Jewish Artists on Jewish Art Profile #2
The artist with her work
Heather Stoltz is a fiber artist and art educator, whose work is a form of visual storytelling. Her fiber art includes Jewish ritual items, such as Torah covers, tallitot, and challah covers. She also creates quilted wall hangings and fabric sculptures inspired by Jewish texts, motherhood, and social justice issues. See examples of Heather’s imaginative, unique fiber artwork on her website, Sewing Stories.
I enjoyed connecting with Heather and learning about her work. I’m especially impressed with her innovative approach to fiber art and her ability to create visual art that represents complex ideas without any words. This is a very different approach from how I incorporate Jewish text into my artwork, which is often centered on Hebrew lettering.
Heather is prolific in her creative work, which includes running educational workshops, creating fiber art about community building, social justice activism, and visual storytelling. I find this last aspect of Heather’s work particularly compelling, since I am a sociologist and ethnographic researcher. Heather has a knack for visually interpreting people’s experiences in her fiber art. For example, one of her more “ethnographic” projects is a collection of fiber art pieces that she created based on stories of women’s pandemic experiences. Mamaroneck Public Library will be exhibiting that series, entitled “Westchester Women: A Window Into Their Worlds.”
“Land of the Free,” Heather Stoltz
Much of Heather’s artwork is embedded in Jewish community relationships. She has created a workshop for students of all ages, called “Translating Text into Textile” that she teaches at synagogues, helping students learn her method of interpreting Jewish text through fiber art creation. She also works directly with synagogues to create Torah covers and with couples to create chuppahs for their weddings. Among Heather’s many accomplishments and accolades, she was named one of The Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36” for 2012.
While the topics inspiring Heather’s art are quite wide ranging – including social justice, women’s stories, parenthood, and Jewish text. – Heather explained to me that her Jewish identity is a core inspiration for her creativity:
“I like to address current issues. This work is not obviously Jewish - it speaks more to social justice issues and the larger world, but I think ultimately, it still comes from a very Jewish place. I can’t separate my Judaism from the way I see the world, so those values color the way I see everything around me.”
“Unsteady Ground,” Heather Stoltz
Heather’s artistic development is integrally woven into her Jewish experiences and Jewish identity. In college, she double majored in mechanical engineering and Jewish studies. Although she did not yet know that her creativity would lead to an artistic career, her senior project in Jewish studies, which blended photography and creative writing, was an early seed for her later endeavors.
After college, Heather worked as a mechanical engineer for a few years, and her engineering training is evident in the architectural complexity of her more sculptural fiber pieces. During that early post-college period, Heather and her mother learned to quilt together. When Heather went on to pursue a Master’s degree in Jewish Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, she discovered her love of quilting about stories found in Jewish text.
Heather shared with me that Jewish text continues to inspire much of her work: “There is so much depth and richness to the texts that reading them always sparks something new, even if it’s one you’ve seen countless times before.” She has a talent for translating text into fiber art and sharing that process with her students. Her ongoing passion for pursuing art that emerges from her love of Jewish text study has been encouraged by the rabbis in her life and Jewish organizations like the Jewish Art Salon.
“Women of Valor,” Heather Stoltz