This month’s Oculus column features two acrylics on paper, each 9.5 x 13.75, by Hedy Campeas, a member of  the shul’s Judaism and Art group. As the artist explained, “Last autumn, Graham and I drove through a mighty nor’easter for his doctor appointment. Due to the pandemic, I waited alone in the car, and watched in awe as gale winds washed twisted streams of water over the windshield.

Figures of people fragmented as they struggled from car to office. Trees split into blobs of green and gray. The words of the brief seasonal prayer from the Amidah floated into my mind. ‘He makes the winds blow and the rains descend.’ From time immemorial, the people of Israel have depended on winter rains and summer dew for survival. The power of these words inspired these two paintings.”