By COLlive reporter
The 8th Day Band sings about it, there’s bracelets reading it and recently even Harvard scientists confirmed it: “Tracht Gut Vet Zein Gut” (think well and it will be well).
But while every Lubavitch child knows that basic therapeutic mantra attributed to the Tzemach Tzedek (1789-1866), the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, no one expected it to end up on prime-time television.
Yet there were the Yiddish words shown on a recent episode of an American television sitcom which airs on the CBS network. A COLlive reader sent a screenshot with the title “Chabad infiltrating popular media.”
The artwork “prominently displayed throughout the episode,” the reader updated, belonged to Ashira Siegel and Rivka Siegel, native Los Angelenos, occasional collaborators, and sisters in arms.
It turns out that in the episode, the protagonists are hired to make cupcakes for an Orthodox Jewish family’s bar mitzvah celebration, and the production was looking for articles to design the frum home.
“We grew up in a Chabad family,” Ashira Siegel said in a conversation with COLlive.com. “The concept of “Tracht Gut” is something I grew up with and closely identify with.”
She created the art piece seen on the show with spray-paint and stencil cut out which she often uses in her innovative approach towards a singular iconography. She reinterprets methods of crafting, while borrowing techniques from tailoring, graffiti and street art.
“I had been wanting to make this for a long time, and gave it to my mother as a birthday present,” says Ashira who has been using imagery from her memories and experience of Judaism.
With images ranging from fish to flames to Hebrew letters, Ashira works to re-interpret the traditions she grew up with and formalizes her perception of identity, and heritage, with new meaning and life.
“I’m not 100% sure how it happened,” she says of 4 of her and her sister Rivka’s art pieces being purchased and featured on television.
“It was a total hashgacha pratis. From what I understood, the set designer for the show approached this other gallery which has Israeli art and he referred her to our store. Rivka happened to be there and sold the 4 pieces.”
“When we explained the concept (to the set designer), she thought it was just beautiful.”
The artists can be reached at AshiraSiegel.com and RivkaSiegel.com
The whole world should see it, and live by such a sentiment.
I love the art of Rivka and Ashira. I have one of rivkas paintings hanging in my home. It is constant topic of conversation. Love it! Totally worth my investment.
Hi and thanks so much for your support, lovely words, and for your interest! This print was a long time coming and I was so happy to finally make it. I had no idea it would end up on prime time tv but love that it did.
If you’d like to purchase a print, you can order the print directly through me (Ashira). Please email me at: [email protected] and I’ll explain how.
Kol tuv and shavuah tov!
Absolutely beautiful! Good on ya Seigal sisters!
Can I purchase a copy of this from her website? I think it will make a great gift..
Their artwork is just fabulous — a real kiddush Hashem! Check out their websites. Yasher Koach!!
whats with this obsession of finding yiddushe thingson tv? its not a new or unusual thing.most of the directors/ writers are jewish and so are a lot of the actors
Hymie brov we takin ova