Artist's Corner: Kremena Dimitrova - Blogpost 4

Follow Kremena's journey into the 50 Jewish Objects in this fourth blogpost.

Choosing a storytelling approach to respond to the Sefer Mitzvot Qatan (Semaq) is a way for it to stand the test of time as something that can be added to in the future. For example, if new information about the manuscript is ever discovered or an English translation becomes available, then new (hi)stories can be added to the comic strips pillars I am currently developing. 

Moreover, my choice to respond to the manuscript using a comics approach was not random. Manuscripts have often been compared to comic strips and graphic narratives. Over the years, scholars have recognised the various inventive ways manuscripts’ creators employed comics techniques such as captions, speech bubbles and panels when creating their manuscripts. 

While conducting my research, I discovered that Jewish manuscripts were usually not as illuminated as Christian or Islamic manuscripts. If they were, the illuminators were often non-Jewish, thus a Hebrew illuminated manuscript was not necessarily (with regard to the artist’s identity) a Jewish illuminated manuscript. This applies to the Sefer Mitzvot Qatan (Semaq) with Isaac ben Joseph and the helping scribes writing in Hebrew and the illuminators being non-Jewish. 

The above applies to me too as the ‘illuminator’. Being non-Jewish, however, in my case I believe is advantageous. In being separated from Jewish culture and religion, I hope I can offer a different, fresh and neutral perspective and approach when engaging with the Sefer Mitzvot Qatan (Semaq). I see my creative response as a contemporary visual study of the manuscript - breathing new life into it while creating an alternative visual and whimsical version. 

 In addition to the above, there is also the question of gender. The writers of manuscripts were different to the illuminators, but they were all men. I wonder, being a woman, how and if my approach and responses to the manuscript are any different, especially being the only one involved in both the writing and the illuminating processes.