When you ask 19-year-old Slater Sousley to describe himself, he answers assuredly: “I am Jewish, an artisit and I’m from Overland Park, Kansas.”
A 2013 graduate of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy and a second-year merit scholarship student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), purpose and identity serve as cornerstones not only for his self-discovery, but for his approach to each work of art.
Shortly after Slater accepted the SAIC scholarship and had won a first place scholarship in the Johnson County Arts Council Shooting Stars program, Rabbi Scott White asked Slater to consider painting an original mural in the lower breezeway of the Congregation Ohev Sholom building.
Honored by the opportunity Slater agreed, but asked for time to contemplate a suitable subject as well as acquire the experience necessary to complete a large-scale painting.
“It was important to me to paint something worthy of the space,” explains Sousley. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}“I didn’t want to paint another Star of David or menorah.”
After months of thinking about the space, and a class on large-scale production, Slater spoke to Rabbi White about his idea of painting a Kansas skyscape and tying it to the history of the synagogue.
“For years, Slater has taken photographs of sunsets,” explains Slater’s mother Lynn Turner Sousley, “He appreciates the exquisite colors and unique forms cast across the skies as well as the significance that the beginning of every Shabbat and every Jewish holy day and festival are marked by sundown.”
The mural, completed during Slater’s winter break from school, presents a Kansas sunset, the magical time between Mincha and Ma’ariv services when one day ends signaling the birth of another day to come. The sunset connects silhouettes of the congregation’s current building and its former synagogue in Kansas City, Kansas, on 7th and Sandusky.
“It’s interesting how our synagogue building represents a temporary dwelling, Abraham’s tent,” Slater mused in conversation with me. “Yet this painting brings out the permanence of our congregation and Judaism, no matter what obstacles we face.”
The history of Congregation Ohev Sholom certainly includes overcoming obstacles. Ohev’s first building at 925 State Line was ruined by the Great Flood of 1903. The devastating flood caused the congregation — Congregation Gomel Chesed at that time — to a split into two. In 1923, Congregations Gomel Chesed and Shearith Israel restored their original unity and applied for a charter as Congregation Ohev Sholom, “Lovers of Peace.” The following year, the congregation built a 225-seat sanctuary at 7th & Sandusky. When many congregants moved from Wyandotte to Johnson County, Ohev moved to its current location at 75th and Nall in 1962.
Rabbi White and the congregation’s board of directors plan to hold a ceremony to dedicate the mural following the completion of Slater’s spring semester. At that time, Slater’s artist statement, which will include the quote from the Book of Isaiah: “And you shall rebuild your ruined foundations laid long ago,” as well as a framed copy of a Kansas City Star article describing a special burial assembly for three Torah scrolls ruined in the flood, will be mounted to complete the mural.
Other Slater Sousley artwork includes a portrait of a rabbi, in honor of HBHA teacher Rabbi Beryl Sosover, that appeared on the cover of The Jewish Chronicle’s 2012 Rosh Hashanah magazine; his Frank Zappa oil-pastel which was featured in 435 Magazine’s special “Teens with A Dream” and displayed in the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art installation in Spring 2013; an abstract acrylic painting installed during the SAIC’s Art Bash featuring freshmen talent; and the view presented at a freshman-curated installation in Chicago, May 2014.
Slater, and his brother Turner, are the sons of Ray and Lynn Sousley.{/mprestriction}
