An Abundant Life - Another Opening, Another Show

On Friday night the new show at YES Gallery, "You Arrive In A Whisper, A Wild Hope", had the opening celebration, and as I was hanging the show with the wonderful Artist Stephen Cimini who is always so much help to me in so many ways, including in preparing the space for each new opening, we both looked around the room as we were finishing up and thought that once again the current show is even better than the last one. As Artists this is always what we always want, to have everything we do be better than the last thing we did, and at YES Gallery that seems to be what happens naturally. The first show was so beautiful I couldn't have imagined anything being better, but the second show was even more gorgeous, and now that we are onto the third show the space is so lovely that I'm excited just to open the door to people who visit.

Last week as I was finishing setting up and adding the final details, visitors who came by kept admiring everything and looking at specific pieces, asking about the Artists and the gallery and saying all the things that I could hope for and more. One young visitor, when her father asked her what was her favorite, began pointing to one piece and then another and another and then finally said that she loved everything. Hearing that made me so happy and I told her that her words were what I wanted people to feel when they were in the gallery.

I'll be writing more about the individual Artists and their work soon, but for now I made another video of the space, this time with the beginning of my older brother's old Moody Blues album "A Question Of Balance" and the song "The Story In Your Eyes" in the background. I'll share it here and there will be more photographs and videos and stories soon as the show continues on and more events and visitors add their words and share their stories and make their own photographic and videographic records of their visits.

YES Gallery

"You Arrive In A Whisper, A Wild Hope"

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - A New Season

It will be my birthday in just a little while, and I'm having the opening of the third show at YES Gallery as part of that celebration. I think celebrating birthdays is important, and as much as possible I try to celebrate in some way all month long and even longer if I can. This year I decided to have the opening at the gallery as part of it because it just seemed right somehow. The gallery itself is like a present I can open every day and a new show is always a reason to celebrate, so putting the two together for a big party felt like the days back when I used to have parties in my West Village and Soho apartments with so many Artists of different kinds meeting and having fun in a very comfortable and homey sort of way.

My apartments have always had a certain feeling to them, and over the years when design trends would talk about Boho Chic or Farmhouse or Shabby Chic or any of the other names they'd give to the things that I gravitated towards naturally I'd just smile when I'd see certain photographs and think, gee I have that thing or wow, I do that too, and I'd be happy that what I was already doing was somehow in style.

YES Gallery as it grows and evolves is becoming like a place that is full of the fun kinds of designs that are the signature of the places where I live. Some things I've had for years that I'm bringing in and others are more recents finds, but all of the touches around the beautiful contemporary art that is the focus of the gallery are added to help people see what it means to live with art. There are design pieces from many different eras, and some things just for fun, but whatever it is that comes into the gallery is meant to help people feel joyfully at home.

As I began to curate for this upcoming show and made plans for some new art to be shown and for new Artists to bring their work to hang alongside some of the pieces that I'm still highlighting from previous shows, I rearranged every area to give a new feeling to the place. On Saturday as I began hanging the show with the Artist Stephen Cimini who has been such a great help to me from the first day that I began planning the gallery, the areas where I had already hung art had such a feeling of some of my old apartments that I jokingly called one part of the space my Boho loft. It gives me so much happiness to move things around and design in a space this way, and I said to one of the Artists whose work is collage that I'm staring to think my gallery is one big collage piece. Part installation, part holder of blessings and treasured memories and part something completely new, each day at YES Gallery is bringing me into a new season with every addition and new arrangement creating new life.

YES Gallery  

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

    

An Abundant Life - Reflections

There is a journal that I've been looking for that is from the years when I was nine and ten or so. My Mother had given me a blank book to write it and I tried to write every day. There are so many memories in that book, and for a while I couldn't find it, but then today when I was listening to an audio only webinar, as I listened my eyes saw the book underneath another larger one on the bookshelf where I had thought I had it all along. It feels so good to know that this book is here and I can refer to it again. In an among the daily notes and thoughts of my life at that time there is some really beautiful writing, things that show the beginnings of the writing that I still do to this day. There are also some poems that I wrote a few years later, tucked into the book under the front cover, and it's so good to be able to look at all of these things and be reminded of who I was and where I have grown to in my life now.

YES Gallery is a place that is so full of creative energy that my own writing and art have been reemerging in the ways that they did at different times over the years. I've never stopped, but sometimes things are much fewer and further in between. A friend who called me the other day said it seemed as if I'm doing an event every other day and while it's not that often, the creative spark of my days is regularly inspiring me to create something new, to plan new events, to make new art, write new poetry, design new areas and experiment with new recipes and foods.

Visitors to YES Gallery often ask me if all of the artwork in the space is mine which is something that always surprises me. As I tell them that around 19 Artists are represented in the space, including some who are part of collaborations, I find myself explaining that my own art is a combination of many things, including curating and helping to create beautiful spaces for people to gather and experience beautiful art. There are things that I've created in YES Gallery, college pieces, refurbished and repurposed furnishing, poetry, and other visual art pieces, but the biggest thing that I've realized is that the entire space is one large collage piece and installation in collaboration with other Artists and creative people who share their work and inspiration in the space.

Now that I have my old journal again, I'm looking forward to adding some of the writing in it to a new piece to create something new. Reflecting on my own life and delving into the past of my childhood seems like a very important thing to do in the space of the gallery where everything from the past and the present seem to be meeting to make all things new.

YES Gallery

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

  

An Abundant Life - Opening Up The Doors

Just after the New Year there was a record temperature day in the 60's and when I was at YES Gallery I opened the door and put on "The Beach Boys Greatest Hits" volumes one and two. I have both that belonged to my older brother, and when I put them on all I could remember was being a little girl and hearing them singing and singing along as I danced around the house. I used to beg my brother to put the albums on and sometimes he'd sing to me when he did. He gave me nicknames from their songs, little get around, little surfer girl, and he'd ask me if I was like the girl in the song who took her father's keys and said she was going to the library but drove all over town having fun. I wanted to be that girl, and the little surfer girl of the song, and listening to those records all those memories came back of how much my brother loved me and liked to tease me and how fun it was to be young and have dreams of growing up to be one of those people having all kinds of adventures in sunny weather days with so much love and excitement in their lives and no worries or cares in the world.

As we get older and we start to learn sometimes that life is not a day at the beach, those beach days become even more important. The days when everything is beautiful can become crowded out by days when things seem far from it, and being able to create an environment of positive optimism becomes a gift that sometimes is difficult to hold onto. But there's something about YES Gallery and everything that happens in its walls that keeps giving hope every day and every way, sometimes surprising me by the power of that space to reach out of the door and windows to other people walking by. 

On that beautiful day when I had the door open and The Beach Boys on the vintage stereo system, a man stopped by the door and said, "This is such a beautiful gallery!" He thanked me and said he had lived in the area for a long time and always walked by because this was the most beautiful gallery he'd ever seen. I was so moved by his words because I could tell that just being able to walk by and look at some place full of beautiful things and positive energy was important to him, and once more I was reminded that it's not me who can bring energy like that into the world. I said yes to moving ahead with opening the gallery, and there's a much more powerful source of love that helps make it possible. With so much gratitude I say thank you once again to all of the beautiful Artists and beautiful people who help make this beautiful place possible by sharing their beautiful blessings and inspiration, and to the source of all love who makes doors open to possibilities and a life beyond our imagining.

YES Gallery

On A Warm January Day

Listening To

The Beach Boys

'Surfin' Safari"

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Into The New

Today is the first day of a New Year, and though it's not something that has meaning in the sense of the reality of time, it feels like a new page is turning whenever the year ends and begins anew according to the calendars we keep. My Grandmother used to call us at midnight every year and she'd always have something positive to say, asking us how we planned to spend the year and saying that whatever we were doing at midnight mattered because she believed that's how we'd be spending the rest of the year. I've had times in my life when I tried to plan my New Year's Eve midnights up to the moment, but I don't do that any more. These days, in these years since I was born again, I pray and ask God for guidance, putting in the word that sometimes there are things I'd like to be doing, but also knowing that whatever it is will be the best and most beautiful thing as long as I am open to whatever it is that God has planned for me.

I've been talking to people a lot lately about living our lives in that way, and how it is the human thing to want to have some control, and sometimes complete control, of the outcome and how we live our lives, what we do, where we go, the choices we make, who we love, who we leave, where we live, where we go, the work we do, the places we travel, the way we spend our time and our days and our years. The truth of it is that we always have free choice because that's how God designed it, but what I've learned over the years is that God always has the best for us, and when we can tune into that frequency and keep our ears and hearts open, we can begin to walk in new ways and overcome the very human desire to do things the way we want to do them when there might just be another way that is better.

It's not easy to change our minds to think of new ways of thinking and living and doing things, but one thing that I know is that we've always got a helper with us in the Spirit, one who lives with us and walks with us and keeps us on track if we can only keep asking and keep open to seeing and living and walking in new ways.

The other day when I was talking to someone about YES Gallery and how there are things that I've been experiencing there that are all about bringing back my own creative life in a very powerful way, I added that other people are experiencing that too in that beautiful blessing of a space, and that there is something that I've been feeling very strongly about saying yes to things that I might not in a practical adult way understand how they will happen. When we were children there were often very practical reasons why adults would say no to us, but sometimes it was simply their own not understanding how it might be possible, or not being willing to take a risk because of their own fear or doubt.

I remembered after that conversation that one year when I was very small, maybe three years old, I was at a store called Bradlees with my mother, and I was asking if we could buy Easter dresses for me and my older sister. Bradlees was a very inexpensive store, but we didn't have much money then to spend on extras, and she said no, and I took out my own money that I'd made selling potholders door to door in our neighborhood, and I showed her that I had enough because the dresses weren't that much. At times like this when I remember things like that I begin to understand that YES Gallery can be a place where, within some definite practicality, yes can be said and that it needs to be said even as we weigh and measure and plan with reason.

In this New Year, I'm planning to bring that yes forward, and as I pray and lean on the guidance of God to know that if I'm feeling like I need to say yes, regardless of my own not understanding how things can happen, I need to say yes and that saying yes will continue to open the doors to the next moment, because built into that yes is faith and hope and trust.

YES Gallery

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

 

An Abundant Life - Gifts Of The Season

A few weeks ago I wrote about the opening celebration for the second show at YES Gallery and the weekend long Hoboken Art Walk and Studio Tour that it was a part of. There were so many wonderful things that happened during that beautiful and special event, but one of them that stood out in my memory was the turn table that the DJ and Musician Rose Image brought into the gallery and shared with me over the two days of that lovely weekend. During the time that it was in the gallery, I played some of the LP's that I hadn't played in years, some that belonged to my older brother from his collection from the late 1960's and 1970's and some of my own from the 1970's and 1980's. Hearing them again after all this time on vinyl made me want to find a stereo system to put in the gallery so that I could play records all the time. I have many of my favorites on CD's and can of course stream them any time I want to, but there is something about vinyl and about playing these old records that brings back the memories of that time and who I was and my brother and my childhood and teenage years like nothing I've ever quite experienced before.

It was on my mind to find a stereo system somehow, and then one day I went to an estate sale and there it was. At the time when I saw it I wasn't really paying attention to all the pieces, I just knew that it was a vintage one and it looked like it was in great shape and that it was the one for me to bring to YES Gallery. I do things like that sometimes, see something and just know it's right, and then later on when someone asks me for specifications I have no idea. That happened once when I was looking for an apartment years ago, and later on, when I was describing it to people they'd ask me about details and I couldn't tell them. All I knew is that it was right and it was the one for me. 

The stereo system turned out to be a Pioneer, but after Rose Image was kind enough to stop by and help install it, we discovered that the turntable was missing the belt that makes it turn. I have no idea what the situation was in the house where it came from, and that is always the way it is with estate sales. The turntable looked pristine, but inside where the belt should have been were only a few small pieces left of what looked like something that had disintegrated. Perhaps it had been sitting in the house like that for years, or perhaps the person who had owned it took one that worked and left that one behind for the sale, but whatever the reason I contacted the person who was in charge of the sale and there was another turntable at the house that works perfectly. This one is a Technics, and along with the Pioneer system its sound is gorgeous.

When I first started listening to the LP's I have, the first one I tried was my brother's copy of The Who "Who's Next" and hearing the opening few moments that go crashing into Roger Daltrey's soaring voice was one of the most wonderful experiences imaginable. That album was revelatory and jubilant for me when I was a teenager, and I had heard it for years before that when my brother was a teenager who played it in his room before going out and sometimes when he'd be drawing at his desk and he'd let me sit on his lap or stand next to him as he created his artwork. For me there is such a deep resonance when I hear The Who, with layers upon layers of memories, of times with my brother and times when I'd listen in my own room and feel the freedom of their soaring sound and lyrics lifting me out of what were sometimes difficult experiences as a teenager.

With each passing day I listen to more, my brother's Led Zeppelin that I sang in a garage band in high school, his Allman Brothers, Neil Young, his Poco, Moody Blues and Rod Stewart and my own later ones, my South Pacific, and the list goes on. There are times when I first put an album on that I'm not even sure what I'm going to hear because it has been so long since I've heard them, and then I find myself singing and dancing and so filled with the emotion of memories, the reminder of hope and love and new beginnings, the experience of remembering a past when I had no idea what the future would bring and the understanding of where I've come from that has somehow brought me to here and now.

Today is Christmas Day, and when I was thinking of what I would write I realized that YES Gallery has been a gift from the beginning, and with each addition of Art and the Artists who create it the gift box gallery has become filled with blessings. This turntable and sound system is another gift, one that I couldn't have understood the power of until I began to play these old records again. Within them is my own history, my past and my present, wrapped up together and tied with streamers of golden light and rainbows.

The Opening Notes

Of A New Vintage Sound System

The Who "Who's Next"

From My Brother's Vinyl Collection

At YES Gallery

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Elegant Celebrations

On Monday evening I had a holiday celebration at YES Gallery that was so beautiful and abundant that it's  still being spoken about and will be for a long time. A wonderful Chef, Greg Norrish, helped me onsite and also in the planning, and Joel Liscio, the Artist and Sommelier who has work in the gallery and who I have done other art and food and wine pairing events with in the past, brought some wonderful selections to share. A vineyard in Santa Barbara that I had shared wines for an art gallery opening and events in 2020 that had to be postponed allowed me to serve their wonderful wine selections for this event, and it was such a beautiful joy to finally be able to share the wonderful flavors of the J. Wilkes Pinot Noir and Viognier with guests at the gallery. Chef Greg Norrish had discussed the menu with me over a meal at a restaurant in Hoboken, Zero Otto Uno, where I was planning that some of the menu items be provided from. I had White Truffles from Urbani that I wanted to use in the menu that was served at the gallery and Chef Sonny at Zero Otto Uno had told me that whatever I wanted to use them with he'd be happy to help provide. It's such a joy to work with Chefs like these two, who not only create delicious food but have the ability to do it so well and are such great help in their expertise and experience. Once I had begun the discussion with them and shared the things that I liked and thought would be good for the menu, they took it from there and created a menu that was memorable and special. There were a few things I had to pick up and one item that I prepared, but other than that they took care of everything with such skill and excellence and good will that the experience I had of hosting was a pleasure.

The idea of the evening was loosely based on pairing Artists with food and wine and their own inspiration that included other art forms, and one Artist read his favorite poem that several of his paintings were titled from. The menu started off with individual antipasti of prosciutto wrapped asparagus which was the one item I prepared, and fresh and smoked mozzarella and sweet cherry peppers stuffed with cream cheese from Fiori's House of Quality served in cups from a variety of vintage snack plates that I had begun to collect when Joel and I had discussed continuing our art, wine and food pairings after a very special Chef we had been collaborating with on them for the Love & Plenty project in the fall of 2020 and early 2021 had left the area for some other projects he was working on. Originally we were thinking of continuing the events in Artists' studios, and I had been trying to think of some way to serve food in an environment where people might not be able to have a full sit down dinner and the snack plates seemed a fun way to do that while keeping with the vintage theme of things that I always enjoy. Following the antipasti which looked so lovely in the variety of cups was a steak tartare on fried wonton shells topped with freshly shaved white truffles. That second course and the one following it of focaccia bites made with straciatella bufala and roasted mushrooms topped with freshly shaved white truffles were creations of Chef Greg Norrish using focaccia and straciatella from Zero Otto Uno and mushrooms he had roasted and seasoned, and they were delightful. The next course was a cacio e pepe made with cavatelli, cheese, cream and pepper from Zero Otto Uno topped with freshly shaved white truffles, and the final dessert course was the first ever White Truffle Panettone from Urbani served with a selection of truffles from Milène Jardine Chocolatier. The room smelled of truffles and was filled with joy and creativity, art and life, and with Chefs like Chef Greg Norrish and Chef Sonny to work with, the food was not only wonderful, the experience of it was a delight.

YES Gallery

Holiday Celebration

With Menu Created By Chef Greg Norrish

Selections From Chef Sonny At Zero Otto Uno Cafè

Wine From Miller Family Wine Company

J. Wilkes Pinot Noir And Viognier

And Sommelier And Artist Joel Liscio

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan