An Abundant Life - Open Doors

The YES Gallery officially opened its doors on August 23, with a Grand Opening Celebration that was a beautiful and memorable one. As I've written in these pages before, that date was chosen because it is the anniversary of the date when I first moved to New York City a number years ago with two bags of clothing to start an internship with the Circle Repertory Theatre Company that paid $60 per week. It's been a very wonderful and miraculous journey that has brought me from that place to this one, and though there have been dark times and rocky roads along the way all I can remember now are the ways things turned out to work out to be blessings. I can only say as I always do that I'm so grateful to God for leading me along paths that I couldn't have walked by myself, and for taking the time to reach into my life and show me a new and better way to live.

As the doors to the gallery opened, there was a feeling of new life and new joy and a sense that there are more wonderful things to come as I keep my daily focus on how to walk step by step in the way that the one who opens doors is leading and allow each moment to unfold as it is meant to unfold. With a gorgeous space full of treasures shared and gorgeous art on the walls, the kindness and support of beautiful friends old and new is carrying me along on a wave of exuberance. Here's to the overflow that will reach into the heart of the community and bring together the most beautiful treasure of all as people of all ages and backgrounds come together to learn and help and grow with each other into the people they were always meant to be.

YES Gallery

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

At The Grand Opening

With The Beautiful Artist Leah Huang

Photograph Courtesy of

The Marvelous Artist Stephen Cimini

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - A New Season

I've been so busy with preparing the gallery for the opening that I realized that today is Sunday and I didn't have a chance to post anything yet. This experience of the gallery is as an Artist friend described exciting and exhausting. I find myself waking up at all hours trying to figure out the answer to what goes where and when things will get done, and ultimately realizing that everything will find a place and everything will get done that needs to be done. As I looked out the doorway at the afternoon glow yesterday I was overcome by the realization that the space where I had tried to create an art space years ago was geographically a mirror of where I am now. It's hard to describe it, but somehow that made me feel not only that I was in the right place but also that everything now is moving forward in the right way.

As I began to finish up the curating this past week, a beautiful Designer friend who has been sharing set pieces with me offered an old piece of wood that had been a door. The wonderful Artist friend who was helping me hang and curate the work in the gallery thought I was going a bit too far when I brought that in, but somehow I knew it had to be there and I knew where it had to be. I started thinking about what piece could go on it because it seemed as if it needed something to complete it, and then I remembered a piece that I had started last year that has been waiting patiently to be finished. "As An Orchid After A Long Winter My Roots No Longer Dormant I Begin To Blissfully Flower" is a poem fragment I wrote many years ago, and last year when a beautiful Artist I know had asked me to begin thinking about pieces for a new book she wanted to put together I began to create a collage piece using those words. When I looked it over to finish it I realized that it was nearly done, and so I put in the final touches and now it will hang in the gallery on that piece of old wood. It will not be for sale, it is too personal a piece for me, but it will serve as a reminder of the continuum of time and that everything has a right time and a right place to be.

Finding New Life

At YES Gallery

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - What Is Art?

The other day when I had stopped by to visit with a group of wonderful Artists in my neighborhood who work out of their garage, I met two more lovely Artists who were walking by and stopped in to see what was happening. The garage doors were open and the Artists were living life, creating their designs, and we all started talking about all kinds of wonderful things together.

I gave my business card to the two Artists who had stopped by and told them about the gallery I'll be opening in a few very short weeks, and we shared Instagram information. When I saw them again a few days later, they told me how beautiful my Instagram posts are and complimented what they described as my artistic taste. As I've been putting together the new gallery, I've realized that though I've never considered myself a visual Artist, I am one, and my art is a combination of installation, design, curating and creating a space where people want to visit and can experience art in a way that is not only comfortable and engaging, but makes them want to take the work home with them so they can create their own version of what they experienced in the space.

This understanding of what my art is has only begun to jell in my mind over the past few years. I have always gone into spaces and seen what they could be and when I have the opportunity to live or work in a space people always love what I do with it. Many times I've had people tell me that something or other doesn't work or that it can't be done or that there's only one way to use such and such a thing, only to look with admiration and surprise when I do exactly the thing they never envisioned could be done. I've also had people tell me that something was useless, or junk, or not worth keeping or trying to fix, and then I put it on a table or drape it on a wall or floor and everyone wants it. But it was only a few years ago when I was on a Zoom call for a series of Artist talks and interviews that two Artist friends told me to look around my space and admit that I was an Artist. Since that time I've started to call myself one, but only provisionally, adding that I did collaborative projects which is true. Now that I'm designing and curating the space where the gallery is, it's been a daily recognition that yes I collaborate, but there are some things that I bring to the table, or in this case the room, that are uniquely my own way of seeing.

Ever since I was born again I've given God the credit for anything good that I do, whether it is something kind or helpful or something that I cook or create. This gallery space is no exception, and the experience has been one that feels miraculous daily, as I find ways to work within what is already a wonderful and lovely interior with beautiful detail and draw out something new from the already special and unique space and the set pieces that have been shared with me by a beautiful Designer. Things I've had that I've loved are finding new life in the gallery, and areas are being created to showcase the specific gifts of the Artists I have invited to show their work there. It all would seem like something serendipitous because I know that I did not plan any of it, but because I know that with God there are no accidents and only beautiful plans I know that all these years as I've collected objects and worked with Artists have led up to this time for everything to come together in one beautiful installation of life.

When I was speaking with an Artist about a piece I'd recently found, I jokingly told him I wanted to name it "Broken Rusted Crown" and put it on a table in the gallery. I don't know what it was originally, but I did put it on a table in the space, and when I did I saw that the stars on the crown matched the stars on a lamp I've had that I put there and the star shape on a shell that came from somewhere else. Is this art? If you'd asked me that question years ago I would have said no, it's just what I happen to like and it all somehow goes together, but now after hearing time and again that what I like is something that other people enjoy too, and gives them a space to begin to create an environment that they can call their own.

A Few Pieces Find Their Way Together

In The Gallery

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Saying Yes

In 2003 I began to plan a community art and event space, but circumstances led to a shipwreck instead of a success. It was through that experience and learning to forgive that I had a life changing encounter with God and my life took some many different and unexpected roads. Now, after a long and eventful and many times miraculous journey, in a few short weeks I'll be having the opening celebration of a new art gallery.

On my first moving in day, August 2, the first ;piece that I brought through the door was the hand drawn poster made by the beautiful Artist Dana Gambale from the logo she created for Love & Plenty, the project to help restaurants get funding to provide meals for people in need that I've written about in these pages before. When I placed it on a countertop, it looked like it was made for the space, and it will serve as a constant reminder that everything that I do and in every way I can, sharing abundance and blessings with everyone is the most beautiful path there is.

There is a feeling I have about the new art and event space I will be opening that has me thinking about the recent Art, Dance and Performance Installation collaboration I was honored to be a part of with the beautiful Artists Alberte Bernier and Jhalak Dance, "Leak" x "What Is Revealed" at ChaShaMa Art Space, and the poem I wrote "The Flower And The Flame" that was inspired by our work together. There are parts of ourselves that we keep hidden from the world, and when we choose to reveal them the revelation creates a sacred space where possibilities and growth and new life and inspiration are found. For months as I began speaking with Artists about this new gallery I didn't tell them anything about it except a general location. Now, as they begin bringing their work to me they receive the address, and I've jokingly thought I should tell them I will meet them on the corner with a blindfold. There has been a beautiful respect that has been shown for my request for privacy as I share information in a slow and sometimes cryptic reveal as if this were a treasure hunt with clues appearing as each step is discovered and doors are unlocked. 

As each Artist arrives with work, the space begins to take on a life of its own, breathing out and taking in creativity and light and becoming in a way a kind of home. As I write this I think about one of my age old New York City loves, The Home For Contemporary Theater, and I realize that every time I have worked on a play the feeling within whatever space we are creating in is like that of a place where people live. It is not just a place to work, it is a place to feel at home, a place where we can be vulnerable and show the many facets of ourselves without fear that they will be rejected, discarded, misunderstood or unwanted. It is in those sacred spaces where the greatest work is done and where we grow to new heights in our own and our collaborative work.

When the gallery is open I will share more, but for now I will leave the door slightly ajar here with one word that has meant so much to me on this journey. With everything that has happened in my life, both the beautiful and the not so, the one thing I had to keep doing through this walk is to say Yes to things that were frightening and daunting because of my past experiences and the feelings of loss and grief I experienced before that I never wanted to feel again. Saying Yes is in its own way a sacred act, because we open ourselves up to what is and what can be, and as we open our hearts to something new and put aside the old fears and hurts and allow hope to come in, we open doors to possibilities that are not yet seen and allow ourselves to dream of something beautiful.

A Glimpse Of An Upcoming

Art And Event Space

With More To Come

Blessings,

Jannie Susan