(gentle music) - I grew up in University Heights, Ohio, and I'm one of five girls, and I think I always drew.

I liked functional art and Jewish art, like what I do now is a functional art.

I wanted to really explore being able to draw.

So I transferred to Parsons, which had the best drawing program.

My dad convinced me to take a year out of New York.

So I moved to Cleveland.

I received three phone calls in one week, three completely different people had phoned me, who had seen my sisters, my cousins, and my girlfriends ketubot, which are Jewish marriage contracts that I had created in my early twenties as gifts.

And I thought three people, one week, who did not know each other, there's a job here.

So I got a $500 loan, which was a lot of money back then, to paid for advertising, and I started my business creating Jewish art.

What I think draws my ketubot apart from other people's ketubot, is that I really work with the couple to create something that's uniquely all about them.

So I'm illustrating the story of their life.

It's that moment right now where they are when they're getting married.

When I meet with them, I take the information of what their interests are, what symbolism, do they want a paper cut, do they want a painting?

What shape, what size, do they want a square, do they want a rectangle?

And then I stop them and I say, "Okay, so tell me what you'd wanna incorporate in your ketubot.

So we have an idea of the design.

So let's figure out what we're gonna tell in your story."

Paper cutting's very interesting.

It's like drawing.

Paper cutting has been going around for centuries, invented by the Chinese.

And I have my papers made for me, so I'm able to cut on one side where it's a little smoother and the other side is more porous, so it has more texture to it.

I do a drawing and then I interpret the drawing for paper cut.

So the lines are continuous, and then thicker and thinner, depending on how it's gonna be cut, and I coordinate the imagery from one thing to the next, which is actually similar to my gouache.

Gouache is an interesting material to use.

It's a crossover between an acrylic and a watercolor.

So you can get a little thicker and you can really kind of move the paint in a way you can't with watercolor, and you can layer it.

I love that layering effect.

Over the years, I've been creating social commentaries, and so every year, I try and create something about what's going on in today's world.

Fairmont Temple had caught fire.

So Fairmont Temple knows who I am, and they asked me if I could brainstorm with them for something for their windows.

And I said, "Well, why don't we take this imagery?

I can make this painting and we could put it on the windows."

And simultaneously, while that is being put up, I won this amazing award.

A day and a half after I received this amazing honor, the war in Israel breaks out, the brutal murdering of people and the kidnapping of all the hostages, and I felt such an obligation in my heart to do something to make a difference.

So my friend texted me saying, "Hey, the Jewish Federation wants me to work on this, but I told them I'd only wanna work on it with you because you're the idea girl."

I said, "Great."

So I thought of the ribbon would be an easy way to do this, and on the ribbon should have all the faces of the hostages and so it needs to be a really big ribbon, and then "Bring them home now," which is the statement that is being used over and over again, because they need to be brought home.

I mean, they're being abused.

It's just such a horrific thing going on that I needed to bring that awareness.

So I wanted the faces of the individuals to really be in a person's face.

I made the children's faces larger, and next to the children's, you'll see a lot of the elderly.

And so because these people, these are like our family members.

Well, to start talking about the letter project, I have to talk about my mobile.

I was asked to be a mentor to the Jewish Arts and Cultural Lab.

So they were discussing creation and the meaning of the Hebrew alphabet, which is the "Sefer Yetzirah," the pairing of the letters.

And so I envisioned this whole mobile of the letters coming off and being out of glass or plastic, or something, and having it then be on a mobile, and it turns.

(carefree music) So a few years later, I'm sitting in my family room where we have a ton of books and I'm looking around, and I'm like, "Oh, what am I gonna do?"

So I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna illustrate Lawrence Kushner's "Book of Letters."

So much comes from the Hebrew alphabet.

The Hebrew alphabet builds...

The letters build on one another.

So each letter is about living life, and about building your life, and what do you want in your life?

And it's okay to make mistakes and move back and try and fix it, as anybody.

So there really for everybody.

You don't say anything when you say, "Alef," that's the first letter of the alphabet.

So I illustrated it as like messy around it with all the letters behind it, and then alef stands out.

And bet is beginning, that's the second letter.

So you're beginning to go somewhere.

And then gimel is going, it's like the waves, the water carrying you to dalet, which is the next letter, which is the door, dalet, door, and you're picking from which door in life do you wanna go through to make a difference?

And then hai is the fifth letter, and what's interesting about hai is that it talks about the different kinds of people in the world.

- Nancy's a born storyteller.

She loves going back into history, and especially Jewish culture, and especially writings from the Torah.

The letters have intrigued her always, and when each of the letters tell a different story... - [Nancy] I became fascinated and I fell down this rabbit hole.

I created the series more as like for the layman, for everybody to understand.

And then through teaching, I'm able to help people grow and learn.

I had such great mentors, and so if I can inspire and help people grow and learn something new, then how great is that?

- So Nancy is really a born educator.

She connects with people on so many levels.

So she, in terms of her own paper cutting and her craft, she creates beautiful pieces that are made out of such intricate papers.

Many of them, she selects from all over the world, and she likes to share that, the joy of paper cutting with the community.

This is a time where we really need to be speaking together and understanding each other's cultures, understanding each other's histories, and realizing that we need to talk and have a discussion.

And I think Nancy's pieces really beckon that.

- My work is so rewarding to me because I'm able to bring meaning and bring awareness to a larger audience.

It's so important on so many levels to bring awareness of different diverse groups and what they're all about.

You bring awareness, you're bringing respect, and acceptance is important when you have such a melting pot of people, as we do in America, and maybe we could all live together in peace and be supportive of one another and respectful of where we come from.

(gentle music)