The artwork titled "The Golem Dreams of Flying" was created in 2017 by Judith Joseph. The black and white image shows a gigantic figure--the Golem--stretched out in the star-studded sky, his heart boldly imprinted on his shirt, yet tethered to the earth below by long ropes wrapped around his ankles and wrists, their taut opposite ends held by diverse tiny figures below. Small intricate lines create texture and shadows in the white clouds, the waves in the water below below the flying Golem, and the Golem's face. The artwork is a woodblock print, 20 inches tall and 16 inches wide.

“The Golem Dreams of Flying,” Judith Joseph, 2017, woodblock print, 20” x 16”

One of the things that we besouled beings do is to dream—and dreams (like God Itself) do not conform to the patterns in time and space and circumstance to which we are accustomed when awake. In our dreams, for instance, we can sometimes fly. Joseph’s second image, “The Golem Dreams of Flying,” shows just that: the gigantic figure stretched out in the star-studded sky, his heart boldly imprinted on his shirt—yet tethered to the earth below by long ropes wrapped around his ankles and wrists, their taut opposite ends held by diverse tiny figures below. He floats, rather than soars freely. Even his dreams are fraught with limitations. Aren’t all of our dreams fraught with limitations, though?

Judith Joseph is a Chicago artist, curator and educator. She has had numerous solo, two-person and group exhibitions across the United States, as well as Vancouver, Canada; Amsterdam, Berlin and Douro, Portugal. Her work is part of many collections, including: the Archives of MOMA, New York; The Musée de la Poste, Paris, France; The Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; the Chicago Public Library, Respect and Tolerance Foundation, Czech Republic, Milwaukee Public Museum, and numerous private collections. She is a two-time recipient of the Illinois Arts Council Artists’ Fellowship Award and a recipient of a 3Arts Grant. Ms. Joseph is on the faculty of the Chicago Botanic Garden, where she teaches watercolor painting and calligraphy. She teaches an Artists’ Beit Midrash through Orot Center for New Jewish Learning. She is co-curator of the Open Studios Virtual Programs for the Jewish Art Salon, an international Jewish art organization. To learn more about Judith, visit her website www.judithjosephstudio.com and follow her on Instagram @judithjosephstudio.