A Glue-Covered Omer
In early April, Sol Weiss, a visual artist and cultural organizer, extended an Instagram invite to join an Omer Creations group. Their idea was to count the Omer through creative practice - daily, weekly, or however else each member chose to participate. Me and over 70 other people quickly signed up.
According to Rabbi Simon Jacobson, during “the mitzvah of counting the 49 days, known as Sefirat Ha'Omer, the Torah invites us on a journey into the human psyche, into the soul.”
The counting custom includes reflecting on one of seven sefirot, the qualities or attributes of Kabbalah, each week. In chassidic thought, the spectrum of human experience is composed of these seven fundamental emotions. Each of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot, the period known as the Omer, are specifically set aside for introspection and improvement of each emotion.The sefirot accompany the weeks in the following order:
Week One: Chesed — Loving kindness
Week Two: Gevurah — Strength
Week Three: Tiferet – Harmony
Week Four: Netzach – Eternity
Week Five: Hod – Splendor, Humility
Week Six: Yesod – Foundation
Week Seven: Malchut – Kingdom
This reflective thesis behind the Omer became the perfect opportunity for me to focus on an aspect of my artistic practice that remains a struggle: letting go. I shifted my focus towards the creative journey itself, relieving myself from the stress associated with striving for a 'perfect outcome.' Sol’s inventive and inclusive interpretation of the Omer sparked a deep self-reflection that was new to my experience during this period.
Week 5: Hod - Humility
My artistic practice typically involves creating collage and installation using my photographs; I’m often covered in glue. For my Omer project, I chose to construct a weekly collage using only photographic print leftovers from my past work. My goal was to concentrate on introspection and the creative process, freeing myself from the urge to craft something aesthetically pleasing or marketable. I dedicated each evening to working on a collage in a relaxed (or at least semi-relaxed) state. The lack of pressure gave me the space to contemplate on the weekly theme while sorting through my pile of scraps, cutting out shapes, and pasting pieces together.
My nature often leads me to push forward with planning the future: I feel safe when in control. Feeling the “now” historically increased my anxiety. Why choose to confront my feelings, potentially subjecting myself to discomfort, when I could devote my energies to strategizing, orchestrating plans, and ensuring future successes? Undertaking the challenge to alter these patterns has been the BIG work for me over the past year.
The past seven weeks of employing this Omer collage practice has been instrumental in enabling my focus to remain in the present moment.
At times, the emphasis only on the creative process felt uncomfortable, but I stuck with it - reminding myself to realign my focus, grounding myself in the now. Each week, I found myself cultivating a deeper emotional understanding with the sefirot as I encountered them throughout my daily experiences. While my work to improve myself and my practices will continue, the moments of self-awareness and emotional introspection I experienced during the Omer have been both illuminating and impactful.
At a Rosh Chodesh event this past Sunday, we participated in several exercises designed to experience internal awe. Finding beauty in the mundane environment outside me is a regular part of my art and spiritual practice. I neglected to realize the power of looking inside myself for this beauty.
Now as we approach the awe of Shavuot, I want to embrace the small successes I felt these past seven weeks. I experienced awe as I participated in an ancient ritual with the support of an online creative community. I shared awe with an in-person group as we welcomed in the month of Sivan. As I challenged myself to be present while creating, I felt small bursts of awe - ripping, cutting, arranging, gluing, counting.
As I finish my last collage, the only planning for the future is dreaming of a big piece of cheesecake.
