The installation of the roof structure and painted ceiling synagogue replica in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw

I'm a little late (...probably more like a month late..), but the painted panels I worked on in Poland for the past two summers just got installed in their final resting place, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland!  It's completely amazing to see them displayed how they ought to be - curved - when I have only worked on them flat.

There's been a lot of press about it recently (as it should be!):

• http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/12/5255810/jewish-museum-in-poland-unveils.html
• http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/jewish-museum-poland-unveils-synagogue-roof-18709050
• http://news.yahoo.com/jewish-museum-poland-unveils-synagogue-roof-151838980.html
• http://bigstory.ap.org/article/jewish-museum-poland-unveils-synagogue-roof

Here are some pictures taken by my good friend Krista, who helped install it this past February in the museum:

More photos of the installation, and all the work done in the past two summers, can be found on the project's facebook page and at HandshouseStudio.org.

Back from 3 months in Poland!

For three months this summer, and two and a half months last summer, I was working as a part of a team in nine cities across Poland to recreate the polychrome painted ceiling of a 17th century wooden synagogue for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews' core exhibition.  My job was to teach various groups of American and International travel students (some who had never painted before) how to replicate these paintings, using a limited number of black and white photos taken before the synagogue's destruction, and a couple of surviving color study resources.  We used only painting techniques of the time - we painted with hand-ground natural pigments mixed into rabbit skin glue.
This summer we were in five cities: Gdansk, Sejny, Kazimeirz Dolny, Szczebrzeszyn (notice there are only two vowels in that whole word!!), and Wroclaw.  For more info: http://www.handshousestudio.org

A gift a few of us made for Hands House after we completed the project.

All of our signatures in the lantern.  This board was going to be covered up by the flames boarder, so no one will actually see them.