THE FOXFILES

presents

Musings, Images, Annotated Webliographies, and more...

"We seem to have forgotten that the humanist and the scientist or the artist and the mathematician have a great deal in common, a zone of creativeness, in which the intuitive imagination, working with either symbols or words or signs, arrives at its goal, both of them moving toward a supreme beauty and a stern perfection."
-- P. G. Ruggiers: The Humanities --

Sometimes life is about risking everything for a dream no one can see but you

I have fully retired from the sale of my artwork.

These days I make art because I must.

It is imperative that I find ways to express my creative urges.

I have begun work on a series of booklets formatted as PDFs and entitled:

"The Siddur as an Instrument of Resilience"

Find the first 3: "Ashrei", "El Adon" and "Ein Keloheinu" here.

These brief studies, designed to explore the meanings of significant or frequently used words found in the Jewish prayer book are not intended to be especially religious, although any spiritual benefit one might derive from them would be a lovely additional outcome.
My thought is that by understanding some core liturgical vocabulary individuals’ experiences during times of worship might be enriched. The hope is that as people learn some basic liturgical vocabulary they will feel empowered in their own prayer life, rather than feeling like audience members at a performance mostly provided by the Cantor.
Additional booklets focusing on specific prayers and topics such as "The Attributes of HaShem" are included in my plans for the future of this series.

Here are some projects I have previously created:

1612 Treaty at Ottowa River Wampum Replica

Art Show Opening June 24, 2016

Art Show Pieces (selected) June 24, 2016

How I made a pair of moccasins

How I made Moccasins for Andrea

Vest made of Deer Hides & Silk Thread

http://foxgull.com/masterpiece.pdf

Photographs from a walk at Pleasant Valley Preserve, Central New York Land Trust, July 27, 2021.

Glass wampum calendar, inspired by the 18th century King Hendrick belt

Glass wampum replica of the "King Hendrick Belt" donated to the Tomaquag Museum 2021 Annual Auction.

In 2019 I applied for an Individual Artist Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. I was not one of the fortunate 3% of applicants to be selected. Nevertheless, focusing so intensely on my writing for such an extended period and enlisting the support of generous volunteer editors was a great experience. "Post-traumatic Joy" was my submission in the Creative Non-fiction category, and the following document, "Two Poems" was (obviously) for the Poetry category. At the time I wrote this as an artist's statement regarding the work I was submitting:

"Surviving is unacceptable, mere resilience is tolerable, and imagining transformation is only the beginning. As a wordsmith working in the medium of creative non-fiction my goal is to forge tools of healing by interrogating both self and society. Much like turning over a stone to reveal the squirming, fleeing, insect life beneath it I use writing to create a radiant burst of post-traumatic joy so profound that the disempowering, people-pleasing, habitual survival skills of yesteryear are destroyed beyond remembrance."

Post-Traumatic Joy: The Summer of Stonewall 50

© Rebekah Tanner, October 5, 2019

One of several essays written and / or in the works that are based on raw materials drawn from the back and forth correspondence between my Mother and myself (1971 – 1996) and my personal journals. "Post-traumatic Joy" uses a slice of time approach to explore transitions in thought and behavior during early retirement. By hearkening back to that awful annual school assignment: “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” the focus here is on taking an inventory of my own becoming as I discover new feelings of freedom as I age.

Two Poems

© Rebekah Tanner, 2019

In 2014-2015 I studied at the State University of New York at Oswego and recieved an Advanced Certificate in Interdisciplinary Trauma Studies. Among the several wonderful learning experiences of that time was the writing of my independent study project for Trauma and Loss, PSY 599-033, 3rd Quarter, 2015 with Dr. Karen Wolford, Ph.D.
Five Sesame Seeds: Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Trauma, Loss and Depression -- An Ethnocultural and Didactic Exploration
Paper in PDF format at: http://foxgull.com/5_sesame_seeds.pdf
Sample lesson from the workbook in PowerPoint at: http://foxgull.com/Five_Sesame_Seeds.pptx

Other pages I have created:

My kind-of-blog articles on topics that interest me such as: on being a caregiver, living and loving art, resiliency, and the transitions of retirement can now be found (as Yogi Berra would say) at:

"When You Come To A Fork In the Road, Take It"

My "Must See" Favorites

The Willow Tea Rooms of Charles Rennie Mackintosh: An Honors Paper Written for Design I Spring 2011

Girl Standing in the Trees: A Paper Written for Contemporary American Literature, Autumn 2012

Dr. Anne (Schulherr) Waters, J. D. Ph.D.

A Web Site about Doc. Waters: Seminole philospher, poet, lawyer, indiginist, womanist, author.

A Wendat Biblio-Essay: My Gift to the Seventh Generation

A History of the Wendat People in Fifteen Minutes and an Accompanying Bibliography

The Role of Music in Language Revival: A Paper Written for Language and Culture Spring 2012

Learnen Yiddish Mit Libe

Images My Dad Left Behind

Chao Sing and Her Kind: American Cocker Spaniels

The Speed of Transformation is Uncanny

Toby the Dachshund

Hsaio Lung the Beagle

An Inadvertent Dance

I am a New Yorker

Here is an essay I wrote early on in my ceramic making adventures (2014) and some images of that early work:

About My Ceramics and Photos of My Ceramics

And just something beautiful shared with me many years ago by Madame Heather Bastien (of blessed memory):

Legendes amerindiennes du sirop derable

Please also visit The page where my spouse keeps details about all of her book reading and reviewing at ROKINREV REVIEW - ANDREA STOECKEL: AVOCATIONAL READER AND REVIEWER , as well as her archived site that she has not updated in... well, years and years. THE ROCKINREV REVIEW. She had put a huge effort into it and it has some amazing links to religious (primarily Protestant) sites, then-current events (she is a news junkie!) and some other pretty interesting stuff.

Email: foxgull@foxgull.com
URL: http://foxgull.com/

Special thanks to Ali McDonald of St. Johnsville, NY for the foxgull logo design.

This site was originally created on 20 September 1996, it is the work of Rebekah Tanner, she alone is alone responsible for its content and any opinions expressed herein. She is not responsible for the content of any site she has chosen to link to.