The following is an excerpt from “Israel: Democracy, Race, Ethnicity, and More”
(Fragments #2).
Artist’s statement:
Many Colored Dreams (cover image)
Materials – Pencil on Paper, 6″x8″, 2020
Arielle Stein’s 2020 drawing, “Many Colored Dreams”, features Joseph enrobed in his technicolored coat, surrounded by the floating faces of his siblings. This image expresses the pain of living within human social dynamics while suggesting the possibility of a different world that at times feels only possible in dreams.
The Daughters of Jerusalem OR Job’s Friends (page 1)
Materials – Pencil on Paper, 11″x14″, 2023
Arielle Stein’s 2023 drawing, “The Daughters of Jerusalem OR Job’s Friends”, features characters from the Song of Songs and/or the Book of Job. In both, these characters are a chorus, sometimes loving and sometimes goading the central character, floating between urban and pastoral settings. This image reveals a human experience of community in which people seek realization of their needs in tension with social expectations.
ARIELLE STEIN (she/her/hers) is a visual artist and rabbinical student. She received her BFA from NYU in 2014 and currently studies at Hebrew Union College in New York. Arielle has exhibited her work in group and solo exhibitions in the US, Germany and, Israel-Palestine. Her illustrations have been published in Jewish Currents, PRTCLS, HCE Review, Barbed Magazine, Ayin Press, and more. Arielle is a recipient of the Studio Formichetti Arts Grant and the New Jewish Culture Fellowship. Her work can be found at relstein.com and on instagram @relstein. Follow her on Instagram, @relstein, #ariellesteinstudio
