We all need 10 hugs a day to thrive. Have joanie capture those hugs during the week before or after school. You’ll feel great while your holding your kids and even better looking at the images for years to come.
Make sure you are in the pictures in 2017. It is important for you to be in images with your kids.
It’s a “valentine, pick your heart up, joanie has an empty nest” special. Session fee is 1/2 price.
Contact us to capture some love.
Life Matters
Please join us November 28th from 5-7 at Squirrel and the Bee
515 Millburn Ave Millburn NJ
or click here to donate to Newark Youth Leadership Project
All money raised from the sale of the art goes to this wonderful program.
Because I photograph lots of yogis, I love to contemplate what makes a beautiful yoga practice.
A beautiful yoga practice is one that goes beyond the mat. It is not about a beautifully toned body or perfect asana (pose). A true yogi takes his or her practice off the mat into the world. Meet Mara Berger. When I asked Mara to say something about why she gives herself so freely, she said, “Because I recognize the other person is me.”
“Mara is one of those amazing people who can look beyond the superficialities and see the beauty of a person within. Her warm, sunny smile immediately put people at ease when they meet her. As an art instructor who teaches teens with special needs at Friendship Circle, Mara helps them connect to their artistic side and create beautiful projects that the teens can be proud of. She gives them the tools they need to see how ordinary objects can become things of beauty. Mara’s focus on each teen as an individual allows her to create art that reflects who they are.” ~Toba Grossbaum COO of Friendship Circle LifeTown
This is what Mara Berger has been doing every week for 5 years. Volunteering for Friendship Circle, a nonprofit whose mission envisions a world in which people with special needs and their families experience acceptance, inclusion, and friendship as contributing members of society. They foresee a future where they never again have to suffer the social isolation that has often been so prevalent in society.
These images are hanging at The Squirrel and the Bee 515 Millburn Ave Millburn NJ. To learn more about Friendship Circle and the new Building of LifeTown go to their website www.lifetown.com
To see more of my work go to www.joanieschwarzphoto.com
j o a n i e s c h w a r z p o r t r a i t u r e
I have been working on this artist statement for Mantra Project: York Street for what feels like forever. An attempt to share in words what I am trying to say in my images. Turns out it isn’t enough to just spit images out at people. It is polite to attempt to tell them what you are trying to say. Read about it here if you care to know about this torturous process of actually writing… reminds me of that Hemingway quote,”There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” The words below are my attempt to explain what is in my heart, an explanation to the work on the walls. The images of mothers and children from York Street Project are a small subset within a larger series that I will be working on for the next few years. I look forward to the journey and sharing it with you. Sharing more images that is…less writing I hope.
Mantra Project: York Street
In the York Street photograph series within the Mantra Project, I explore connection between single mothers and their children. This series grew out of a partnership between the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, a nonprofit arts education center in Summit with programming to connect people and art, and The York Street Project in Jersey City. The York Street Project is a ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, which aims to reduce the cycle of poverty in households headed by women through education, housing, and childcare services. In the York Street photographs, each mantra that I painted in white on the skin of the child and/or mother is an agreement between parent and child, a kind of mission statement to help maintain strong positive family connections in spite of life’s challenges.
In the entire Mantra Project, I seek to share the experience of feeling vulnerable, and the connectedness that comes from vulnerability, through both mantras and photography. I developed the concept for the project after creating my own personal mantra, “breathe into the uncertainty,” as part of a vulnerability workshop grounded in the research and teachings of Brené Brown. According to Brown, “vulnerability is the birthplace of connection and the path to the feeling of worthiness.” Portraits within the larger Mantra Project are of adults, teenagers, and children as young as six, painted with the words they will repeat to themselves for inner strength when the world is unkind.
Human connection has been the common theme throughout all of my drawings, paintings, and photographs since I left the commercial art world in 2009. After twenty-five years creating dreamlike photographs of models or objects for hundreds of book covers, I shifted my focus to fine art portrait photography in order to explore and encourage connection and understanding between individuals and across communities. Through these intimate portraits of women and children from the York Street Project, I hope to connect the communities in which we live.
To see more Mantra images visit my website www.joanieschwarzphoto.com Join us for the opening July 9th at 7:00 pm. 515 Millburn Ave. Millburn New Jersey at The Squirrel and the Bee if you are able. If you have suggestions on a group of inspiring people you would like me to meet, I’d love to hear from you.
You are all invited to an opening of my new images of mothers and children July 9th at 7:00 pm. 515 Millburn Ave. Millburn New Jersey at The Squirrel and the Bee a grain-free bake shop.
If you have met me in real life, you might know, or should know, that I would have paid for a body double at my wedding. NOT the marriage itself. Just the entire center of attention aspect of the day. I don’t care for being the center of attention. At all. So, having a show of my work really feels like I’ll be standing around naked. Honestly, how many times can I refer to Brene Brown. She said it best AND on the record at TED2012. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” I feel like I am working all 3 right now.
Let’s start with innovation. Michelle Retik (Queen Bee at The Squirrel and the Bee) and I had a conversation early last fall about the vision she had for her walls at her new delicious, grain-free bake shop. We don’t think people in this area usually see bakeries as places for art shows and openings. But Michelle and I do. We think that her beautiful space is perfect for showing art that sparks conversation and for showing off some of the wonderful non-profits in our area. Starting with the partnership between Visual Art Center of New Jersey and York Street Project.
Next, creativity. The human condition is one about belonging. Creating Mantra images, and photographing the look of love between two people, are ways I process the world. Being brave enough to present these images on walls and not just in impersonal cyberspace is something I haven’t done in a long time. It makes me feel vulnerable, which then helps me feel more creative, and the cycle begins again.
Lastly, change. I found this wonderful quote by John A. Powell who was interviewed by Krista Tippett. “Being human is about being in the right kind of relationships. I think being human is a process. It’s not something that we just are born with. We actually learn to celebrate our connection, learn to celebrate our love. If you suffer, it does not imply love. But if you love, it does imply suffering. To suffer with, though, compassion, not to suffer against. And if we can hold that space big enough, we also have joy and fun even as we suffer. And suffering will no longer divide us. And to me, that’s sort of the human journey.” When I heard John Powell say that, I made the connection that Mantras can be a powerful parenting tool in building the “right” relationships with children. The mothers and children I photographed at York Street Project created their Mantras together, which made the words meaningful, specifically to their relationship. Positive self talk creates positive change one child, one person at a time.
So again, join us July 9th at 7:00 pm. 515 Millburn Ave. Millburn New Jersey at The Squirrel and the Bee a grain-free bake shop. My new friends from York street will be there and my body double will not.
My favorite mantra from this past Tuesday, two days before todays deadly church shooting in Charleston is “Our Faith is Strong.” Ann, Kim, Mara and I visited York Street Project two days ago. York Street’s mission is to help end the cycle of poverty. It was our third meeting there, and the first time I was able to create portraits for the the most incredibly strong, beautiful women I have met in a long time. Some women are living at St. Joseph’s Residence, part of York Street. All of the women are raising amazing children, some of whom are attending the Nurturing Place while their mothers are finishing their high school diplomas at the Kenmare School which is a part of York Street. Some women are running from abusive relationships. All of the women have jobs. I feel like we barely scratched the surface in our conversations about mantras, positive self talk, and the challenges/joys of motherhood. The images we created together will be shown on July 9th at 7:00 pm at The Squirrel and the Bee 515 Millburn Ave in Millburn New Jersey. My new friends from York Street are invited. You are invited. Kids too. Join us.
About Face
Take a look in the mirror.
Really be there with your reflection for a while.
It can be a charged experience. Most of our reflections are faced with one of the harshest critics we’ll ever encounter. Society has done a thorough job on our “lenses” and it has become entirely too easy to see ourselves through the lens of “not enough”. And while it’s natural to want to shine out the best of ourselves as we step out into the great wide world, we’ve developed a rather scary tendency towards self-loathing as motivation to whip ourselves into even better shape so we can one day bask in the sunshine of approval. Unfortunately, however, that kind of thinking is like digging a hole to fill a void because we distance ourselves from the parts of us that can experience joy and fulfillment as we continue to chase it outside of ourselves.
In the wake of Robin William’s suicide many of us are faced with the rather terrifying reality that a person can have “everything”, be a talented, accomplished and beloved performer, and still face acute loneliness and depression. But there it is. It wasn’t enough. And more and more of us are coming to the conclusion that, despite our ever growing collections of gold stars, our sleek bodies, our fancy cars and our “happily ever after” Facebook profiles, we can’t get enough validation from the world to stay happy with those things for long. Approval is an addiction.
So I’ve been embarking on a little journey, one that is turning out to be an epic journey – my attempt to look inward with compassion. I am revisiting my reflection, bringing honesty and compassion along for the ride when I’m able, and what a bumpy and exhilarating ride it is turning out to be!
It takes courage to be seen. A ton of it actually. And I’m still struggling to cultivate that courage. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is that makes me feel so vulnerable when attention is directed my way, but I have been feeling it acutely as I’ve made my way out into the world as me, unabridged. Ok, less abridged. But it has also been the gift I continue to give to myself as I allow more parts of me out into the sunlight. Life is unfolding in a new way before me.
Saying “Yes” to participating in the Mantra Project was one of those acts of courage and I was quick to pat myself on the back for how far I’ve come. And then Joanie pointed her camera at me and suggested that I refrain from smiling. I immediately heard the voice of my friend, Beth, quoting her yoga instructor: “Intimacy begins the moment you want to walk away.”
Indeed it does. Courage is a journey, not a moment. My courage evaporated and was replaced by a desire to flee. In that instant there was nothing to hide behind, not even a facial expression. The prospect of relaxing my face became almost comically impossible. It’s been a while since I’ve felt so naked. Sometimes we don’t even recognize the accessories we hide behind until they’re taken away.
But I know what allowed for my willingness to try. I trusted the lens. Not the camera’s lens, but Joanie’s. I trusted her to view me with compassion. The result was a photograph that showed a version of me that I have never seen before and, once again, I found myself in uncharted territory. More vulnerability and more fear as I realized how much my face reveals when I’m not “putting something out there”. And then another realization. I can decide what I want to put out there. And I can choose my lens.
This is what I love about the Mantra Project. Through it we are creating a community of women who are choosing how we want to perceive and embrace ourselves. Instead of allowing society or family or friends to define us, we spend a little time thinking about the words we’d like to live by. These words become our mantras, charged with the power of what really matters to us. They give us strength to stand our ground when we’re inevitably confronted with the question, “Who do you think you are?” And they give us roots and offer solace when the winds of change and public opinion threaten to blow us over. Repeating our mantras connects us back to our hearts and our knowing. So when we share our mantras, we are not asking for your opinion – we’re proclaiming ours. And we’ve decided that our best sides are our “in” sides. Yes, it makes us vulnerable, but it also makes us badass. And the evidence is right there in the mirror.
Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead. ~Gene Fowler
Have you ever read the book Art and Fear? For tonight’s show For Art’s Sake at New Jersey Center for Visual Arts I will remind myself these words from Ted Orland and David Bayles,
“The title “Artist” has gradually become a form of identity which (as every artist knows) often carries with it as many drawbacks as benefits. Consider that if artist equals self, then when (inevitably) you make flawed art, you are a flawed person, and when (worse yet) you make no art, you are no person all. It seems far healthier to sidestep that vicious cycle by accepting many paths to successful art making- from reclusive to flamboyant, intuitive to intellectual, folk art to fine art. One of those paths is yours.”
I love that idea. That art transcends what we do, and represents who we are.
Stephen DeStaebler says, “Artists don’t get down to work until the pain of working is exceeded by the pain of not working.” The human condition. Thinking too much. Feeling too much. It keeps us from picking up our paintbrushes, cameras, keyboards, pencils… even when we know that the act of creating is really what heals us. To survive, we have to confront these issues. Ted Orland puts it perfectly, “Basically those who continue to make art are those who have learned how to continue-or more precisely, have learned how to not quit.”
So, tonight I stand in a room with so many beautiful works of art. Surrounded by people who collect and appreciate art. I bow to each and every artist who donated. Thanks- it has been a pleasure “bleeding” with you. We have so much to feel good about.
For Art’s Sake has raised over $300,000 a year that directly benefits exhibition programs and annual outreach programs including Artists with Disabilities and Arc, NJ Seeds and Young Scholars Program, SAGE Elder Care: Art from the Heart, The Connection for Women and Families and other initiatives in Essex, Union, and Morris counties. Arts educational and enrichment programs are also provided for over 22 school districts across northern and central New Jersey. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Breathe into the uncertainty… and remember, “We are made for goodness. We are made for love.” ~Desmond Tutu
I can’t think of a better quote for my first blog post.
Here is the full quote. “We are made for goodness. We are made for love. We are made for friendliness. We are made for togetherness. We are made for all of the beautiful things that you and I know. We are made to tell the world that there are no outsiders. All are welcome: black, white, red, yellow, rich, poor, educated, not educated, male, female, gay, straight, all, all, all. We all belong to this family, this human family, God’s family.” ~Desmond Tutu
In about 1 hour, 5 six year old and one nine year old girl will be arriving here for their Goddess Class. My friend Ann Rosen meets with them weekly and I have been invited to participate with the thought that they might create their own Goddess Mantra. “Breathe into the uncertainty” has been my mantra since fall 2013 when I started the Brene Brown Workshop. Part 2 of the workshop starts this Thursday. The anticipation of starting again has had me thinking that if I had known the power of the mantra in grade school, it would have been a great tool to have in my mental tool box. Something to help me push back the tears and fears of growing up. With full disclosure, I could have used a mantra in high school, college, my 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. Now that my 50th birthday is in 2 weeks, I’ll just tell myself it is never too late.
So, in keeping with the quote “We are made for goodness” I am excited to share the idea of a personal mantra today with 6 little souls. The fear of my first blog post is over. It is all about spreading goodness.
To hear Krista Tippet’s interview with Desmond Tutu click here
