1st Annual Point Beach Arts Downtown Art Walk on April 29th from 12 pm to 6 pm
Hello & Happy Spring,
I’ll be There At the Cauldron and the Cupboard, 638 Arnold Ave., PPB
You may or not know this about me, but as a teenager began learning Tarot. I found a set of Tarot cards in the living room coffee table drawer during my regular weekly babysitting gig. After the kids were asleep, awaiting the mother to come home from their restaurant, the cards intrigued me. Over the decades, continued to hone my skills with Tarot and Oracle cards. Trusting my intuition has always been important, in my work, during photo shoots, and in my life.
While I ‘don’t see dead people’, I feel ( know ) things, and trust my instincts. There are times when I felt the need to tell someone something - call it perception. I read cards exceptionally well and have for friends and family for years. Currently, read cards by appointment at a few local shops. The cards work with your energies as you select the cards.
During the art walk, original art will be available for sale, cut mat small works, and this first edition of the oracles card. Just a small limited number of card sets are available and may sell out!
The Art Walk will be a super fun event so don’t miss it. Mark your calendar - Saturday 29th from noon to 6!
Wishing you the best, Susan
Below is a sampling of Art Walk Special. These are available to newsletter readers at the Art Walk Price now. These are originals, one-of-a-kind artworks so if you love one, purchase them! The cards are the first edition of a small run so I do not expect them to last. They are so pretty!
Saltwater Oracle Cards - luxurious
27 - 4 inches by 5 inches + directions, Made in the USA, acid free, chlorine free, 305 recycled content, Forest Stewardship Council certified - Stunning
mini mixed media - surf v 11 inches x 15 inches
gorgeous nickel-plated elegant framed Mixed Media mini surf v - wax and silver leaf 375 save 75 at Art Walk
aria pigment print - framed, museum glass, 19.5 by 22.5
creamy, reminisce of turn of the century toned printmaking 750, save 100 $650
bart - original mixed media 24” x24” x 3/4 inch
pigment, cold wax medium, wood panel $1200 special 900
last night Loved an art opening locally - in Spring Lake
Last spring, was in this lovely clothing store, the owner charming but I thought… this space would be a fabulous art gallery. Now I was not looking to open an art gallery anytime soon as my passion now is art making and showing.
The space, I knew, could be something special. Last week driving through Spring Lake I saw the change. Kelly McKenna Gallery.
It is stunning! Last night I went to their spring opening - group of artist collections. The gallery magnificent! The art stunning and more than that. The owner, Caitlin and Megan, her specialist, were just so open and approachable sharing insights about art.
I love going to galleries, always have, many in many different places and cities. Usually for me it is kind of a solo expereince where I look art, occasionally talk with the gallery representative.
Last night we talked about the artist who works were available, the extensive background the curator, experiences working in New York art galleries and as an art appraisers. It was friendly and wonderful to meet them and the other guests at the opening. It was the most conversation I ever had in an art gallery!
The space is beautiful, there is a positive vibe. Each month is a book club discussion about a book involving art! So if you have a chance, just stop in, see the art and say hello.
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.
happy Valentine's Day
“Love recognizes no barriers, it jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination, full of hope.”
Maya Angelou
titled after my love - Bart, 24x24 mixed media pigment print on wood panel mount pastels and cold wax
Busy preparing for my first Solo Show on May 5th
As we get closer, I’ll keep you updated
as of today, an opening reception is scheduled for
Friday evening, May 5th
hope you can join me!!!
my daughters wedding photo
I hope that this New Year will be a happy one. It is hard to believe it is already the middle of January!
While life does not alway seem completely peaceful, I do not think anyones is. When mistakes happen and unpleasure feelings arise, I try to see goodness in every day. Sometimes it takes some doing.
It is giving myself those reminders of what to be grateful for that helps me.
The last few years my family has had so many lovely happenings. We welcomed new babies to love, grandchildren to watch grow, both last year and the year before, weddings!
Yet there are days when I am not at my best, for whatever reason, feel less than content. For me trying to see the goodness in life on those days is important. Often it is in the photographs that remind me to be grateful.
Of course I have traditional, family photos with us lined up in lovely clothing from the wedding day displayed. An important way to feel connected to one another. Also my holiday cards, (only a few sent - wasn’t at my best this year). This is the photo of my family that is so like many other family photos - special yet familiar.
Adding Another Photo To Display That Calls To The Heart
A moment to remind me to smile, to bring me back to life. It can be hard to decide what to frame and display in your home. The beautiful thing is you keep a scrape book album and change these memorable pictures a new one to frame and then add the picture to the scrape book.
5 x 7 elegant pewter frame sits by the window
The photo above chosen because it reminds me of the little girls she was. I can see from this angle her honest happiness. I suggest you find images that make you tear up, laugh, and feel. We see my daughter’s new husband adores her in this photo. At first glance it is a portrait of him but not really. It reminds me of the joy we found in the whole wedding process; finding the gown - she loves the back of that dress, the hint of her expression one I know it from those years of watching her grow up.
The decision to use a black and white is homage to history; a simplicity. Reminiscent of my mothers framed wedding picture on the piano seen growing up. The elegant Italian pewter frame adds to this elegance.
When selecting special images to display in your home, find ones that speak to you. The ones that take your thoughts to love, laughter and joy. This way every time you see them, even on days you might not be feeling your best, you will be reminding of the things in your life to be grateful for.