Art Meets Weddings - Robert Yaskovic

December 31, 2004, Oil on Panel, 12" x 18", ©2010 Jennie Traill Schaeffer, Collection of Owner of Yaskovic Wedding & Portrait

On this Wedding Wednesday, Robert Yaskovic, is my featured wedding professional in my series "Art meets Weddings."

About a year and a half ago, a woman came into my gallery inquiring about commissioning a Wedding Cake Portrait for her son-in-law and daughter's wedding anniversary. She said her daughter had seen one of my paintings in the window and kept talking about it. As I got to talking to the prospective client, I learned that her son-in-law was Robert Yaskovic, principal of Yaskovic Wedding & Portrait a local photographer, who I had hired that same week to shoot some photos of my son Joel who was around 10-months old. You can see the entire blog post with some of Joel's pictures here. The painting of the cake was a surprise, so the entire time Rob was shooting pics of Joel, I could say nothing. It was a fantastic secret to keep, and the cake, frosted with layers of coconut was a blast to paint.  It was also one of my first paintings where I included an aspect of the wedding gown.

Joel and Me, ©2009 Robert Yaskovic

That was the start of a great business relationship that is continuing today. Rob and I are well-connected on social media, supporting each others' endeavors, and referring business. Since we first met, Rob has made his way from a developing wedding photographer to shooting photos of food prepared by "blogcomplice," André de Waal, burgers gracing the cover of NJ Monthly magazine, images of Sussex County including Newton and the NJ State Fair, and all the while positioning himself as a niche contemporary, photo-journalistic wedding and portrait photographer with an artful eye. Most recently, Rob was in attendance at Project Self-Sufficiency's Open that Bottle Night where he captured one of my paintings as it sold at auction.

My painting, Jersey Blue, on the Auction Block, photo ©2011 Robert Yaskovic

An exhibit of his food photos was in the works for this month, but due to short time-constraints we decided to delay it. Hopefully Rob will get on the exhibit calendar at TraillWorks next year for a featured exhibit and collaboration. In the meantime, I look forward to more future artistic collaborations, wedding and non-wedding. Thanks, Rob, for all your support! Learn more about Robert Yaskovic and his artful photography on his web site: yaskovic.com. To see a gallery of Wedding Cake Portraits that I've painted, visit weddingcakeportraits.com.

Next Wedding Wednesday I hope to feature another wedding professional that I've worked with in my series of "Art meets Weddings".

Joel, ©2009 Robert Yaskovic

Art Meets Weddings at TraillWorks on Wednesdays

May18, 2002, Oil on Linen, 16" x 24", ©2009 Jennie Traill Schaeffer, Private Collection

One of the many things I do at TraillWorks, in my spare time, is paint portraits of wedding cakes, aka, Wedding Cake Portraits. It's a great way for me to tie my love of painting with thick oil paints and edible sweets together! I often feel like I'm frosting the cake, in oil. The artistry involved in wedding cakes astounds me and it's an opportunity to create an homage of sorts to these wedding day icons. 

I've been doing this for about five years now, but offering it as a service for about three. Not only have these been presented as wedding gifts, but also as anniversary gifts from one spouse to another, or from parents to their children. In doing these portraits I've gained some awesome clients as well as met some interesting people in the wedding industry.

I was invited to become a member of a private online group, Northern New Jersey Wedding & Event Professionals, by one of the vendors I'm going to profile. Unfortunately due to time constraints with the many avenues my business has taken as well as family obligations with my 2 1/2 year old son, I sometimes feel like a fly on the wall and don't have the time to attend functions and develop more relationships. However, there are several wedding vendors that I have developed really great relationships with or am in the process of it now through this group and outside of it. So for the upcoming Wednesdays I'm going to profile them and write about how we have collaborated and developed business together, through weddings and art!