The BiG StorY

With A Song
In Her Art

Inset: Mae
Rockland Tupa

Right: Detail from
"Home Is Where the
Heart Is," a wall
quilt using family
fabrics and draw-
ings based on family
photos.

Art by Mae
Rockland Tupa.

Mae Rockland Tupa tells why she loves
making and displaying Jewish heirlooms.

12/5
1997

52

Mae Rockland Tupa
Special to The AppleTree

ailing for my turn outside
the blood bank donation
room, distractedly leafing
through a 4-year-old copy of Time, I
couldn't help but notice an advertis-
ing headline.
"Have you ever seen an heirloom
when it was new?" it asked. "There
are certain possessions that you know
will be dear to you always, from the
moment you purchase or receive
them. A classic piece of furniture.
Fine jewelry. An exquisite Swiss time-
piece."
To this list of "treasured belong-
ings," the advertisement suggested
we add a "writing instrument" from
the company's "collection."
Although I wasn't in the market for
an 18-karat-gold-filled pen, the ad
jostled my thinking about legacies
from my parents and grandparents,
and those I will leave for my children
and grandchildren.
Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary defines heirloom as "some-
thing of special value handed on
from one generation to another."
What is of special value? Today,
with a nascent, convoluted global
economy, bouncing stock markets
and various collectibles swinging
between trash and outrageous prices,
something of special value must

Mae Rockland Tupa is an
author and artist who lives in New
England and Valencia, Spain. Her
books include The New Work of
Our Hands: ContemporaryJewish
Needlework and Quilts, The
Hanukkah Book and The New
Jewish Yellow Pages.
Tupa, whose art work is in private
and public collections including the
Jewish Museum of New York,
Princeton University and the Skirball
Cultural Center in Los Angeles, is
working on her seventh book,
which will tell how she and her hus-
band transformed the ruins of a
medieval Spanish blacksmith shop
into their own "castle for two."