Be Present - Join me on Mary 3rd for lunch and more
How Will You Be At Peace With It?
“the only thing we know for sure is there will be changes ”
Nothing changes unless something changes.
To live the best life, the thing that changes needs to be you.
Be Present
The most crucial moment of your life is now. The beautiful moments in the past or the time in the future when you achieve your goals are not as important as right now.
Be Present in this Moment
The only moment that counts is the one you are living right now.
Join Me with being present as women to focus on ourselves as individuals and discover or rediscover ourselves.
When
Friday, May 3rd At Noon
Light Lunch And Discovery
series of gatherings about
connecting with women
finding new friends'
sharing
encouraging
inspiring
finding individual passion
knowing our unique wisdom
more gathering will be added to the calender
location to be announced - in a lovely space in Northern Ocean County!
Saltwater Women Helping Women
locatons _TBA in the northern Ocean County Area
Whether you are just beginning the waves of change, knowing your body as it changes, figuring out how to live life as an empty nester, or learning to take care of only yourself in a new way as you start this is a path for self-discovery.
This gathering is a commitment to your growth. You will examine your truths. You will be asked to dive into your soul by reflecting on past experiences and thinking about your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and habits. The goal is to help you take an honest look at the life you want, help you discover what could be holding you back,k and what changes to make.
A gathering for and of women full of support, self-compassion, and forgiveness. This Journey is about gaining wisdom and confidence to embrace new skills for moving forward
I love You, I'm Sorry, Please Forgive Me, Thank You - Hoʻoponopono helped me
Last night's show was terrific; another evening event is in the works. I'll keep you updated when it is scheduled.
It is not my anniversary anymore, yet forty years ago, I married on May 7th. Our relationship has changed many times over the decades. We guided three exceptional children into adulthood and, together, love four grandchildren, with a fifth arriving in September! I loved him the best I could as a 21-year-old young bride. I am so glad we are friends now.
Hoʻoponopono is a Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness
I have never been to Hawaii… yet I love this practice. It has helped me find peace.
The Storm - mixed media diptych 40 by 60 inches
I have been hurt and understand that others feel my actions may have caused them pain. I never intentionally did anything to hurt others; usually, I was trying to tell my truth and protect myself and my beliefs. I cannot say if others wanted to hurt me intentionally, and it no longer matters.
Accepting failures in ourselves and others have allowed me to be free. The stories I used to carry about betrayals and trials led to changes. These created a sense of peace and happiness by using this simple practice. Every aspect of my life is improved, and my work as an artist is better.
I Love You. I'm Sorry. Please Forgive Me. Thank You.
These prayers are quietly spoken, sometimes almost silently. Sometimes I think about someone or something that happened that I am uncomfortable with. Somehow the thoughts of compassion blend into compassion for another and myself simultaneously.
An addition to the simple practice is Tibetan Buddhist Prayer using my own words. The orignal prayer is:
“May you be at peace, May your heart remain open. May you awaken to the light of your own true nature. May you be healed. May you be a source of healing for all beings.”
It is a daily practice that does not even seem like a practice.
Each night I take Bo, my labrador, outside before bed; standing beside the water is a time for myself each evening as Bo wonders. Softly whisper towards the water; maybe there is a slight breeze under the stars, or overcast night sky, or even rain; it does not matter.
I love you, I’m sorry, Please forgive me, Thank You
a breath then
May I be at peace, May I be healed, May my heart remain open, May I help with the healing of others,
At times each phrase may be in a different order or not remembered at that moment; it does not matter. I may request help with a current challange or someone else’s challenges and help with for my wishes
May those my work can help will find their way to it and help me find success
For me, it is talking to God, Goddesses & Gods, Spirit, my family memebers who are no longer here on earth, the universe, and whatever is more. If I have time, I allow the thoughts of energy and white light coming from above and below to fill my body grounding me while repeating these simple phrases.
Ho'oponopono means loving yourself. A way to improve your life, you have & heal your life. If you want to cure anyone – you do it by healing you.
I Love You.
I'm Sorry.
Please Forgive Me.
Thank You.
These two prayers worked together and created change, leading me to a place of peace and happiness.
HO’OPONOPONO
(a) "To put to rights; to correct, revise, adjust, amend, rectify, tidy up make orderly or to make ready, as canoemen preparing to catch a wave."
(b) "Mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right (hoʻoponopono) through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness.”
literally, hoʻo is defined as goodness - love the word - GOODNESS
ponopono is defined as to correct
Hawaiian scholar Nana Veary in her book, Change We Must: My Spiritual Journey wrote that ho'oponopono was a practice in Ancient Hawaii Ritual of Hoʻoponopono corrects, restores and maintains good relationships among family members and with their God. The process begins with prayer.
I Love You. I'm Sorry. Please Forgive Me. Thank You.
bart - 24 x 36 mixed media
an artist
During my freshman year of college, took a photography class. Within weeks, had a job at a local bi-weekly newspaper - a photo journalist. The pay was terrible, hardly gas money, but the position put me in the darkroom and had me photographing people!
During high school, took every art and graphic course offered. There was so much I wanted to be and do — a flight attendant, a fashion model, a photographer, a new reporter, physical therapist, a professional athlete.
Briefly, while in college, tried looking to New York as a photographer, it scared me. More than that, had me feeling as if I was not enough, good enough. University was challenging, not enough money, housing impossible and only a few courses interested me. So I got married and began photographing weddings for family members. Continued working, hired by couples with a limited small budget, became a mother and focused of photographing family and babies. Studied, non academically, learning to be a portrait photographer. Took courses on studio lighting, portraiture, went to museums and studying the works in galleries. My goal was to make a living.
My business grew in four decades into a gallery, frame shop and studio walking distance to the beach where I photographed families at sunset. Clients were the focus; making them look and feel good was my job. Using the best material I could find, people were attracted to my work although often they needed to understand the need to use acid free materials in framing.
I always continued learning; completing my undergraduate degree slowing a class at a time graduating from Monmouth University ( 27 years from start to finish). Education gave an ability to see the world and understand it in new ways. I even understood the need for western civilization studies. During this time, family members criticized and judged harshly about my schooling, with “should’s” they thought about me not going to school and saving for my children’s. I am so very proud of earning that degree and also for helping my three childen all graduate college in 4 years.
My life was changing, The children grew up, marriage ended, and the emotional upheaval trying to help an aging parent, what happened to her money and sibling betrayal. My focus on family portraiture began shifting, at first gradually.
Superstorm Sandy devastated my studio, livelihood and flooded my home in 2012. We cleaned and rebuilt. I began photographing underwater after the storm because being in the water helped me feel alive. First I began seeing the pictures, then needing to figure out how to make them. This was creating without feeling the need to please anyone else.
When the Covid pandemic hit, knowing the difficulties of the store front studio would have, decided it was time to close up shop. When the country reopened, knowing how to market family portraits, had the best summer season ever. This help fund the shift in art making.
I was different. Part of me, needed to make art differently.
Maybe it was the storm, maybe it was the ability to come back from disaster, maybe it is the knowing heartbreak and challenges. Maybe it was my youngest child growing up and needing me differently. My goal was no longer just about the business of making a living, helping people feel confident during photo shoots and happy with their portraits. I had something to say in my work.
No longer afraid of what and who I am as an artist and photographer.
There was a playfulness, an ability and expansion happening. I am enough, and so is my work. Colors, media and the expression was no longer about pleasing others. I had learnt to craft beautifully over the years using the best papers, enhancements, materials for my finished portraits. Often mistakes and clients taught me.
In 2022 began to show - few local and one big show. In a huge pavilion with many galleries, major historic works were available for sale in the same Hamptons Fine Art Show as my own work! The path as an artist is fluid; try this and that. Accepted to some shows, rejected from others. Turned down by galleries, but it is different than the rejection the younger me experienced. I have an understanding that my work or that gallery might not be the right fit.
A few shows planned for 2023. For one solo show, the curator was ask, via email, what price point did she expent. The response of “the lower the better,” stunned me at first. Artist in general, often sell below cost especially when they are young and starting out.
At first thought was I need to change, follow her advise that clients do not care about framing and use cheap one. But I know better, those frames fall apart. The supplies from papers, oils, paints, wood panels, mat boards, cold wax and framing has always been about using what I know works best.
The decades of working in the art taught me something important, to work and live as a full time artist sustainably I must make a living from my work.
I understood is my art should be presented the way I think is best crafted with the material I think best. This is truly what drew her to my show my work.
I live in New Jersey, have a home, a cost of living. These require a money or a salary. I want my work to fund my work not to have another source of income fund it. The cost of producing work and running an arts business need to be covered. To price my work, everything has to be considered. My work has to thought of like a product in a successful business. A lawyers’ product is knowledge of the law, they charge for their time and artist needs to think in the same way with their value.
Clients may need to be educated with the benefits for them that acid free materials used prevent yellowing and museum glass is the best, nearly invisible, blocking UV light rays so framed pieces remain clearer for longer. Framing and presentation are not all the same and these affect art work.
So back to becoming an artist, I have always been an artist. To show my work and to sell art, it must also be a business. Businesses take advise, cost and use these to consider what is best for the business. The decisions are the businesses. In becoming an artist, it is also becoming so much more. It is trusting yourself.
the summer the young dreamer re-emerged
Summer is breezing through quickly and my hope is yours offers you time to dream and feel joyful!
For me, the last few years have been a time to remember and embrace the dreams of a much younger me. The one I thought I had left behind. Reminding myself of who I was when I was just thrilled learning f-stops and apertures, printing on fiber based papers smelling of sulphur and darkroom chemicals. There was a pure joy of making art in new ways, added to pencils, paints, hand applied art making I have always loved
Remembering the girl who thought everything was possible and could not fully decide who to become because there was so many wonderful things I wanted to be part of. Who I was at the beginning of ‘real life,’ of making a living, motherhood, trying to do what was right and adult responsibilities. Loved the path found for decades photographing with families and people yet this part was still there waiting for the right time to reappear. To blend with all I learned as a portrait artist with camera with fine art making.
Of course, still a family portrait photographer just taking limited commissions, enjoying working with wonderful people on the sand along the surf. There are just a few dates available, if you would like to schedule your beach or pool photo shoot.
Then backyard pools are open now and the perfect place for underwater commissions beneath the surface - just amazing!
Done two art shows this summer, this has been so fun and it’s been wonderful to share my work… love seeing my works enhancing homes. So much of life is embracing who we are and sharing it with others. Labor day week end my work will is available at Canterbury Art Show, St. Georges by the Sea, Rumson. This is a Juried show and sale. Beginninging September 15, gracie and shea, part of Ethereal People, will be exhibited with The Healing of Healing Show in the Englewood Hospital.
Cannot think of a time (other than falling in love with my babies) that life is so peaceful and content, my wish is this you.
the war of art to Hamptons Fine Art Fair, July 14-17, Southampton, NY
work driven by heart, with the images I need to share. These images are underwater. These are image that have to be created, art that has to be made, with a desire stronger than any obstacles. It is a little scary, as new ventures are full of risks and leaps yet I am ready to share them.
In 1980, I read Steven Pressfields, The War of Art. for an intro to Art class at Rutgers. Nineteen years old, both afraid and strong willed, yet mostly unsure of who I was. A product of my childhood; fearful that I would fail. So immature as I was viewing and judging my parents not knowing then flaws are human that life offers a series of ebbs and flow of successes with failures. As an artist, no one around me reflected this was a path towards success and something I could do. To be truthful, no one reflected that I could be anything but not good enough. I did not know then, people sometimes view criticism as caring.
Yet I needed to create, always have. As a girl learning needlepoints, crewel, sewing, putting craft kits together, moving, making, doing things. In school, could not stay still until art clas and gym as I grew older applied art, graphics, and fine arts. As a college freshman I found the camera - that felt like home.
A spring 6 week 101 photography class (after coming home from a freshman year in Kansas City where the idea of communications, art journalism and physical therapy careers all swirled in my head) at Brookdale Community College with Stewart Thomas, thrilled me and encouraged me in a way one never forgets. I immediately got a photo jourmalist job at a local bi weekly for little pay. The following fall, transfered to Rutgers with classes all over New Brunchwich, NJ; I hated it and most of my classes even the photography and art classes. It was a Cook campus course (loved the professor, wish I could remember his name), part darkroom and english writing course entitled the history of photography which studied the beginning of photography and darkroom techniques. Hating everything almost everything at Rutgers, went back to community college in the search of how to make money as a photographer. I found portrait work, studied and grew.
Always photographing printing, to become better, to find the best processes and techniques to be a better photographer artist has been the path.
The truth is, people always who told me I wasn’t enough whether good enough, making enough have always been there. Eventually the lack of support and believe caused me to run from them. It took along time to realize I was looking in the wrong direction. It was me who needed to believe in myself. It has just taken four decades for me to understand, the art comes from me, not from others. So The War of Art.
Someone who cares for me once was trying to make me understand - “all the time you spend doing photography and my portrait business is too much, what you make is just a enough to be called a hobby as you do not make enough money, it pennies” then told me you could open a pizza restaurant anything would bring you more than this for all the effort I put in. You would be very successful with anything else, buy a Jersey Mike’s sub business.”
My response, “what you do not understand If I was not photographing and printing, building and rebuilding, working and making it better, I would just be making art in another way, it is what I do, it is who I am. If you do not understand this you do not love me.”
This confrontation stayed with me. I have understand the belief comes from me.
Portrait photography has been way to combine my need to create with other needs… to make a desired product and to take care of my family. As an artist, this allowed the focus on family in life and work. Yet more importantly, the desire to be the best artist photographer I can has continued as my work keep me in photography, to print, to create, to learn, to become better, to product.
Superstorm Sandy happened when my youngest child was a senior in high school, my oldest was expecting and my life was changing. Water has always moved me, the storm did not frighten me, it awed me and pushed me to change. It was then I became to see, envision images of beauty under the surface.
The grace and power of water to cause change.
This last decade, I have allowed myself to be the artist, with work driven by heart, with the images I need to share. These images are underwater. These are image that have to be created, art that has to be made, with a desire stronger than any obstacles. It is a little scary, as new ventures are full of risks and leaps yet I am ready to share them. Come see my my works at Hamptons Fine Art Fair, July 14-17, Southampton, NY
