A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me to custom paint her bicycle. A bit about this friend, her name is Eve Jochnowitz and she is a wonderfully creative individual who works with food (Check out her blog HERE!), Yiddish language & culture, and folk dancing to name a few. She is also an avid cyclist who pedals fearlessly down the streets and avenues of NYC.

Anyways, back to the story, a few years ago Eve had asked me to paint one of her many bicycles. However, due to location, time and who knows what else, the project kept being pushed back... until this past summer!

Eve had gotten the pistachio green base coat painted before hand at Horse Cycles and had brought small jars of chocolate brown and red enamel paint for me to use. I painted the text "טאָ לערנט זיך שוין ייִדיש’' on one side and the translation "Learn Yiddish already!" on the other. In addition to the text, we decided that branches and vines should be painted as if it were taking over the bicycle and pomegranates (a traditional Jewish fruit and symbol) would be growing all around. We also decided to hide a few images of goats (another traditional Yiddish symbol) to add as a game!

After it was all finished and dried, Eve brought the bicycle parts back to NYC, returned to Horse Cycles for a finishing coat and had the whole thing reassembled at Bikeworks, on the Lower East Side. She sent me an image of the bike all put together, but it's also great getting surprise photos and texts from friends spotting the Yiddish bicycle parked all around NYC.