Inferno
This piece is a reconstruction of Dante Alighieri’s early 14th century Inferno using his lines of verse to create a text spiraling in all directions.
Art work
Illuminated miniature
This small piece, Manuscript I (2010) is made from silver leaf, wax, and collage. The tiny page from the Koran is a found object–no kidding. I found 2 loose pages on the sidewalk in San Francisco about 17 years ago. It was right around the time I was taking my first Arabic class …
Three Domestic Madonnas
These are 3 very small encaustic collages in a series called Domestic Madonnas. Each one is 5.25 X 7 inches on wood (2010). The source images are from a catalog of early Flemish and Italian painters from the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts. It was in the $1. bin at the Salvation Army Book Shop in downtown Eugene.
Mitzvah
One aspect of Jewish texts that fascinates me is the graphic integration of commentary in the Hebrew Bible, or Torah. Jewish texts, especially the Midrash, use different font sizes, or sometimes even different types of script.
Lilith
I hadn’t given a whole lot of thought to Lilith. But I had given her a little thought over the years and I never really understood how she and the Serpent were connected.
Recitation
Recitation is fundamental to the Quran’s reception. As in Judaism, the distance between the book and message is the voice of the reader reciting. Jews murmur their sacred texts to themselves, Muslims recite them to an audience.
Black Sea
Turkey is a particular place in the world for me–not just geographically but also emotionally and, on a sort of fundamental level, constitutionally. Many core aspects of my life are woven around travel experiences in Turkey and proximity to people, rural landscapes, and the abundant aesthetic resonance …
The Dream
This drawing came about through a wonderful “needle in a haystack” experience at the University of Oregon Knight Library book sale.
Afghan Ghosts
Some years ago, I read a short story by an Afghan woman in which she described the Taliban as crows. Their black turbans, nasty demeanor, and aggressive, pack behavior reminded her of flocks of the noisy, menacing birds.
Ephemerarium 
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