MAKING OF: BOOK OF OWR

When there are no records of articles, videos, pictures, or tutorials of the exact piece I long to create, I am left to initiate a new way to getting where I see myself going. This stands true with us all, as you and I were preordained to pave paths that only we can individually pave.

`owr - Skin, hide

From the root word,

`uwr - to be exposed, be bared, be laid bare

When spoken aloud,

this word had the sense of home

when paired with this book.

However,

the portrait this word

paints,

leaves me with a picture

that resembles a mirror.

What is skin?

Skin - a covering over our inner parts, our largest organ

Skin - equally revealing as much as it is covering, vulnerable, something to be protected

The Hebraic definition captures this word in a whole new light.

Written as - עוֹר

From left to right the letters read

Ayin ע

Vav וֹ

Resh ר

AYIN - the eye, the greater light, a higher way of perceiving.

What you hold in your heart

will manifest

and multiply

in the world around you.

An expansive knowing.

A letter of many faces

- mysteries intertwined

but of the same kind.

You can conceal your inner world

for only so long.

For what you carry

cannot help

but overflow from that inner well.

Peeling back the layers of your being,

to the environment,

the people,

the thoughts,

in and around your world,

grants permission

for room to be made

for these things.

VAV - secure, tent peg, higher unity, mans connection.

The sixth letter,

and just as 6 represents man,

man also plays a role in this letter.

Bridging between heaven and earth, and vice versa.

Mans permission to ascend and descend.

As Vav connects heaven to earth,

earth to heaven,

So does it connect the truth in our hearts,

to our inner most world.

In the many rooms within our being,

Vav positions itself to adjoin the full house of the heart.

Planted firmly,

Listening for HEY (5th letter), the breath, the direction,

Ready to administer ZAYIN (7th letter), the plow anticipating labor.

RESH - first, top, beginning, higher consciousness.

Leading powerfully,

Resh knows no bounds.

The light on the hill,

a call to remembrance.

THE Hope not capable of disappointment.

An anchoring of our original intent.

The summit where truth is remembered,

and our minds renewed.

On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Therefore, what this word speaks to me

is worth more than what is written, but a word to be experienced.

Put into a single sentence,

this word only unmasks

the tip of the iceberg of all that is obtainable within this simple word:

Perceiving

the fully exposed

and available power

within the inner well

to adjoin

what is above to what is beneath

in whole, completed Hope,

So that

We Might

Remember.

This project finished better than I ever imagined it could.

It allowed for some new things to be tested out and explored.

And even more than a book finished, but a gained depth of understanding within these letters.

Though there are many other leather books with clasps out there,

none equate to this one exactly, as my hands were the ones that crafted this piece.

As an artist, it's easy to get lost in the many pieces that are out there.

As human, it's easy lose sight of the peculiarity we each house,

but just as this name, 'uwr, implies, there is an exposing of oneself

that only each and every one of us can bring forth.

Only I can reach deep within myself,

Only I can draw out an original idea or a solution, and bring it to life

--no matter where inspiration gravitated from.

Vulnerability may never get easier,

but simply put,

the world needs what's inside of you.