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THE ALEPH-BET BESTIARY
Responding to the tradition of bestiaries and illuminated alphabets, Abbie Steiner creates whimsical prints, suitable for animal lovers of all ages. Accompanying text by Nancy Pick and Abbie.
THE ALEPH-BET PRINTS
Archival Print, signed, gold frame with acid free mat and foam board, 15 x 18”
$265
Archival Print, signed, unframed, image is approximately 10 x 13” (same as gold frame)
$110
Archival Print, signed, unframed, (suitable for ready made metal frame) image is approximately 7 x 9” printed on 8.5 x 11” sheet
$45
For questions and information about framing options, please contact Abbie
ARTIST STATEMENT
In art school in 1980 I rediscovered a series of animal drawings I made at the age of 5 or 6 and thought they had more artistic merit than anything I was then creating. This left a lasting impression.
As a kid I loved letters. I enjoyed looking through calligraphy books and taught myself enough calligraphy to hire myself out to address Bar Mitzvah and wedding invitations.
I also loved to invent animals.
At one point I created a mobile of fictitious creatures to hang in my bedroom.
I had very little exposure to Hebrew as a child. We made our annual treks to Grandma and Grandpa’s Passover seders in the Bronx, which were conducted exclusively in Hebrew. I had absolutely no clue what the story was about, and if you had asked me who Moses was I couldn’t have told you. (I was raised by parents rebelling against an orthodox upbringing.)
Still, Hebrew fascinated me. I believed it to be a mysterious secret code, and I don’t think I was far off. I asked my parents if I could learn Hebrew and they hired me a tutor. I enjoyed it for a few months, but then we moved to a new town and over time I thoroughly forgot it.
Then as a young adult I felt a pull toward Jewish centers of learning, first in Providence, RI and then in Northampton., MA. Once settled here in Northampton and a young mother, I studied beginning Hebrew, and later became an adult Bat Mitzvah.
In the late nineties I became fascinated with medieval art and illuminated manuscripts. I started to create commissioned pieces with people’s Hebrew names, short phrases from liturgy and wedding contracts (ketubot).
Although I'm still a beginner when it comes to the Hebrew, my lifelong fascination with both Judaism and animals has culminated in this project--my version of the Hebrew alphabet.