Participants

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

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!

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

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!

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