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Falls Church artist Naomi Lipsky will discuss her intricate Judaic and decorative artwork during a 6:30 p.m. opening reception June 16 at Cherrydale Library in Arlington. Her exhibition, “Quilling, Gilding, and Judaic Art,” brings together gold leaf, watercolor, collage, gouache and precisely shaped strips of paper.

Among Lipsky’s works is “Song of Songs,” a 13.5-by-16.5-inch giclée print featuring the traditional Jewish wedding words, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,” in English and Hebrew. Roses, doves and wedding ribbons surround lettering finished by hand with 23-karat gold leaf.

The image began as a watercolor before Lipsky reproduced it digitally and gilded each print individually. The displayed piece combines flat and raised gilding, making every version slightly different.

Lipsky has also worked with palladium and 5-karat metal that resembles silver. She said genuine silver is heavier and easier to handle but can tarnish, making it less appealing for some pieces.

Where science and art meet

Lipsky’s exacting methods reflect a career that once centered on biochemistry. She earned a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University and later served on its faculty before retiring and devoting herself more fully to art.

To Lipsky, the transition was not the dramatic break that others sometimes assumed.

“Both in science and in research as well as in art, you’re looking for the solution to a problem,” she said. Both require experimentation, persistence and a willingness to accept uncertain results.

Art had remained part of her life throughout her scientific career. She explored painting, pottery, stone carving and numerous other forms, encouraged by a father who believed children should receive the best tools a family could afford. Cheap materials, he reasoned, could leave a beginner frustrated enough to quit.

That upbringing helped shape Lipsky’s willingness to experiment. She rejects the idea that people must already possess conventional drawing skills to make art, noting that nature contains more curved lines than straight ones.

When Lipsky became interested in gilding—the application of gold leaf or gold paint—she joined the Society of Gilders. Within eight years, she had become president of the international organization.

She discovered quilling after encountering an example of the centuries-old technique, which uses rolled, shaped and glued paper strips to build decorative designs. Though she had never heard of the practice, its structure immediately made sense to her.

Lipsky describes herself as a decorative artist who enjoys patterns and clearly defined boundaries. Instead of finding those limits restrictive, she treats them as creative challenges.

Jewish heritage rendered in color

Much of Lipsky’s work explores Jewish ritual, liturgy and language. She said she wants her pieces to offer beauty and happiness while introducing viewers—including Jewish audiences—to traditions or ideas they may not know.

That often requires extensive research, particularly when she is creating a commissioned piece with personal meaning for a client.

One work centers on “Hineni,” a Hebrew expression commonly understood as “Here I am.” Lipsky connects it with biblical moments when Moses responds to the burning bush and Abraham answers a divine call. In her interpretation, pure white light descends and becomes something tangible and filled with color.

The piece has also reached patients far beyond an exhibition space. The Mayo Clinic purchased it for an art cart taken to hospital rooms, and Lipsky said patients have written to tell her that it helped them through surgery and other difficult experiences. A man preparing for ordination as a priest also received permission to place the image on his program.

Alphabet pieces give Lipsky another way to combine education and comfort. Her “Aleph Bet” illustrates the Hebrew alphabet with an object corresponding to each letter. She has produced variations using biblical words and created an English alphabet filled with flowers.

“Chai Rainbow” repeats the Hebrew word for “life” in changing colors and quilled patterns. Each version begins with the same basic form, but the paper filling differs, demonstrating how much variation the technique allows.

Not all of Lipsky’s subjects are liturgical. She has a particular affection for “Stegosaurus,” a quilled dinosaur inspired by a drawing that made her wonder whether the animal could be recreated in rolled paper.

The work required experimentation to determine the shapes and sizes of its coils and spikes. Lipsky said that trial and error consumes more time than physically reproducing a known pattern, although an exact duplicate is impossible because paper never curls in precisely the same way.

She rolls her paper around a blunt tapestry needle roughly one millimeter wide. Although slotted quilling tools are available, she said they can leave an unwanted straight edge at the center of a coil.

Her commissioned work includes framed wedding invitations embellished with quilling. Clients can request colors or personal details, and Lipsky has designed pieces to resemble a wedding canopy or coordinate with a couple’s china pattern. Her own framed invitation incorporates lace from her bridal veil.

She also decoratively framed a photograph of her daughter and niece, who were born 11 days apart, using elements of the image to extend the design into the mat.

A new local exhibition

Lipsky became involved with Arlington Public Library’s Art Incubator program after reading about another artist’s exhibition at the Columbia Pike branch. She found the program online, applied and was eventually assigned to Cherrydale Library, which she said had not previously hosted such a show.

The library describes Lipsky as best known for quilling, though her practice also encompasses gold leaf, collage and gouache. She mats and frames her own pieces, and her award-winning work has appeared in museums, galleries, books and other publications.

A Bronx and Long Island native, Lipsky attended college in Philadelphia and continued her education in Baltimore. She later lived in Rochester, Minnesota, where her late husband worked as a Mayo Clinic physician, and spent time in Rhode Island. She has lived in Falls Church City for the past four years.

Lipsky now teaches and takes classes through Falls Church Arts, where she has offered instruction in quilling and framing. Her “Song of Songs” is included in the organization’s mixed-media All-Members Show for artists whose names begin with A through L.

Following her June 16 exhibition talk at Cherrydale Library, Lipsky is scheduled to return July 22 to teach a quilling class featuring techniques used to create “Stegosaurus.”