I think Flora runs with her scissors...

There is a good chance Flora Rosefsky has been caught running with scissors now and then. She does an incredible job of wielding that weapon and turning out pictures that dance and jump and tell stories about Flora's Judaic family past. She admits that she isn't as observant of customs as her parents or grandparents. No, she doesn't light candles every Friday night, but she loves the connections with her past and honors them in her work. Using paper, cloth and ephemera, she creates collages that are simple and complex at the same time. The more you look at them, the more you see. Yet, all of Flora's work has joy and love as an important ingredient. She tells the stories of her family with bits and pieces of materials, some of them taken from something that belonged to that person. One of them has pieces of a copy of her Jewish wedding contract, another has pieces of checks written by her father-in-law. I stopped by yesterday at the Marcus Hillel Center at Emory University where Flora's exhibit in the hall gallery and inside the restaurant will be hanging until the end of March. The big attraction was the artist's discussion of her work. Not only has she done collages. She has created quilts and stained glass window designs, paintings and portraits -- most with a focus on Judaica. Judaica in art is a relatively recent development, Flora explains. "It is contemporary development. The history of Jewish culture is written, it is something we connect with words." Modern artists like Flora are taking the stories into their own hands and giving them images for us to interpret and enjoy.