Kisleve

“Kisleve” is a watercolor painting exploring the spiritual meanings of the Jewish month of Kisleve through the use of sacred geometry and spiraling organic imagery evoking underwater landscapes and extraterrestrial planetary form.

The forms of the deep waters and deep space are used to show a parallel with the deep winter of Kisleve. Under the water there are whole worlds of life and movement that you can not see from the surface of the ocean. This is much akin to the depths of winter where the life is hidden. This painting reveals the complexity and dimension of the worlds that are thriving under the cover of darkness of the winter in an organized chaos.

The underlying structure of the design is based on Celtic triskele imagery which simultaneously moves inward while spiraling outward. Kisleve is a time when we are moving inwards in the cold of winter as we approach the winter solstice and moving outward embracing family and friends at this time of the year.

“The light that shines inwards is what illuminates others.”

The design is energizing and expanding inspired by the divine light of Chanukah. The color palette is cool but it emits a radiant energy. This is to evoke the concept that when you are inspired and motivated it is an energy that does not consume.

There are eight flames hidden within “Kisleve” but the Bnei Yisaschar transmits that the month of Kisleve reveals 36 hidden lights and when we light the menorah we end up lighting a total of 36 flames over the course of the holiday. These lights are revealed in the letters lamed and vav that are abstracted and integrated in the composition.

Like time, this design is a cyclical structure that is perceived linearly. Here, like as in the trajectory of the world, there seems to be abundant chaos, but ultimately it is all strategically balanced and it is all about how much is revealed to us at any given point. Kisleve is a time with the most darkness, but in the darkness is where we have the brightest transformation.