Creating this pop-up book presented engineering and dynamic challenges that I had not faced before in my 50+ years as a visual artist. I am indebted to Olli Johnson for her help in tackling these new challenges and the MCBA for connecting me with her in the early phases of this project.

I have been a painter for most of my life and my art reflects my love for bright colors and natural fauna. My best works also include a spiritual component reflected in both form and color. For the last three decades much of my work has drawn on my Scandinavian roots and Jewish identity. In addition to two-dimensional painting, I am an accomplished seamstress and have created many pieces of ritual art using applique and fabric resist dyes on silk.

Since receiving my BFA in painting from the University of Minnesota I have participated in various individual and group shows – including providing all of the two and three-dimensional works for a show about Hanukah at the Minneapolis ASI titled “Nordic Holidays – Celebrations of Light” from 11/12/16-1/8/17.

Before this project my previous experience as a book artist included artwork for a 1999 Haggadah curated by Twin Cites poet Ruth Brin. I am presently working on a children’s picture book about the war-time experiences of a Jewish 5-year-old Austrian boy’s three-year journey to escape Europe with his parents to the United States. A story told to me in recollections by my friend Walter Littman, a math professor at the University of Minnesota.

My submitted pop-up book was created as a prop for a children’s musical created and produced by rabbi and friend Sim Glaser (and staged in Minneapolis earlier this year). My commission was doubly challenging: to create a pop-up book (which I had never done before) and to create it at a scale that could be seen from every seat in the theater.