GWOZDZIEC RE!KONSTRUKCJA PAINTING

Group 7 Wrap-Up

2011-11-04T07:30:00.000+01:00

Better late than never, but here it is! Group 7 did a fantastic job, and during this workshop Handshouse met their goal of having four completed zodiac sections and two completed ceiling sections. So here it is, the Wroclaw workshop at the White Stork Synagogue in pictures!

Group 7 arrived in Krakow to do some site seeing, so the Wroclaw workshop started off with a wonderful dinner of students and the entire team at the Ariel Restaurant on the last night in Krakow. AMAZING!!!

One of the many amazing buildings in one of the squares in Wroclaw

Another view of the square

The exterior of the White Stork Synagogue, our gracious home for the next couple of weeks

Inside the Synagogue before we fully moved in

And of course, what is a painting workshop without a little moving and set-up?! :)

No workshop or workday is complete without introductions, a morning meeting, and a story or poem to inspire

Some of the fearless leaders ready to go for the last workshop of the summer. Check out those happy and determined faces!

Intros

Cameraman Dan gets a little face time now that professor and Group 7 faculty leader Rian has arrived

Once set up, Emily takes the group through a glue making and paint mixing lesson

Emma, Mary and Kelsey learn what it takes to paint the flame borders

Andrea transfers a section of Hebrew text onto the board

There is always lots of transfering to be done, this is an eagle from the North Wall Dome

Getting set up to transfer the North Wall Dome--so many flowers!

Charlotte and Zach learn how to paint rope borders

Zach and Emma trace the drawings Tom Hubka created for the cove section

Which vines are the right vines?

Working on Borders

Evryone hard at work!!!

Part of the learning takes place at other locations visited on field trips

Inside a beautiful church

Outside another

Nick set up the West Wall as the backdrop for the evenings concert

It was a wonderful performance

Now that all the flowers have been figured out the are ready for the real thing

Sarah finishes up one the flowers she learned to paint by getting it onto the panels

Rashin works on the medallion image

Elaine works on an Eagle

Jeanie adds the border to Nick's Turkey

Silvia and Olga get more background on the Synague

Anna paints a unique beautiful flower

Cailigh adds the shade layers to a flower

Rashin puts the finishing touches on the wall by adding the black outlines

The finished walls!!

A close-up of the right portion of the North Wall Dome

Group 7! And Finished Work!

2011-09-16T20:49:00.000+02:00

Hello again, check back soon for a full update on what was accomplished during the final Summer 2011 workshop in Wroclaw. Here is the group picture taken on the last day of the Group 7 workshop.

Krakow: Group 6

2011-09-13T05:28:00.002+02:00

It's been some time since a post, and there's still one whole workshop to report on, but here is Group 6 and the progress made during the Krakow workshop. Almost the entire West Dome and all four Zodiacs were completed, along with the cove drawings graciously created for us by Tom Hubka.

In Summary

2011-08-09T23:56:00.002+02:00

The Krakow Workshop in pictures:

Part of the interior of the Temple Synagogue where we held the workshop

The panels before we got set up, just to give an example of our space

Rick shared inspirational poems and readings at morning meetings

And to make sure we were alert, Marie concluded morning meetings with a game of "Zip, Zap, Zop"

And now, taking a look back...

Ariel demonstrates how to trace the images to later be transferred onto the panel

Groups of students prep practice panels to learn some of the painting

Some of the tracings used to create practice panels

Kuba, Kate, Eliza Rose and Agnieszka practice painting the different borders

Some examples of student practice panels

Working on the North Zodiac

Jaziek and Emma work on tracing and transferring the Hebrew text from the Upper West Dome onto the boards

The Temple Synagogue gets many visitors each day, Ariel explains our project to one group

Kelley works on tracings

There was always lots of paint to mix

Tek works on transferring Capricorn onto the West Zodiac

More work on the Zodiacs

Saw horses are a hot commodity and we always seem to need more. Craig and Matt help out by building more

Shannon and Eliza mix paint, it looks it might be Cool Light Base

The West Zodiac 95% done, it's just missing the black outlines

The Woad blue background goes onto the West Dome

The Lower West Dome early layers

One of the large groups of visitors from Isreal

Savana works out the center medallion for the lower dome

The vines turned out to be much trickier than expected

One of Case's practice pages for Virgo

Work on the medallion and adjusting the Stitch Border

Ariel paints the Hebrew for one of the original artist's signatures

Creating the printed Hebrew for the Zodiacs

Working on the Hebrew for the Zodiacs

Charline paints the spacers onto the zodiac Hebrew boards

Kate works on the bunnies in the bottom left of the West Upper Dome

Emily figures out how to paint the Unicorns on the West Upper Dome

Tom draws the images from the cove, which will be painted next summer

Nick works on transferring his camel onto the boards

Like paint mixing, there is ALWAYS clean-up. Marissa lends a hand

Krista shows her updated version of the bear--with new high res images comes new levels of detail

Nick learns the techniques for painting the camel

The West Wall as of Friday 8/5/2011

Participants

2011-08-09T02:18:00.001+02:00

Meet the whole Group 6! They are students and professionals from all over the US and Poland and are from several different universities, fields of study and occupation. Just to give some examples those schools and places include Brandeis University, MassArt, and the Galecia Museum in Kazimierz. Their backgrounds include Art, Architecture, Art History, Jewish Studies, Chemistry, Anthropology, and many others. They were a great help to the painting team with getting closer to this summer's goal of two full walls and a pendentive complete. We even threw two more Zodiacs into the mix, which are almost complete! So here they are!

Three of the Polish students even gave presentations on their area's of expertise. Konrad Matyjaszek presented on the architecture of Masonry Synagogues in Poland and what they have become. Agnieszka Duleba presented on Polish Jewish art of the 19th and 20th centuries. And Anna Wencel took us through the permanent exhibit, Traces of Memory, at the Galicia Museum. The exhibit is about the the Jewish memory in Poland today. Later she taught us about the art of Jewish paper cuts.

So Much to Show

2011-08-06T11:54:00.000+02:00

Here is the full Group 7, with all our wonderful polish students, and Handshouse students who moved on to Warsaw this morning. We will be sad to see all of them go. But check out how much got done this workshop!!!

This is the entire West Wall, with the exception of the Lantern to be done next summer, and all the Zodiacs

Hello Krakow!

2011-08-02T18:01:00.000+02:00

Group 6 is here in Krakow, getting stuff done!

We are also joined by several Polish students, they will be introduced soon. But in the meantime, here are some images of the work so far:

The new dimensioned images need to be traced and transferred, but they fit!

Before paint goes on the real panel, test blocks need to be made. Emily takes a crew through the entire process starting with gesso

Ariel explains the tracing process

Savannah and Conrad work on tracing the vines in the West Wall Upper Dome

Nick, Jason, and Rashin are working on the West Zodiac

Tracings are being made of the Lower Dome Hebrew and borders

Mixing pigments

Kate works on transfering the Pisces onto the West Zodiac

Nick and Anna work on the Zodiac Flame borders. These are transition boards between the Zodiac and Lantern

Alexa and Kate are making practice panels to learn the different techniques for each border element

Conrad practices the Hebrew text, it's trickier than it looks

Marissa measures out pigments to mix a batch of rope base light

Thank You Rzeszow and Group 5

2011-08-02T16:50:00.002+02:00

Though the Team and panels have moved on to Krakow and the next workshop is in full swing, this post will be about our wonderful experience in Rzeszow, and a thank you to all those who helped make it a success. Thank you to all of the wonderful students and volunteers who participated in the workshop--who sized half of the ceilings worth of boards on one of the hottest days, helped with all of the necessary prep that goes into getting the first brush stroke of actual paint on the boards, as well as organized activities to discover the history in the community we were working in, and helped us by translating to find lost trucks and such. Thank you also to all the local businesses, including our host the BWA Gallery and the Kryjowka Restaurant, who worked with us on all our strange requests and accommodations. And also, thank you to the entire community of Rzeszow for the hospitality received, and providing us with a truly unique experience with concerts in the square every weekend, daily farmers markets, delicious lody (ice cream) places with at least one on each street off the square, and relaxed atmosphere. So this post is being written to thank all those super stars who contributed to the workshop being a success.

Group 5


Back Row from Left to Right: Julia Nowak, Rick Brown, Marta Topolewska, Ola Karkonska, Zofia Mioduszewska, Krista Lima, Rashin Fahandejsaadi, Case Randall, Alison Kruvant, Jason Loik, Emily White, Marian Zub, Nick Farnham, Ariel Rosenblum, Kasia Kulinska, Laura Brown. Front Row from Left to Right: Magdalena Czuma, Dan D'Amore, Cailigh MacDonald, Anna Rykier, Jason Bashaw, Marie Brown

These were the members of Group 5 here for the duration of the Rzeszow workshop. Back from L to R: Julia Nowak, Anna Rykier, Marta Topolewska, Magdalena Czuma Front from L to R: Pola, Alison Kruvant

Local Heroes

The BWA Gallery, home of the Group 5 Workshop. The space that is now a gallery was formerly a Synagogue. Before WWII it was the Synagogue for the New Town. The Synagogue for the Old Town actually stands right next it and serves today's purposes as an archive.

This is the main gallery space at the BWA that we took over for two and a half weeks. At first glance the space does not seem like the worship hall of a Synagogue as was its original purpose. The remaining features that reference that original purpose are the four large columns in the center of the space, which is where the bimah, a raised structure in the middle of the Synagogue that faces the East Wall and is where the Torah is read, would have stood.

The group with the women at the Kryjowka Restaurant who helped keep us well fed with delicious food for two of our three daily meals.

Special Thanks: Ali Kruvant

Ali was the only Handshouse student for Group 5. She also participated in two workshop sessions, the first being Group 3/4 which was the final timber framing workshop, and Group 5, the first of three painting workshops for this summer. She also participated in a Handshouse workshop at Oberlin College, where she originally became involved with the project. Ali was a pleasure to work with, a hard worker, loads of fun, and the team was sad to see her go. Here is her reflection of her experience with the project:

Here I am, back in the US of A, wishing I were still in Poland painting the lost ceiling panels of the Gwozdziec Synagogue. It’s a pretty obscure activity to engage in, when you think about it. I had a lot of trouble describing the project to others in less than five sentences. There were so many important details, like the fact it’s going in a museum, that we were traveling to different cities in Poland for each workshop, that the synagogue was burnt down by the Nazis—oh, and it was actually located in present-day Ukraine, which was once part of a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth…

Since I’ve been home, I’ve had trouble restraining myself from talking at people for too long, describing my experience in too much glorious detail. But people seem to feed off my passion, much like I did when I first met the Browns back in January 2009. I stayed in Oberlin for two extra weeks, despite freezing temperatures and endless snowfall to join the workshop and help paint two panels from the Gwozdziec ceiling. It was worth it, because I had a great experience and knew I would stay involved with Handshouse projects.

Much like Handshouse Studio’s philosophy of ‘learning by doing,’ my study of art complements my study of art history, and vice versa. For me, they are inseparable. Turns out, I was in the right company: Handshouse projects provide the opportunity to learn about history through art, by investigating the creative process. I am thrilled that I took part in both the art and architectural aspects of the Gwozdziec Synagogue replica. I now have a deeper understanding of the complexity of the project and invaluable knowledge of both timber frame construction and painting techniques.

It’s a shame no one else does. Yes, everyone else who participated in the project, but the greater public, no. I can’t get away from the political and cultural significance of these efforts, particularly because I’m an Ashkenazi Jew and this is much of the reason I decided to participate. I had never seen a 17^th century wooden synagogue and was unaware of the sophistication and beauty of these structures. This project introduced me to an exciting example of Jewish cultural heritage that has remained underappreciated for centuries, one that I may otherwise never have encountered.

People came from around the world with a variety of backgrounds, skills, and interests, in order to contribute to the Gwozdziec Rekonstrukcja undertaking. Everyone ate, drank, worked, and played (soccer) together, creating a special kind of community. Disparate (joints) individuals held together by a common (peg) purpose. The work required constant awareness of the body and its surroundings and often involved a group effort. Much of the beauty of the experience came from these human-to-human interactions, our unique commonality and indescribable bond.

Our community might be fleeting but the fruits of our labor have permanence. The beautiful historic object will live in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, an impressive new building in a neighborhood that used to be an ugly, oppressive Jewish ghetto. Lots of people will see it, love it, learn about it, and tell their friends. Thus we’ll help to preserve knowledge and appreciation of an entire artistic and architectural tradition nearly lost to the Nazis in the Second World War. This is an opportunity to tell a new and [vastly] improved story of Jewish life in Poland. To tell the truth, really.

Steady Progress!

2011-07-22T23:35:00.002+02:00

It has been a while since the last post, so there is so much to report on!!! Since the last post there has been plenty of progress made, a trip back to Sanok, adventures, meeting up with old friends, saying good bye to some of our new ones, a Holocaust Survivors remembrance march, visits from the press, and much, much more. So in this mighty post you will get to see the progress made over the course of the week. But first here's a status report: all the boards are now in Rzeszow being sized and assembled into panels, all the tracings so far have been completed, new images have been generated and are ready to be printed back in the states, test boards are in the works, all the final colors are being sorted out, and, drum role please, paint hits the zodiacs!

So first, here are some pictures to give a visual of where we are at so far:

The arrival of the rest of the panel boards, these are only some of them

To help keep the boards from moving they need to be sized to seal them

The boards are laid out to dry after each side gets sized

Nick is assembling the sized boards into a panel that is a section of a dome

The Jason's are setting aside a completed panel to keep the space organized and tidy

Case is creating curriculum for the painting, so turning the pigment and painting info into a nice, easy to read reference for everyone

Cailigh is creating a full scale image that gets printed and traced onto the boards

Everyone in computer world is making progress, Morgan gets to watch a show, and Craig gets a break

Marian is working on tracing the bottom of a dome and making any adjustments based on original images

Kasia works on tracing the image of the right medallion for the West Zodiac

Tracing a corner shoulder for one of the Zodiacs.

Creating small samples of color to test, and mixing colors to be used on practice panels

A few samples of student's practice panels, and examining the palette of colors to see what ones will work best

Zofia mixes a batch of one of the base colors

Rashin and Krista explain the painting processes and how to get started

Marta is working on her own practice panel. This helps her learn how to work with the paint and creates sample to be compared to documents to help determine the most accurate colors

Here are several Practice Panels with the color tests and Handshouse's original half scale paintings

Rick and Rashin decide which blues are the right ones

So now to explain a bit more of what happens with each step starting with...

Panels and Prep:

Once all the boards arrived at the site they needed to be sized, assembled into panels, and gessoed before any tracing and painting could be done on them

Both sides need to be sized at the same time so the boards don't cup, so they were spread out to be done all at once

This is the rabbit skin glue that is used to size and is the binder for the gesso and paint as well

After all the boards have been sized on both sides the become panel sections. To make a good panel, the are pulled tight with clamps then have batons attached to the back to hold them in place

Once they are secure panel sections they get gessoed. Krista is applying several even coats of gesso, which is a mixture of chalk, zinc oxide, and rabbit skin glue


Part of the process is also removing the numbering system from the face of the boards and transferring them to the back. Jason teaches the littlest team member, Pola, how to use a hand plane to do just that

Images and Tracing:

The computer gets used as a tool for creating enlarged full scale images to transfer onto the ceiling boards

The images are created using a proportional scaled dimensional drawing of the boards for each section, and high resolution images of the half scale images. The half scale images were originally hand drawn from original photographs of the Gwozdziec ceiling.

This is what gets created and printed, then later traced and transferred onto the board. This process allows the image to be double checked as well as making sure there is no distortion to important geometry.

Through every adjustment these photos are referred to for scale, placement, shape and so on.

The printed images are laid out and compared to the actual boards. Sometimes there are adjustments that must be made

Emily fine tunes the shapes and geometry when she traces it, a triple check

Jason L is checking the placement of parts to make sure everything is lining up

Nick traces an individual section from the medallion of one of the bottom dome sections

Ariel and Laura create a master drawing to be used as a template for all the zodiacs. Only the medallions are different.

Practice Panels, Colors, and Painting:

Before painting on the real boards, everyone makes a Practice Panel to learn tracing, test colors, learn to work with the paint, and practice replicating the images

What's Been Up

2011-07-09T22:27:00.000+02:00

So even though it's only been a couple days since the first post, it has really been a few days of work. So here is a quick update of what has been happening: All the boards have been sized, almost all the panels are together, gessoing has begun and several panels are complete, tracing has begun, information is being sorted, and pigments are being sorted out and colors are being created.

Marta is working on tracing the Northwest Triangle

Laying out the printed zodiacs to figure out what does and doesn't fit

Nick, Jason and Anna make panels

Ariel and Kasia figure out where to trace on a zodiac

Checking reference photos to see what needs to be changed, if anything, in the tracing

Krista puts her new Gesso recipe to work

Meet some of the Crew

2011-07-09T21:01:00.001+02:00

Its great to see the painting and everything come together, but who are all those people doing the work in the pictures? Those people are Laura and Rick Brown, Marie Brown, the Painting Team and all the amazing students and volunteers. Marie keeps everything together. She makes sure everything is happening that needs to, makes sure everything is on schedule, keeps everyone happy, and makes sure everyone is contently fed, even those of with difficult dietary restrictions and fun allergies. Laura and Rick make sure everything that needs to happen with the project are happening, as well as solving any problems that arise, like distorted images and how to manage and maintain the boards when they are in two different locations. They are also the creators of Handshouse Studio and the masterminds behind the project. The Painting Team gets the project done, with the help of the students and volunteers. So here some names and faces to match to the pictures you have seen so far!

The Painting Team, a fun crew

So who's been doing what? Site management has been led up by Nick and the Loik-ness Monster, Jason. They make sure the gallery is protected from us and that everything has a place, and is safe. Panel reconstruction has been managed by Nick, the Jasons, and Rick. They have been taking all the boards and turning them into the panels for painting. Krista, Emily and Ariel have been taking care of preparing all the panels which means sizing all the boards before they get turned into panels, sanding numbers and marks off, and gessoing. Krista came up with a new recipe for the gesso, which now uses chalk and zinc oxide instead of marble dust because we learned that chalk was more commonly used in Poland. Rashin and Case have been doing all the pigment management, which means organizing and coming up with more accurate colors and ratios for the paints. We have gotten more information on the colors since the last set of paintings so there is a lot of new stuff to figure out. There are often changes as we get more information and learn more. I (Cailigh) have been doing a lot of the computer related tasks like formatting images to be high resolution full scaled images to the dimensions of the ceiling sections. Also making adjustments as needed, creating a log of all the boards and numbers, and the blog. Ariel and Laura have been working on the tracings to get as close to the original paintings as possible. Rick, Marie and Laura have been going shopping to make sure everyone has everything they need to get the project done.

These are the awesome students and volunteers that have been working on the project so far. Ola, Kasia, and Zofia are from the Museum.

The students and volunteers for the project have been great! Ali is no stranger to the painting having done a Handshouse workshop at Oberlin. The project is moving along at a great pace with all their help. The goal for this Workshop will be to do two zodiacs and two triangles. So far one triangle is fully traced, the second triangle tracing has been started, one zodiac is fully traced, and the second is over half done. Paint brushes will be able to come out soon!

Ola, Kasia, and Zofia taught everyone a lot about Rzeszow and the Polish Jews who lived here before and during the War with a great presentation. It started with an interactive activity that involved exploring the area around the synagogue/gallery to give individuals a chance to reflect and discover places about the area that they were curious about. For the second part of the activity, everyone shared one of their observations and the three women answered questions and gave new insight on everything, and explained the different perspectives on the subject. For the second half they gave a presentation on Rzeszow itself and what happened here during the War. They gave three examples that were photographs and accounts of experiences of individuals.

Some of the observations from the first part of the activity

The Painting has Begun!

2011-07-07T21:33:00.001+02:00

The site has been cleared, the boards packed up, and the rest of the team has arrived! We are now at the site of the first workshop, the BWA Gallery in Rzeszow. The building, which is now an art gallery, is a converted masonry synagogue. In case you missed it, a crane was brought in on the last day to take apart the structure which is now in storage mode at the Skansen in Sanok waiting to go to Warsaw.

The site on Group 2's first work day

Trusses in progress

The frame while the planking was being installed

The frame coming down

One of the bundles being prepared for storage

Half the boards being prepared for storage before they are moved to Warsaw

The frame is disassembled and under the two tents on the left, and all the ceiling boards are wrapped up under the tent on the right, waiting to make their journey to Rzeszow and Warsaw.


The boards for the dome and zodiac for the North and West Walls, the Northwest Pendentive and Triangle, and the Southwest Triangle.


Half the crew for painting, who also participated in the construction, and the driver.

The gallery space after we fully took it over.

Getting the glue and pigments set up and figuring out test boards.

Ariel and Emily sizing the boards with the rabbit skin glue to prep them for gesso.

Jason and Jason laying out the boards and turning them into panels, and Nick is checking in and lending a hand

Emily is making the rabbit skin glue to paint onto the boards

The pigments are getting organized

Some samples of the colors that will be used for the painting

The painting portion is now in full swing, and the painting leadership team is working hard to get everything together. For those who aren't to familiar with the ceiling murals there will be more information to follow.