You're Invited to Dedicate the Mural at St. Joseph's

A portion of the mural, ©2012 Jennie Traill Schaeffer

 
On August 18th I put the finishing touches of varnish and officially signed the St. Joseph's mural. After a year and a half of work, my biggest project has been completed. Now, I'm excited to announce an official Mural Dedication which is set to take place on October 14th from 1 - 3pm at St. Joseph's Regional School in Newton. 

The school is located at 20 Jefferson Street, but the mural is accessed by alleys on Halsted and Jefferson Street to the rear of the school. St. Joseph's is putting together a HarvestFest to celebrate the mural. They will be hosting a family-friendly event with a bounce house, pumpkin decorating, face painting, music, and carnival games. 

I hope you'll join me in this very special day! Learn more about the event and the mural process in this Sunday's New Jersey Herald - St. Joseph School to dedicate mural at HarvestFest.

"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.

Film Screening at TraillWorks this Weekend!

October 22nd, 8pm
TraillWorks
214 Spring Street
Newton, NJ
973-383-1307

admission by donation, 

proceeds to benefit Birth Haven

Pass the tissues! This coming Saturday, TraillWorks will be hosting a screening of the film, Who Does She Think She Is? by Academy Award winning director, Pamela Tanner Boll.  I saw this film with artist, Martha C. Hall, earlier this year at the Morris Museum and knew that I had to share it with you at my gallery. I bought the DVD from Amazon within the week and starting planning this screening. 

The documentary film follows five female artists who are all mothers and examines the pressures of following their passions and careers while balancing their individual family lives. When I discovered this film almost a year ago, prior to seeing it, I had already had my son, Joel, and was furiously juggling caring for him, running a household, running an art business, and making my own work. I found this film to be profoundly inspiring both spiritually and artistically, as well as an amazing stimulus of passion. 

Joann Wells Greenbaum with her "Lady of the House

Jennie Traill Schaeffer ©Alex Cena

Amy S. Brooks with her Stained Glass Mobile

Please join us at 8pm on Saturday, October 22nd for a moving and intimate look at how five women choose both their art and their children. Following the screening, three artists (Amy S. Brooks, Joann Wells Greenbaum, and myself) will sit for a panel discussion offering a look at their own experiences mothering and art making.

Amy S. Brooks is the owner of Paradise Stained Glass of Metuchen, NJ and is the mother of two teenage sons. Joann Wells Greenbaum, now an empty-nester, is a successful independent artist from Shohola, PA, a mother of two grown sons. And I am entering motherhood on the other end with an almost three-year old son. I am a painter who owns TraillWorks - my studio and gallery.

This screening marks the end of a two-month long exhibit of women's art in our 1st Annual Women's Invitational Exhibit which featured 13 women who interpreted the play, "Hope Throws her Heart Away" by playwright Susan Goodell. We hosted a play reading in September performed by Tri-State Actors Theater; the artists' reception was held last Saturday and this will bookend the exhibit on Saturday. The exhibit runs through November 5th. To learn more about the exhibit and its artists, click here. View an album of photos from the exhibit reception here.

Admission to the film is by donation. All donations will be going to support Birth Haven, a local 501(c)3 that provides shelter and hope to young pregnant mothers. Just before the film starts, the director of Birth Haven will present a brief overview video of the opportunities and love that the organization provides to its residents. I felt this was a fitting charity to extend support to given the hard choices that both the artists in the film and the residents of Birth Haven have to make to pursue a better life.