Leah L-Rubin is a ceramic-mixed media artist and art educator from NYC who recently returned
to the Washington, DC, area. Her studio is at Artists & Makers, an art coop in Rockville, Maryland. Currently, her wall assemblages hold meaning in their multiple layers of mixed materials. She fuses seemingly different cultures into one outlet to express universal human emotions, as life is messy and complicated. Her wall assemblages are described as cultural syncretism, where she weaves an extinct language and an ancient Chinese ceramic practice, along with Colonial American quilt making. Yiddish, a language without a country, holds the
power to express human angst by juxtaposing comfort & suffering through acerbic humor in concise idioms. She borrows the ancient porcelain pillow tradition from Chinese potters of the Tang and Song dynasties. But why choose the pillow for her visual format? Historically, the porcelain pillow was a valued ancient Chinese tradition and was originally designed for many esteemed purposes, from burial offerings to keeping one’s head cool on a hot summer night! Originally, the pillows were created to protect fancy hairdos of Chinese women while they slept. Porcelain pillows also carried auspicious meanings as a place to carry life’s lessons, as many
illustrate poems and quotes from the Chinese philosophies, acting as a place for encouragement for life’s issues. Pillows are a place of comfort & relief from everyday stress, but for an artist they provide a unique blank canvas. Finally, she uses quilt making, where women tell stories with needle and thread. It is her hope that the viewer takes delight in discovering the ceramic pillow as a treasured object of art that holds a unique place to express human angst through the weary Yiddish proverbs, all stitched in one visual configuration.