childlike wonderWhen I made this piece, I wanted to use fun, bright colors to represent a child’s imagination and view of life. I drew a picture of myself in the middle with colored pencils and surrounded myself with different colored flowers drawn in oil pastels, just as I did when I was a little girl. I made the flowers grow bigger as they expanded outwards, to show the expansion of creativity children have.
17’’ x 23’’
Digital self-portrait Using my skills in Adobe Illustrator, I chose a photograph of myself and applied different colored shapes according to the shadows and highlights of the picture to create a unique self-portrait.
Flickers of tradition I made this art piece about my strong connection to Judaism and its traditions. I drew myself spinning a dreidel, a common Hanukkah game, along with nine hand sewn Hanukkiah candles below me, representing the traditions of my favorite Jewish holiday. I used Sharpie and watercolors to paint Hamsa hands all around me. This symbol is associated with Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). The word "Hamsa" comes from the Arabic word for "five". The Hamsa hand is often depicted as a symmetrical design, where the thumb and pinky are the same length. The number five has symbolic meaning in Judaism, representing the five books of the Torah. The Hamsa is thought of as a protective symbol. I wear one on a necklace that I never take off. Behind me is a Torah made out of fabric, something I wanted to include because it is believed to be the direct word of G-d and the laws of the Jewish religion.
18’’ x 12’’
Dash of red For this piece, I wanted to evoke a feeling of loudness and stress. I painted myself screaming, overwhelmed with all of the stressors from school assignments. The red, sharp points coming towards me represent more and more assignments piling up and more anger and stress surrounding me. I painted myself using black ink on vellum and red paint for the sharp edges.
24’’ x 18’’
Maya papaya 
This piece is inspired by the nickname my family and friends called me when I was little: Maya Papaya. I have always loved this nickname because I think that papayas are such fun and bright fruits. I feel that they represent my energeticness as a kid. To capture this, I used very bright colors, focusing on the yellow and orange seen in papayas. The hand-embroidered black beads represent a papaya's many seeds. They bounce off of me, emphasizing the radiant energy that I had as a little girl. I intentionally chose a playful and fun photo of myself, with my mouth open and wearing silly sunglasses, to reflect my childhood essence. This piece expresses the type of child I was, and that outgoing and energetic personality I still carry with me today.
18’’ x 24’’
stripes of time, slice of life For this piece, I wanted to honor my grandfather, who I called Baba. There is a mockingbird in the center of the artwork, with an orange peel wrapping around it. This represents me holding onto Baba's memory and presence. My grandpa was Israeli, served in the army, and lived in Israel. Oranges are a common fruit in Israel, and the color orange represents the idea of mourning a loss in Middle Eastern culture. He also used to wear shirts with grey and white stripes all the time. After he passed away, my family and I started seeing a mockingbird flying around us constantly, and we haven't stopped seeing it since. We believe it's a sign from him because of the similarity between the stripes on the shirts he used to wear and the stripes on the mockingbird's wings. Mockingbirds also symbolize innocence, and when Baba passed away, I was just a little girl in elementary school who couldn't fully process this sad event. In this piece, I hand-stitched every fabric segment and every bead onto a piece of raw canvas layered with fabric. This is inspired by Billie Zangewa, who hand-stitched pieces of fabric to make art that portrayed her life.
35.5’’ x 27’’
golden lullaby This piece is dedicated to my grandma, one of my favorite people ever. It was inspired by her favorite fruit, bananas, and a memory of her singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to me when I was little. I painted her as if she was looking down at me before I went to bed, with a dark blue and gold background to represent the night sky. She is surrounded by stars decorated with gemstones. The centerpiece of this painting is the big banana above her, representing a half moon. I used different bead and threading embroidery for the banana, to make it more detailed and textured.
18’’ x 24’’
Seed sisters This piece represents me and my older sister. It relates to how I would always copy and imitate her, but never be quite perfect. She is the one on the left, perfectly rounded with neatly arranged leaves; while I am the one on the right, misshapen with leaves out of place. I painted the shapes on needlepoint canvas, then used different needlepoint techniques to create the strawberries.
14’’ x 19’’
Cherry's tasteThis piece is based on Benihana. When I was little, for both my and my sister’s birthdays, we would go to Benihana every year. Our favorite drink was the Shirley Temple, and my sister especially loved the cherries. I would always give her mine to eat. I created her mouth biting down on these cherries. I first painted it on canvas, then experimented with a variety of different sewing machine stitches. This piece is inspired by Brandi Kole and her use of machine stitching in her artwork.
14.5’’ x 11.5’’
golden shofarThis piece is based on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. I included my favorite symbols from the holiday: a shofar, apples, and honey. In Judaism, The apples and honey represent having a sweet new year, and I love eating them every Rosh Hashana. I’m very intrigued by the twists of the shofar, a ram’s horn which is blown through to announce another year has come. I constructed a fully beaded shofar and connected it to an apple using beaded golden honey drips.
9’’ x 16’’
Self-drupelets This piece represents every memory and experience that makes up a person. My favorite fruit is raspberries, and when I was younger, I would pick out each individual drupelet and examine it. I portrayed this idea of pieces making up the whole by having most of the raspberry on top, with drupelets falling from it on the bottom, attached by yarn. I made two of these: the first one on the right, with beads on each drupelet, and the second one on the left, a revision, including faded images of when I was little.
46’’ x 40’’
UnfoldThis piece is a wooden box that is plain on the outside, but when you take a peek inside, you see four mosaic panels based on Judaism. One panel has Jewish stars, one has my Hebrew name (Rachel), one has a Hamsa hand, and one has a menorah. Each symbol is important to me and my Jewish identity. The art is “hidden” by being on the inside, representative of how Jews throughout history have had to hide their Judaism because of antisemitism in the world. This box is also able to fold down flat for easy storage and transportation.
12’’ x 12’’ x 18”
