An Abundant Life - A Recipe For Success

Last year right about this time I went to visit with the marvelous Artist John Fathom in Asbury Park where he had been working on a building project to create a backyard oasis that included a moon gate. We had a beautiful visit that afternoon, and it was a memorable time, but one thing that I told him then that has come true now is that he would be continuing to make new spaces after the fashion of 660 Studios which is the warehouse space he created in 2003 and where I first visited with him after meeting him in 2015.

As I have written before about John, he is a creative force and as an Artist his work encompasses not only light boxes which are a very special creation of his, but mixed media on even larger scales that often have the ability to be transformative installations. When I first met him at the Jersey City Art and Studio Tour in October of 2015, he had curated a show at Cast Iron Lofts, not only filling the cavernous space with art but also creating a bar that with its use of raw materials and recycled items could have been in the restaurant at the end of the universe in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy because of its pure inventiveness and scale and colorful life. John creates universes, and they are always places where we can feel at home, living within and around the art he collectes, curates and creates.

A few months ago he began posting about a space in Paterson, New Jersey where he was working on a collaboration with Alex Pergament to develop a warehouse space into Artists studios, a place to live and work, and a space to perform. It's not easy for me to get to Paterson, but I asked Joel Liscio if he would consider taking a drive out there to visit John, and so one afternoon recently we did. I was picking up a light box John had created for me, and though I'd seen photographs of it and knew it was gorgeous, it was more stunning in person that I had imagined. The space was wonderful and our afternoon inspiring as visiting with John always is.

There are people who help us move forward and keep walking in our creative life, and John Fathom is one of those people. Seeing him that afternoon was food for the soul, and as he's a great Chef as well, we enjoyed some of his delicious cooking also. Now that I have the light box home it's begun to transform my space. I'm still in the process of rearranging things in the way that I want them to create a focal point for this new stunning piece. I told John that the area where I am placing it has never been exactly the way that I wanted it to be. There was always something that I wanted to change and I didn't know how or what to do, and with this new piece everything is taking on a new dimension. It's a rare gift John has to give a spark of life back into the source of our creative imaginings. I'm so thankful to know him and to have one of his pieces, and to have the opportunity to meet him in his new spaces as he continues on his journey of his own creative life.

John Fathom

At Prototype

Paterson, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Traditional Gifts

Ever since I was a very little girl, I've always loved Mexican food. My father was an avid home cook, always going to markets and discovering new things and asking to talk to the Chefs in restaurants to see if he could find out the secrets of their recipes. If there was a spice he didn't know about, he'd ask where he could get it and how to use it, and if he had a meal he especially liked, he'd try to recreate it until he'd perfected it the way he wanted it to be. He and I used to cook Mexican dinners together and he'd teach me his secrets, and because I was learning Spanish he'd write the menus for our dinners in Spanish too. I've never had better Chile Rellenos than the ones he made, though I've tried them everywhere I can because they're a favorite of mine. He was always talking about Mole sauce, but for some reason I'd never had the opportunity to try his. I think perhaps it might have been because he hadn't found exactly the right way to make it yet.

One day about a year or so ago I started to see an occasional traditional Mexican dish on the menu at Antique Bar & Bakery. It started I think with coal fire roasted duck served with a squash flower tamale, both things that I love and that I rarely find made the way I like them. There were some excellent barbacoas that appeared on occasion, some memorable Mexican street corn and some delicious meats roasted in banana leaves, and then in November a duck in Mole sauce with a fragrant and flavorful herbed rice and roasted acorn squash was a special one night. It was outstanding, the duck cooked to perfection in a way that I love it and don't often find it, and the rice not just a side but along with the squash bringing another dimension. When I told Chef Paul Gerard how wonderful it was, he pointed to his Sous Chef Jiovani Vazquez, and I learned that they were all family recipes that Chef Jio learned from his parents and grandparents and that he had perfected and brought to the coal fired oven at Antique Bar & Bakery.

As we began planning for the third Love & Plenty wine pairing lunch, Sommeliers Doris Pradieu and Joel Liscio suggested pairing California wines along with Sicilian wines for a combination of varieties of grapes that could have a conversation across continents. When Chef Paul Gerard heard the idea he started to think about how Mexican food could add another layer of complexity to the dialogue, and he planned a menu with Chef Jiovani Vazquez that was as beautiful as a painting. Each course was part of the experiences and memories from Chef Jio's life, and the recipes they chose were so special because of the history of his family's traditions and the way each one reflected the gifts shared from Grandparents and Parents to Chef Jio who shared them with us. Using ingredients that were especially flavorful and had an authenticity that can only be found with the most truly knowledgeable Chefs, each dish when it arrived was satisfying in the way that only the best of meals can be. I learned about some new dishes that day as well as new fruits and herbs and ingredients that I'd never heard of. If my father had been there he would have introduced himself to Chef Jio and wouldn't have left the kitchen until he had a promise to return and learn about every recipe.

When I asked Chef Jio about some of his experiences and inspirations, he told me about his family and how they would cook for large events when he was growing up in Mexico, making food as a family for weddings, birthdays and parties for friends and friends of friends who discovered through experience that they knew how to make the kind of delicious food that brings joy and makes a party a memorable success. He grew up in Cualac, and moved to the United States on his own when he was 14. His first jobs in restaurants were as a dish washer, but the Chefs saw that he knew how to cook and had the skills to do more. By the time he met Chef Paul Gerard at the restaurant Belle Reve in Tribeca he had the ability through years of experience and hard work to become his Sous Chef, and during the time that they've worked together he's taken his role very seriously, taking care to listen and understand the ideas they discuss and adding his own knowledge and expertise to the flavors, traditions and styles that are combined in the creations in Chef Paul Gerard's kitchen. Although he had experience through his family of cooking in fire pits and in-ground in ovens dug into the earth, the 100 year old porcelain brick oven at Antique Bar & Bakery is unlike any being used anywhere in the world. He has learned the skills needed for that challenge, and can be relied on to create food in that kitchen that is not only delicious but that meets the expectations of an Executive Chef who is in my opinion the finest in the world.

I asked him what his favorite thing to do is, and he answered with a smile in his eyes that he loves to play with his daughters. Though his hours are long, he makes time to be with them at home whenever possible, and they have started to cook with him, even the smallest one who at four years old has started discovering the fun of playing with flour. It reminded me of my own childhood, sitting in the kitchen and watching my mother, asking her if I could try to do the things she did so carefully that made all sorts of delicious and fragrant foods appear at our table, and then later as a teenager with my father, making parts of our internationally themed dinners together. Chef Jio also told me he enjoys making pasta, something that I have noticed he does with such excellence that I always remark on how delicious and beautifully textured the different pastas at Antique Bar & Bakery are. He is inspired by seeing people enjoying the food he makes, and it makes him happy to hear that his food makes people happy. When I told him how much people loved the lunch of traditional family foods he created and said that he was a very special Chef who had shared something very special with us, he was very humble in his response, saying only that he was grateful that we had enjoyed it so much, and adding that he cooks from his heart.    

When we share our gifts and the experiences that are special and unique from our own history, we begin to create new memories for ourselves and the people we share them with. Now that I am getting to know more about Chef Jiovani Vazquez and his family's traditional recipes, I have a new way of thinking about Mexican food and the traditions that shape holidays and special meals we share with each other. I also have a new way of seeing and understanding how the gifts of tradition can be shared through Chefs in a kitchen who work together to discuss and discover new ideas and create masterpieces that inspire and nurture us all.

Traditional Family Recipes

From Chef Jiovani Vazquez

For The Love & Plenty Wine Pairing Lunch

¡Viva Vino!

At Antique Bar & Bakery

https://www.antiquebarbakery.com/

A Traditional Mexican Holiday Punch

Made With Tejocotes, Tamarind, Hibiscus, Apples

Cinnamon And Sugarcane

Queso Fondito

Oaxaca Cheese, Chorizo & Huitlacoche

With A Fresh, Warm, Handmade Tortilla

Mama's Tostada

Pollo Picante, Lechuga, Papalo

Queso y Crema Fresca, Arbol Salsa

Mole De Oya

Sopa De Res, Chayote, Maiz

Calabasa y Ejotes

Mole De Pato

Receta De Papa y Arroz De Abuela

Chocolates Artisanales Surtidos

De Milène Jardine Chocolatier

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Discovering A New Language Together

Sandra DeSando and Heidi Curko have been working on a new collaborative project, and I visited with them in the studio space at ESKFF at Mana Contemporary to see the work in person. I've known Sandra for a few years now and have written about her in these pages before, but I had not had the chance to meet Heidi though I had heard about her and her work and this project they were doing together. Over the summer I had been helping Eileen Kaminsky the Founder of ESKFF to find Artists to work in the ESKFF studios. As I wrote in an earlier post, she was allowed by Mana Contemporary to have a small group of Artists in the space during this time, and I had recommended two who had been there in the months of July and August. Then one day when I was having a conversation through text and email and Instagram with the beautiful Artist Sandra DeSando, she mentioned that she had bee having a difficult time creating during this time, and I thought to ask her if she'd be interested in being a part of the ESKFF Residency. She had been a Resident a few years ago, but though it's not always possible for Residents to return, these times we are living in are so strange that I thought it might be possible if she was interested and if she had an idea for new work she'd like to create there. She asked me to let her think about it because there was a project she'd been discussing with the beautiful Artist Heidi Curko, and when she got back to me a few days later she described it. Heidi had contacted her to see if she might want to work on a collaboration, and though they have known and admired each other's work for some time, they weren't sure how to go about it. The idea of working together somehow through ESKFF was inspiring, and so I suggested it to Eileen Kaminsky. Eileen interviewed them together, and was so excited after her conversation with them that she invited them to work in the ESKFF studios for a fall Residency. And it was that work that I went to see.

It's exatraordinary work, with each one making their own personal and specific unique marks on paper and the other complimenting and replying to them. When I visited with them at ESKFF, they told me as we talked that it had taken them some time to come up with a way of working together that worked. At first they had though that they might be able to work at separate times and each had been creating basicially finished pieces that left the other nowhere to go except to create a new finished piece on top of what had been left. They thought those pieces were mistakes, but when I looked at them I thought they were beautiful. Other pieces began to develop over time as they found a rhythm of working together, sometimes apart and sometimes together in the space. They are all stunning, but the pieces that are perhaps the most moving to me are some of the fragments, the sketches and trial runs, the smaller pieces that they worked on as they began to explore discovering a new language and way of communicating through their art.

In times like these I feel we are somehow reminded how important it is to be human, and there are some things that are unique to us that are so valuable to others because of their ability to inspire and bring life to our every day existence. To say that an Artist is an explorer is part of what  makes their work so powerful. It is in the exploration and the making of marks on paper that these two beautiful Artists have discovered a new language together, and it is one that tells a story that is universal, though also unique to them and all their own.

The Work Of Sandra DeSando and Heidi Curko

At ESKFF At Mana Contemporary

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - A Heart That's True

Reverend Maria Isabel Santiviago is one of the kindest and most joyous people I know. I met her in 2009 at St. George's Church when I was teaching nutrition and health workshops, and on my first day at St. George's Soup Kitchen I had a learning station set up during lunch and she walked by and asked if I could stay afterward and work with the community of people from St. Ann's Church for the Deaf. At the time she was the Vicar in charge of that group, and though she is now retired, she still works tirelessly with the deaf and deaf-blind community, and she also is always reaching out to help anyone in need if she has any way to help them.

When we first met on that first day, I stayed after the lunch and worked with the group from St. Ann's, sharing the information I had shared with others earlier while Vicar Maria translated in sign language. We continued to talk and work together with the group of the deaf each week that I was there, and eventually we planned a full eight week workshop series. It took time and effort on both our parts, because there were some technical terms that needed to be explained that were complicated to translate into sign language and I also tend to be someone who is very verbal, and having learned to read before I was in elementary school and being an avid reader and lover of words ever since, my vocabulary is very large. It took me some time to get used to the rhythm of having to wait and sometimes simplify my thoughts so they could be more easily translated and understood, and the experience made me me a much better teacher through the process. I treasure the memories of that time and our work together, both for how much fun we had and also how much I learned from working with St. Ann's and Vicar Maria. The newsletter for the organization I was working with ended up writing a highlight about the work we were doing with the group because for some reason, though they had been teaching nutrition education for more than 40 years throughout New York State, no one had ever worked with the deaf community. They were so excited by our classes, and I couldn't really understand why. We were just doing what we could for a group that needed our help and consideration and though I was happy that we were being highlighted I couldn't figure out why no one from the organization had ever worked with the deaf community in that way before. I know now that what we did was extraordinary because since that time I have had similar experiences and in order to be able to reach into a person's life with information about nutrition can make an enormous impact not only on their health and well being but for their family and their friends and their community. But we would not have been able to do what we did without Vicar Maria first asking and then following up and doing the work that it took to make sure it happened.

I stayed in touch with her after she retired, and went to visit with her after she had started volunteering with a church on Manhattan's Upper West Side in Washington Heights. She had been telling me about some of the challenges they were facing there, and one day we made an appointment to meet there. It was a beautiful church and she introduced me to the Priest in Charge, a wonderful, kind, well educated and knowledgeable man who cares deeply about the community he serves and believes in treating all people with dignity and respect and love. Recently, though we have not had a chance to visit with each other due to all of the challenges and difficulties due to the current health crisis, over these past months she has been sending me the daily messages from the Priest in Charge, deeply meaningful and thoughtful scripturally based words of encouragement and hope that also give us things to ponder and reflect on to help us in our own faith and spiritual journeys. I realized just the other day that though I haven't been able to attend church in person myself for these past many months, I was somehow sustained and able to continue to do the work that God has called me to and asked me to do in the community, and it is in great part due to the faithfulness of Vicar Maria in continuing to reach out to me during this time of crisis and help me be connected to the congregation where she is serving rhgouth her own messages and those of the Priest in Charge.

During the time that I have known her, I have learned a bit about her life and I know that it has not been an easy one. But to see her and speak with her, there is such great joy and fun that she shares, and such wisdom that comes from a clear heart and mind. She is humble too, not ever self seeking, always seeing others as being deserving of respect and love. She has the heart of a woman who lives with the love of God every day of her life, and her heart is one that is true.

Teaching A Class With Vicar Maria

With St. Ann's Church For The Deaf

At St. George's Church

New York City

 

Blessings,

Jannie Susan