About the artist... Jennifer Miriam Kantor/Altman
On Making Ketubot.... Making art has been a passion of mine since I was a small child. As an adult, I became a student of World Religions at the Universtiy of California in Santa Barbara. Understanding how different cultures related to the divine inspired me. I became particularly interested in sacred imagery in different cultures. My art is inspired by Buddhist sacred art, Hindu Yantras, Native American art, Islamic art, Jewish Kabbalastic imagery, Torah teachings, and New age symbology, and the divine essence that I see and feel in nature. in 1996, I spent a year in Israel in the ancient city of Tzfat. It was there that I explored a wide range of Jewish sacred art and was inspired by the works of Kabbalistic artists such as David Friedman and Avraham Lowenthal. Since then, I have been creating custom ketubot, working with individual couples to create designs that represent and reflect the unique aspects of their union, utilizing images from Judaism, nature and other world religious traditions. It is my deepest hope to create ketubot that inspire Jewish couples, interfaith couples and same sex couples.
On Making puppets... I have been making puppets and putting on puppet shows since I was 5 years old. While working as a pre-school teacher I realized that puppetry was a powerful tool for entertaining and educating. Puppets take children and adults into a magical realm of wonder and joy! I performed for years with a puppet troupe called the Puppet Players. When one of the troupe members got married, I offered as a gift to do a puppet show at her wedding...needless to say, it was a smashing success! Since then I have been creating puppet shows for different weddings, birthday parties, baby naming ceremonies and maybe some day... a Bar or Bat Mitzvah! It is an incredibly difficult, exciting and sensitive task, sorting through family stories, e-mails from childhood friends and stories from siblings in order to create a script that is funny and truthful while not offending anyone in the family! Having a degree in clinical psychology is helpful in reading between the lines of the family stories, and creating scripts that are appropriate for the whole family and all of its dynamics. According to Jewish tradition, it is a mitzvah to gladden the bride and groom...and a puppet show does just that!
On Making puppets... I have been making puppets and putting on puppet shows since I was 5 years old. While working as a pre-school teacher I realized that puppetry was a powerful tool for entertaining and educating. Puppets take children and adults into a magical realm of wonder and joy! I performed for years with a puppet troupe called the Puppet Players. When one of the troupe members got married, I offered as a gift to do a puppet show at her wedding...needless to say, it was a smashing success! Since then I have been creating puppet shows for different weddings, birthday parties, baby naming ceremonies and maybe some day... a Bar or Bat Mitzvah! It is an incredibly difficult, exciting and sensitive task, sorting through family stories, e-mails from childhood friends and stories from siblings in order to create a script that is funny and truthful while not offending anyone in the family! Having a degree in clinical psychology is helpful in reading between the lines of the family stories, and creating scripts that are appropriate for the whole family and all of its dynamics. According to Jewish tradition, it is a mitzvah to gladden the bride and groom...and a puppet show does just that!
