The Art/Lab Podcast: Conversations About Jewish Arts and Culture – Details, episodes & analysis

Today I am speaking with artist Jessica Rehfield, whose work lives at the intersection of art, Jewish identity and resistance. Jessica was in our first art lab cohort and her big, bold paintings at the first exhibition. I can still remember. Jessica is not a wallflower in their work or their life, and is a self-described big old queer Jew. And that Jewish and Queer self understanding isn't just decorative. It's the backbone of their practice paintings, their community projects, writings push back against what they call the state of Miseducation about both queer and Jewish histories.

 In this conversation, Jessica describes how their work evolved from solitary charcoal drawings during graduate school into collaborative community centered projects, art as a form of collective response to fascism. Jessica insists that art. And politics cannot be separated when your very existence is politicized and is an advocate for linking the inherent politics of Jewishness as they see it with the experience of marginalization of Jews and of queer people. We talk about how Jewish and queer communities are each under pressure, and how shared language history and courage might help us rehumanize one another in this fractured moment.

We also dig into Jessica's rediscovery of Yiddish during the pandemic, A language that they call the body of the Jewish Spirit out of their focus. On that came a self illustrated Yiddish primer as they'll describe new large scale paintings in a renewed understanding. That they had of language as both inheritance and resistance. Now, if you have not heard yet, my discussion with Lou Cove way back in season two, that can help frame an understanding for this part of the conversation (Episode 20) about how Yiddish culture's breadth and unifying Jewish diversity contrasts with our fractured Jewish world today.

Thank you for listening. And hey, if Jewish ideas, Jewish identity, and Jewish creativity are important to you, please tell one person about this podcast. Word of mouth is how people hear about new, cool things, and it's how podcasts grow. Plus, this is a really, really important moment for us to put strength, creativity, and Jewish pride right out there, front and center. Thanks for listening. Enjoy my conversation with Jessica Rehfield. 

Links relevant to the conversation:

 www.artlabpdx.org

www.instagram.com/alenereh/

www.jessicarehfield.com

www.yiddishbookcenter.org

 One of the unexpected pleasures of hosting these conversations with Jewish artists is noticing the recurring themes that emerge without my planning them. Again and again, I see points of convergence between important Jewish religious questions and the experience of artists in their creative work.

I continue to hear resonances between between artistic vision and spiritual yearning, between creative community and Jewish religious community in these convresations with Art/Lab's cohort of Jewish artists. It's become clear to me that this isn't a coincidence, but a profound area of inquiry: where do art and religion meet, and why do so many artists find themselves, consciously or not, engaging religious or spiritual questions through their work?

This theme is especially present in my conversation today with painter Justin Jude Carroll, a member of Art/Lab's inaugural artist cohort. Justin is a classically trained artist whose vivid, abstract paintings have been shown throughout Portland and are now beginning to receive national attention. His creative journey is inseparable from his personal journey, particularly his recovery from a traumatic brain injury—a pivotal experience that reoriented his life and ultimately led him toward painting with a new sense of urgency and authenticity.

What fascinates me about Justin's story is how it illuminates a deeper connection between art and spirituality: both can become vehicles for healing, for transformation, and for the search for authenticity. At the heart of both traditions lies a fundamental Jewish religious question: Who am I, and what am I called to bring into the world? Artists, like seekers in religious communities, often struggle to navigate the tension between external expectations and inner truth. As Justin and I discuss, that tension is not simply psychological—it is, in many ways, theological.

We also touch on the role of community—how both Jewish religious and artistic communities can serve as containers for growth, vulnerability, and accountability, and how essential that network is for an artist trying to push the boundaries of their own voice. 

This is a rich and wide-ranging conversation: we explore art as a mystical and spiritual practice, Justin's current work and expanding national presence, and the ways in which creativity itself can become a path of meaning-making. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Justin Jude Carroll. 

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The deadline for applications for the next Art/Lab Cohort is midnight this coming Saturday August 30th…. If you are a Jewish artist or know someone who is, now's the time! Artists consistently tell us what a powerful experience their time in Art/Lab was. Don't miss out.  Go to artlabpdx.org for the application. 

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Today  I'm joined by Shir Ly Grisanti, an artist, curator, and cultural leader whose work lives right at the intersection of art, ecology, and Jewish values. Shir has spent over a decade building projects that bring people together through creativity and conversation.

In 2012, she founded c3:initiative in Portland, a nonprofit designed not just to display art but to steward resources and solidarity with artists and partner organizations working on some of the hardest social questions of our time.

At the same time, Shir and their husband Laurence are the stewards of Camp Colton, an 85-acre woodland in rural Oregon. Together they've turned this former camp into a place of rewilding and restoration, planting thousands of trees and nurturing a fragile ecosystem back to health, while also hosting gatherings, retreats, and cultural programs

And on top of all of this - or undergirding it? - Shir is herself an artist. She was part of the Second Art/Lab Shir's work is guided by a "dual–nondual" vision: a sense that everything is interconnected, that we are always in relationship—with ancestors, with traditions, with the land, and with each other. 

Enjoy my conversation with Shir Grisanti.

Show Notes:

artlabpdx.org

• Shir's website:  shirgrisanti.com

• Stelo – steloarts.org

• c3:initiative – c3initiative.org

• Camp Colton – campcolton.com

• Andrea Gibson – andreagibson.org
• Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass – Milkweed Editions

• Sonia Sanford's Cookbook Braids (for the challah recipe!) – soniasanford.com/cookbook

Rabbi Josh's reflection: What if Judaism is not a religious tradition, but an artistic one?

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 In this episode, Merridawn Duckler and Rabbi Josh explore pop culture and high art, Judaism as culture and religion, and challenge these distinctions. Duckler's background as artist and serious student of Jewish religious texts add to the rich conversation. Enjoy. 

Relevant to the Conversation: 

https://merridawnduckler.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Levinas 

Rabbi Josh: Springsteen and Dylan on Art and Politics

Hello, listeners. Yesterday's podcast conversation contained  some editing errors, including the DEADLINE FOR THE ART/LAB FELLOWSHIP.  The deadline is AUGUST 30TH. This has been correected in this version of the conversation.

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In the 21st century it feels that the seams of our world have come undone.

American citizenry is profoundly fractured. Old political allignments have broken apart; norms of decency and public trust are in pieces. The same thing seems to be happening within Israel.  The American Jewish community is more fragmented now than I've ever seen it. The divisions are not just ideological but social. We have an increasing number of micro-communities, but less Jewish unity. 

That question — how we create those kinds of connections, and what they make possible — was one I wanted to explore with my guest today, Rabbi April Villareal. Rabbi Vlilareal is an educator and teacher who brings real insight into this topic. She's the Senior Coach and Program Associate with Hadar's Pedagogy of Partnership.

In our conversation, we talk about:

• Why shared texts experiences can make space for intimacy that pure dialogue sometimes can't.
  
  

• How to hold people accountable to a tradition while making room for their unique voice.
  
  

• What it takes to build relationships across deep differences, without erasing them.

• How art and creativity can be relational tools in community and classroom.

Links: 

Art/Lab - artlabpdx.org

Rabbi April Villarreal – Hadar.org

PoemHunter – Fancies (Emma Lazrus)

Sefaria

Rabbi Josh offers a reflection about art, ideology, art for art's sake, and the current state of affairs for Jewish artists. 

Referred to in this episode: 

Seamus Heaney's "The Flight Path" https://fawbie.info/the-spirit-level/the-flight-path/

Shostakovich, Lament for a Dead Infant, https://music.apple.com/us/album/from-jewish-folk-poetry-op-79-i-lament-for-a-dead-infant/1452151175?i=1452152698

21st-century Jewish life has been marked by shifting boundaries—exciting for some, but challenging for those accustomed to inherited lines of demarcation. Demographic changes and evolving patterns of observance have blurred the distinctions between movements and reshaped their identities. More challenging still are the shifting boundaries around intra-communal debate, particularly on Israel and Zionism. The Jewish world is fractured along new fault lines, and in the arts—where openness, boundary-pushing, and transgression are often core values—Jewish communities are grappling with what, if anything, Jewish culture stands for collectively.

My guest this week has been navigating these challenges on a national and global stage. Seth Pinsky is the CEO of the 92nd Street Y, a 150-year-old cultural and community center in New York. It's a leading institution for Jewish and universal arts, education, and civic dialogue—offering rich intellectual and artistic programming, a religious community, and a global platform through its digital reach. Seth has guided the Y through a time of renewed growth and relevance, even amid profound communal tensions. Previously, he served as president of the NYC Economic Development Corporation under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and he brings deep experience to questions of leadership and identity. In this conversation, he challenges some of my own assumptions and offers insight into what it means to engage with Jewish culture today.

In this Episode: 

https://www.92ny.org

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2023/october/an-open-letter-on-the-situation-in-palestine

Documentary Filmmaker Michael Turner and Rabbi Josh Discuss the relationsship between the past, the present and storytelling.