4th Annual Student Exhibit

4th Annual Student Exhibit, a set on Flickr.

Whew! TraillWorks just held it's 4th Annual Student Exhibition opening reception this past Saturday. It was a great success! Thank you to all of the talented students who participated and the support of all of their parents, family and friends. While I have several adult students, the exhibit happens to fall during Youth Art Month, a national annual observance each March to emphasize the value of K-12 art education for all children and to encourage support for quality school art programs.

The gallery and studios were buzzing with artists and their guests. Even the NJ Herald sent a photographer - we got an excellent photo spread in this Monday's paper.

During the reception, students had an opportunity to work with their friends and family in drawing a collective 5- Line Portrait. This was inspired by my reading of Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind in which he mention's a great activity to utilize the right brain. He learned this technique from a Betty Edward's workshop, the author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It was amazing to see each person's portrayal of themselves, using only 5 lines and how everyone, regardless of talent was able to accomplish it. Each rendering looked like the artist!

Participating students also had to submit artistically-presented snacks for the reception. The submissions were outstanding this year and twice we had to break a tie for the winners. I'm pleased to announce, 1st place went to Miles Shaw for his tree cake, depicting a watercolor he created; 2nd place went to Will Somma for his Picasso-inspired self-portrait cake; 3rd place went to Carin Cali for her flowers in the grass fruit tray; and a prize was awarded to Amanda Canova for voting in the contest.

Congratulations to all of the winners of the food contest and more importantly, to all of the students who have developed their work with me over the past year. My students should all get a pat on the back for the hard work they have shown. I'd also like to commend, Alyse DiBlasio, Assistant Curator, Marketer and Developer, for her successful curatiing of the exhibit, and Kassandra Talmadge, Graphic Designer and Sales Associate, for her help in developing all of the promotional materials.

If you have not had a chance to stop in the exhibit, it runs through April 1st. Please come and support the many student artists at TraillWorks. Read more about the exhibit in our press release here.

"Jennie Traill Schaeffer: Regrouped" Benefits Lung Cancer Research

Jennie Traill Schaeffer: Regrouped, a set on Flickr.

This Saturday TraillWorks is hosting a reception for my exhibit, "Jennie Traill Schaeffer: Regrouped" a mini-retrospective of my work from the past ten years. From 5 - 8pm join us at the gallery for conversation, eats, and some painting demonstrations.

This exhibit is not only a great chance to see a wide range of my work, but also an opportunity to help support a cause and purchase at special prices (10% donation and 10% off the listed prices). Since I began selling my work I've found an annual cause to donate a portion of my sales. Last year I was able to support more than one cause through the gallery: Friend 2 Friend, Birth Haven, and Turn the Towns Teal, Inc., as well as local school tricky trays.

Throughout the run of this exhibit I will be making a donation from sales of my work directly to Dr. Valerie Rusch's lung cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She performed my mother-in-law's successful surgery to remove her lung cancer last year. My family is very grateful for the treatment she received both from her surgeon and Sloan-Kettering, and I'm thrilled I will be able to support Dr. Rusch's research.

I've been very touched by the many visitors to the gallery with stories of both loss and life, related to lung cancer. The common theme among all of the visitors was that lung cancer is not as well-funded or researched as some of the other cancers. I lost my grandmother, Clarice Schaeffer, when I turned 13 to lung cancer. She lived at the time in Syracuse, NY, and was diagnosed with cancer from asbestos exposure from an office building she worked in during WWII. We believe she had mesothelioma; she lived for about 2 - 3 years on oxygen, lost function in one lung and eventually passed away from suffocation. Her passing at that point in my life left a big impact on me.

I hope that I can help raise money through this exhibit to keep all of our loved ones healthier and around longer.



Via Flickr:
Exhibit runs January 14th through February 28th, 2012. The ten year retrospective of Jennie Traill Schaeffer's work is on exhibit at TraillWorks in Newton, NJ, and is benefiting Lung Cancer Research.

Figure Drawing Comes to Sussex County, NJ

Figure drawing is making its inaugural appearance at TraillWorks, by way of open studios, beginning tomorrow night! Come get your draw on for the only open figure drawing sessions in Sussex County, NJ. It's been two-years in the making since I've thought about offering figure drawing studios in Newton. Finally it has come to fruition due to a number of things. First, over a year ago I got a solicitation via email from a prospective model. Then a friend was interested in teaching a workshop - we held two with said model. Finally we saw a population wanting this opportunity, a trustworthy good model was found, and my friend was interested in moderating sessions. 

Then my progress forward slowed when my friend could no longer moderate due to work constraints. At the same time, I got tripped up on some questions with insurance and dealing with models. I was hoping to begin all of this in the beginning of January, but the phone calls and coordination between many parties has truly taken a month. It is no small feet to get a new program up and running. All is in place, so see below to learn about the details.

THE DETAILS:

So, without further adieu, we will begin our weekly figure drawing sessions tomorrow. We've worked out some great options for attending, such as paying weekly or buying flex-sessions up front. Also we've set up a reward system to earn a free session for every 10 you attend. Sessions will run from 7 - 9:30pm every Tuesday. Tomorrow's model is Jim Carvalho, a professional model who has been great to work with. If you'd like to register or learn more, visit our Eventbrite page.

We are still looking for models, especially women, to add to our roster. If you know of someone or are interested yourself, please send a resume, references to figuredrawing@traillworks.com. I hope to see you tomorrow night at TraillWorks located at 214 Spring Street in Newton, NJ.