Winged Images As far back as early childhood, Jeffrey Schrier's visual works have been heavily interspersed with images of WINGS. The images in this section present a somewhat chronological selection of these works leading up to WINGS OF WITNESS. One the artist's earliest recollections of intense artistic involvement, is a kindergarten crayon rendition of a bumblebee, a dark full page, with carefully rendered translucent WINGS. When Schrier began directly exploring identity through his art, he created "Fish Fantasy of Better Days",  a visual transformation of death and decay  into ascent. WINGS representing transformation then found their way into many works, some published internationally as editorial illustrations (Depression, Montreaux Jazz Festival, Reincarnation, Totentanz, Portrait of an Artist).  Subsequently, Schrier created a series of works  in which he reflected the legacy of his birthday, December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day, incorporating wings of both bombers and butterflies (The Swallowtail and The Bombers, Cho-Cho San and The American Bombers).  Exploring a deep ethnic yearning, Schrier went on to reflect a childhood fascination with the southwest, through hide-shaped works incorporating eagle wings, hawk feathers, and plumed Native American dancers (You Must Crawl Before You Soar, Flying Face Mask, Snake Dance Hide, Hawk Flying Years). The southwestern works stimulated Schrier to explore more deeply his personal   ethnic and family ties, beyond imagined ties to the American earth. The result was a series of family history works, "Forty Hamsa, Forty Years", completed as he turned forty.  Schrier fused a photo montage of his own shadow with his hands and with wings, extending from a sea of biblical faces, for "Hamsa of Ages", one of these forty works. For "Dream of Safety", the artist's hands flutter wing-like  framing  photos from four generations. In the same series, wing-like hands of the artist protectively descend around images of his father's early years, for "Fixer".  Developing intricate works related to heritage required much research. Schrier began to experience the pages of manuscripts, antiquated books,  photo albums and memorabilia that he poured through, like WINGS, providing an ascent into his heritage. In the 12 foot "Scroll", commissioned by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, to honor the extensive antiquities and history of their library, Schrier created repeated images of a fluttering bible to reflect  his elevated response to the collections. Since the history of the work included the period of WWII, Schrier researched Holocaust images in the Seminary archives. The disturbing material created deep impressions, ultimately leading to more family history research and several works including, "Wings for Wolpa", honoring a martyred Polish Synagogue. In "Golden Lamp, Golden Land", an assemblage of ancestral photos beneath repeated images of the Statue of Liberty, forming a 15 foot Hanukkah Menorah, Schrier created support brackets by cutting and embellishing wings from plastic chicken planters. For "Russian Dreams in the Lap of Moses", Schrier honored the rescue of Russian Jews by superimposing a photo of a rescued family with a 3rd century fresco rendition of Moses parting the sea, staged on a fuscha fuselage of an EL AL jet. Many of these works were displayed in a solo Exhibition at Yeshiva University Museum, Manhattan, where Schrier staged in an alcove, an assemblage work, based on the biblical story of Jacob's ladder. Since Schrier's Hebrew name is Yacov (Jacob), he created an actual bed with sheets fused with a transfer image of himself covered with a third century fresco rendition of Jacob's tunic. Twenty feet of glistening winged ladder sections, made from plastic swan and chicken planters, ascended from the bed. Other works with wings appeared in two of his edition artist's books. A page plagued with "Locusts at Karnac", was developed for "At Midnight, a Pesach Portfolio".  In "Tashlek", Schrier broke pieces of a flying challah bread to drop into water, for a book of fish images expanding on bible stories titled, "On the Face of the Waters". In the same series, for "Moses and the Waters of Preservation", flying fishes help the infant Moses learn how to part water, in anticipation of his future. In "Passage to Freedom", Schrier developed six feet of feathery iridescent water spreading to the sides for the central image of the fleeing ancient Hebrews.  For "At Midnight",  an ascending moon face clock hovers with other flying images,  over an ancient stone Ark of the Covenant.  In "Jacob's Ladder" golden speeding wings scurry and dip on an undulating ascending ladder. Schrier developed more winged images for a book he authored, "On the Wings of Eagles",  telling of the rescue by  Israeli jets, of the Ethiopian Jews. A "Winged Maccabee Dreydel", containing a hidden bullet shell Menorah was commissioned by the Jewish Museum in Rhode Island. For the Museum of Tolerance in LA, Schrier incorporated the Nazi stamp, a spread-winged eagle clutching a swastika, for "Until the Time", a memorial Tribute to Raoul Wallenberg, that is a ten foot rendition of the Swedish passport Wallenberg used to save lives.  It was in the early sketches for this commission that Schrier arrived at the idea of a massive pair of WINGS as a memorial to the innocent murdered victims of the Shoah. This idea eventually translated into WINGS OF WITNESS. His use of WINGS continued intermittently among his twenty four works in "A Night of Questions", a special hard bound edition published 2009.