Wortzman is a member of multi-faith artist collective Women Strong. They are committed to sharing an inclusive community of artists with a larger community.
“Although we had traditions in the home, I grew up in a pretty secular family. In my late 20s and 30s I did a lot of transformation and soul searching. I found myself really drawn to the spiritual path. That took me into a lot of different religious and secular modalities,” Wortzman said.
“My dad, who was a lawyer, was a hobbyist watercolor painter. One of the reasons I got into art is that we used to go on the weekend to take classes together and I was always the only child. It was a really profound experience being treated as an adult when I was 8-12 years old.
“I went to McGill University for Art History and I absolutely loved it but I felt some pressure to pick a profession,” she said. ”I went to law school, which has a lot to do with me becoming a professional artist. Law school was a shock to my system, with no visual or beauty to it. I felt this terrible thirst for something.”
The only way to feel she could make it through law school was to get creative during breaks. So she spent every summer at a painting workshop in Saints, France, where she lived in a farmhouse and was mentored by a French artist named Jean Claude Roy.
“I graduated from law school and had my first show in Toronto. I started working for museums, first an internship at the Guggenheim in the legal department. That led to a succession of jobs in museums, mostly legal but also policy work and community organizing. I loved it.”
In her early 30s she decided it was now or never, and quit her job to focus full-time on art.
Credit: Bruce Soifer
Credit: Bruce Soifer
“Then I had my child and things slowed down. When she was a few years old I decided to change course a bit. I went back to school and enrolled in ‘The Listening Heart’, a program training people to become Jewish spiritual directors.”
A spiritual director can be found in many faiths, she said.
“It is someone who accompanies another person on their journey towards self-awareness and the integration of the Divine into their life, however they understand that. For me, it was always based primarily on spirituality as opposed to religion,” Wortzman said.
“That set me up for the next part of my education, at the Graduate Theological Foundation. I did my doctorate in Ministry and Jewish Spiritual Direction. My dissertation was a very comprehensive study on how we could measure growth in spirituality and relational consciousness through a spiritual toolbox to make children’s lives more meaningful, help them reduce stress, and help them to make critical decisions based on self-awareness. I merged the process of art-making with spiritual direction. Wherever I’ve gone, I’ve implemented this — with kids, adults, groups.
“That methodology is the basis of ‘Be a Blessing.’”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Be a Blessing is a series of workshops Wortzman is conducting as a collaboration between the University of Dayton and The Contemporary Dayton.
“You could call it a performance piece. It has a few components. The workshops start with meditation, then reading a text and finding shared meaning. Then they will set an intention and go on to the artmaking process.”
Even though it is couched in religious terms, this is a social action project that gets to recognizing the humanity in others for a more inclusive community, she said.
Wortzman lives in Oakwood with her husband, Rabbi Aubrey Glazer, and their 18-year-old daughter.
PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY
“The first thing I do every morning is a huge body stretch before I get out of bed. I’ve been working on a gratitude practice as soon as I wake up.
“I’m a really big proponent of practical spirituality, which basically means, what is the recipe for bringing spirituality into my daily life? It creates a more meaningful life and it is rewarding and makes your heart full. It helps with feelings of isolation and stress,” she said.
“The last 10 years has been a process of me transforming my personality from an A-type person, somewhat aggressive and ambitious, to a person that I always envied and wanted to be. The person who brings positive energy into every situation. You know that person that always seems peaceful? Their heart is open and when you’re around them, your energy feels uplifted,” Wortzman said.
“The way I’ve tried to do that is by implementing these little practices. Smiling is a big thing, even if I have to force myself when I get up. And trying to think about one thing I’m looking forward to for the day.”
TAP TO SHIFT
“Then I do a tapping practice. I’m certified in something called Emotional Freedom Technique. It is really helpful for anxiety, depression, PTSD, stress relief,” she said. “When I’m in the shower I do my first EFT for the day. It is a process of tapping on yourself on certain acupressure points while you’re speaking, and the script is whatever your issue is. So I might start like, ‘Even though I’m worried about my daughter’s first day of classes, I love and accept myself in this moment.’ You go around and you’re tapping and aware of where the body carries stress and traumatic memories - my stomach, my heart. That awareness allows you to shift it out of your body.”
BERGAMOT & BUCKWHEAT
“Then I have a cup of tea. I’ve discovered bergamot this year. It has a really interesting floral smell,” Wortzman said.
“I wake up my kid, and it’s always the same thing - ‘Five more minutes!’”
Wortzman has a lot of food intolerances and allergies, so she makes what her daughter calls “Disgusting Muffins.”
“I think they’re fantastic. It’s buckwheat flour, eggs, a little apple cider vinegar and water. I pour a lot of olive oil on top. Olive oil is like my wine. I get that in the oven and it gets all toasty,” she said.
“I take all my vitamins. I’m very into natural medicine and trying to support your immune system through vitamins and herbs.”
WORKING INTUITIVELY
“I’ll drop my daughter off somewhere and then I’ll come to the studio.”
Wortzman’s art studio was previously a surgical x-ray and operatory wing in the lower level of a medical office building. At the end of an unused corridor a former exam room serves as her painting studio. It is equipped with sink, cabinets and space for her easel.
“The first thing I do when I come to my studio is change my clothes and shoes. I am a super messy painter. As I’ve gotten older I’ve become more hands on with the process, and I find that sometimes I’m painting with my fingers — which seems so backwards. I learned my lesson after I ruined some good clothes," she said.
“Within 10 minutes I have a paintbrush in my hand and I’m working on something. I think of my work as spiritual conceptualism through an abstract expressionist modality.
“I’m a really intuitive artist. I like the painting and materials to speak to me. I’ll start with washes of color and try to find forms in that. Painting is my prime medium but I also spend a lot of time doing photography. I’ll create multi-layered artworks in Photoshop and then print them on paper or silk. I vacillate between totally expressionist intuitive work and pieces that are more conceptual,” Wortzman said.
SYMBOLIZING PROTECTION
In Judaism and in a lot of cultures across the world, there is this practice of wearing red string as a way of symbolizing protection. There is a practice in the Middle East of wrapping the red string around your wrist, especially women who are trying to get pregnant or protect a pregnancy," Wortzman said.
“We have these amuletic traditions in a lot of our different faiths. I wanted to create work that spoke to how women’s voices have been silenced, and creating safe places for the ‘other’ to be heard. I used the red string and wove it through some of my work to create a protected space.
“I totally lose myself. I’ll be painting and my phone will ring - ‘Where are you?!’. I forgot to pick my daughter up or I’m late. I do a really quick clean up and turn the lights off. I get halfway down the hall and I have to come back and look at the work one more time. My little babies. I get very attached,” she said.
DINNER & SUNDRY
“I go home. I do housework, catch up on work for my job as the Director of Religious School at Beth Abraham Synagogue.
“My husband has an art background as well, and he has an amazing eye. When he gets home, he doesn’t even have his coat off before I ask him what he thinks of a photo of my work. He can put his finger on it right away,” she said.
“Dinner at my house is two or three different meals. We’re often on different schedules. Sometimes I eat and then sit with my husband and talk about the day. My daughter cooks most of her meals herself.
“We usually do some sort of meditation in the evening. My husband and I rotate between meditation, tapping, and text study. It could be poetry or philosophy.”
CALLING HER ANGELS
“I start to become very un-useful around 8:30 at night. I load and unload the dishwasher, turn off all the lights, turn the thermostat down, say good night to my daughter who always goes to bed after me. There’s no more tuck-in. She’s tucking me in,” Wortman said.
“I lie down, do some breath work, and then I do the bedtime Shema. It’s a prayer that calls your angels to surround you when you’re sleeping, because in Judaism we have this belief that part of your soul returns to its source during the night. That’s why in the morning when you get up you say ‘Modeh Ani’ or ‘I’m grateful for the return of my soul’. I use this as a way of stilling my mind. It brings me a sense of peace and is a really nice way of closing the day down.”
THROUGH THE HEART
“You know those Venn diagrams where there is an overlap? That is how I imagine spirituality and religion. Religion is an organized form of behavior, beliefs and actions that someone might follow. Spirituality is so much broader. It isn’t necessarily based on faith or even on a belief in God,” she said. “It involves an awareness other than, or bigger than, yourself. To some people that could just be other human beings, or the awesome process of nature itself. To me, it involves a desire to relate to something transcendent.
“I feel that all human beings have an innate sense to create and to connect to something outside of themselves. Artmaking, I believe, is an innately spiritual process. Connecting with something bigger than yourself does not happen through the head. It happens through the heart and through the hands.”
MORE DETAILS
Examples of Elyssa Wortzman’s work and studies can be found at elyssawortzman.com.
As part of The Co’s ongoing Arts & Wellness initiatives, the public is invited to join in a mindful art-making workshop, “Be a Blessing.”
BE A BLESSING WORKSHOPS
9:30 a.m. to noon, Sunday, Feb. 16. Open to students and families (age 12 and older) at The Contemporary Dayton
9:30 a.m. to noon and 3:30 p.m.–5 p.m. Friday, Mar. 7 (age 12 and older) at The Contemporary Dayton
$10 registration required online at eventbrite.com/e/dr-elyssa-wortzman-be-a-blessing-tickets-1226579946639?aff=oddtdtcreator
CULMINATING EVENT/ACTIVATION DAY
Peaceful gathering, free and open to all, at Courthouse Square: 5 to 6 p.m. Friday, April 4
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