The Okinawa Letters, A Rabbi on the Fringe

“My current practice highlights stories of people at a particular juncture in their lives. I am captivated by language and words and often incorporate them into my work. Words can reverberate throughout generations, creating unforeseen impact. By preserving them, I hope to call attention to the commonalities of human emotion, which often transcend place and time.

My father was a U.S. Army chaplain in Okinawa in 1954-55. Thirty years after he died, I discovered letters that were written to him by family members of servicemen, worried about their loved ones, asking for his counsel.

Deeply moved by this correspondence from another era, yet so evocative of now, I stitched excerpts on my father’s old monogrammed handkerchiefs, dyed with indigo from my garden.”

About the Artist
Shira Singer has been dyeing and patterning cloth for many years, most recently with locally harvested plant materials. As a Maine textile artist, art educator and art therapist, she has had the privilege of making art with people of all ages in places where community gathers.