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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18201/full/18201/hand-carver-of-wooden-judaica-brings-craft-to-s-f-show/ <br /><br /> <b>Hand-carver of wooden Judaica brings craft to S.F. show</b> <br /> Friday, August 2, 2002 | by <p>ALEZA GOLDSMITH </p> <br /><br /><p>Gabriel Bass says it's his job "to bring the mitzvot to the people."<br /><br /> But earlier this week the hand-carver of Jewish ceremonial and decorative woodwork had to take the day off after he cut open his finger.<br /><br /> "I'm taking it easy," said the freshly bandaged Mercer Island, Wash., resident, putting his carving tools and yellow cedar wood aside to chat via telephone Monday about his art, his inspiration and his upcoming spot in the 27th annual American Craft Council's San Francisco show.<br /><br /> "I can't carve without my finger."<br /><br /> Bass, 25, is slated to be one of more than 300 top craft artists presenting works at the show at Fort Mason Center's Herbst and Festival Pavilions Friday, Aug. 9 to Sunday, Aug. 11.<br /><br /> An award-winning artist and a religious Jew ("but not quite 100 percent Orthodox"), he considers his intricately handmade Judaica a way of "beautifying the mitzvot." The pieces—including menorot, seder plates, tzedakah boxes, spice containers, Purim masks, full-sized Aron HaKodeshim or synagogue arks, etrog platters, Torah finials and breastplates—are all made one at a time or made-to-order by Bass, through his business, Coastal Carvings Judaica.<br /><br /> Examples of his work can be found on his Web site <a href="http://jewishwoodwork.bizhosting.com">http://jewishwoodwork.bizhosting.com</a><br /><br /> "Jews don't believe in the material thing as holy, we instead try to beautify, or make holy, the mitzvot," explained Bass. "Since the diaspora, Jews have been all over the world and have needed ceremonial items to fulfill the mitzvot. I provide a beautiful means for performing them."<br /><br /> Bass, who "never felt artistically inclined as a child," learned to carve while living for a year on the Native American Musqueam Reserve in British Columbia more than eight years ago. He went to the reserve to absorb some of the native culture he knew so little of, even though it intrigued him while growing up in Seattle.<br /><br /> There he was "hanging out" with a Native American artist named Richard Campbell who "basically put the knife in my hand and said why don't you try doing something." Before Bass knew it he was carving, a skill he continued to hone after he left the reserve and went on to Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass.<br /><br /> In college he studied the relationship between oral traditions and art. While it was "great to study other cultures and see the way native peoples cultivate their arts," he also focused on the Jewish people, whose parables and stories primarily "tell of their culture through ceremonial things" like the menorah or the Torah scrolls. Jewish art, he said, is the most significant teaching tradition used to explore and pass down Jewish cultural and religious identity.<br /><br /> "A kid can look at a menorah and see that it holds eight candles and ask 'Why does the menorah have eight candles?' The kid will learn the story of Chanukah because he or she was intrigued by the symbol—it's the biggest teaching tool we have."<br /><br /> It was only a matter of time before Bass, who grew up in a Conservative Jewish home, began carving Judaica pieces. When a friend asked him to carve a seder plate for another friend's wedding, for instance, "it turned out so nice that I carved two more and sold all three. I guess I had found my niche."<br /><br /> On top of finding a rewarding career path, Bass said he feels blessed to be able to help Jews "really connect with Judaism in a unique way to get them excited."<br /><br /> He also feels honored that he's "been chosen to pass on the traditions" of the Musqueam through carving. He's not creating totem polls and other Native American art, but his work is still looked upon highly by the tribe "because it comes from my heart."<br /><br /> And just as Campbell shared his native culture with Bass by teaching him to carve, Bass has returned the favor by sharing his works with Campbell and others on the reserve.<br /><br /> "I'll bring my pictures of what I've made and they'll sit around looking at the pictures wanting to know about the different symbols, what the ceremonial items are used for," he said.<br /><br /> "I'm getting married in October and my teacher [Campbell] and his wife are really excited to come down for the wedding," he added.<br /><br /> "They want to see the chuppah in person."</p> <p> </p>

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