throws the consumerism of our society back in our faces his work becomes brilliant and revealing (inspirational). This is relevant to the Trees of Life series.

We all do manage to be inspirational at times, to be a kind of Tree of Life to someone. Even young children who manage to inspire their adults with a big smile or giggle. Most of us have had a teacher who did more than convey knowledge – who inspired us. Vincent van Gogh died long before I was born but through his work that I saw at the Met and MoMA as a young girl, I learned a great deal about life and art.

Of course it is easy to recognize that people who move or inspire us can be seen as life giving and symbolized by Trees of Life . However, I have also learned a great deal of what not to do from people who set bad examples, not just artists who I find to be truly awful (and will never name) but on a whole other level by people who are abusers, or entangle themselves in problems that never needed to happen. They need an Aha! moment…

There seems to be a natural flow as we move from an Aha moment of awareness, to exploring, learning and experiencing that new understanding, to embodying it in our lives and perhaps personalities (comfortably using it) to sharing it with others, thus beginning the cycle again. It will be the basic structure of my book, with chapters about specific paintings within each series focusing on concepts relevant to that series.

It took the new portraits – my finally working on the Essence series (which was named and intended about two years ago) to complete the natural cycle and allow me to structure, thus embody the book. So the natural next step was to share my new understandings, which led to writing this blog article.

Commissions for portraits of children and adults in the Essence series are currently being considered. Please contact Judy Rey Wasserman by phone (631) 259-3476 or email  or use the "Contact" tab on the menu at the ungravenimage.com website.

December 12, 2007