Dahlia’s parents commissioned this piece as a gift for their daughter on the occasion of her bat mitzvah in September 2020. The parsha that day was Ki Tavo, which is mostly notable for its very long listing of awful curses. Well, that’s interesting text, but not appropriate for bat mitzvah artwork. Instead, I looked to the haftarah and found a lovely piece of text in Isaiah 60:19.

The full translation is “No longer shall you need the sun for light by day, nor the shining of the moon for radiance; for the LORD shall be your light everlasting, your God shall be your glory.” (I used just the last bit in the artwork.)

The main central image of the piece is both a dahlia flower and a burst of light, to echo the text. This flower/burst is encircled by the text above, along with the name of the parsha and the date, and Dahlia’s Hebrew name, Deena.