Memoriam for an artist
Editor’s Note: Trenton educator Deena Jiles Shu’aib submitted the following to commemorate the life and art of her late mother:
Nora Deene Jiles was born on March 17, 1948, in Columbus, Indiana. From a very young age, she always adored artistic expression. Her love of color and light is evident in everything she created. A self-taught artist, she endured many tragedies that would define her expression and outlook.
In 1967 Nora was diagnosed with a rare thyroid tumor and given a choice between saving the life of her child or potentially dying. She chose the life of her child, and this choice would change the trajectory of her path and reshape her future. Nora spent more than a year recovering, lying in her hospital bed unable to speak. She was given a paint by numbers art set. That was the catalyst she needed to ignite her passion.
Over the years, Nora honed and developed her skills as an artist. Crafting her work through books from the library and watching Bob Ross on PBS, she worked to find her voice. Scenes of nature reinforced the complexity of the cycle of life and death. Watching the leaves fade in the Fall only to be reborn in the Spring touched Nora and is evident in her work. The gift of life and fortune to wake up and breath day after day is something she tried not to take for granted.
The compilation of her work has been posthumously titled ‘Seasons of Life.’ Her use of color and lines bring her landscapes to life in a way that is sure to inspire and uplift the viewer.
Sadly, we lost Nora on May 25, 2022, but through her art she will live forever.
Spotlight On Trenton Poetry
Poet and playwright Todd Evans’ monthly Open Mic Readings at Classic Books in downtown Trenton provide area poets the opportunity to create, share, test, and refine their work.
The project is set for the first Saturday of the month and compliments the Trenton-born Evans’ other effort of love: the Freedom Friday Spoken Word and Open Mic Series set for the last Friday of the month at the Trenton City Museum.
At a recent outdoor session at Classic Books, writer and former Times of Trenton compositor Barry Gross presented the following poem based on a theme that the group has been exploring:
Trenton
I am crossing the Delaware on Christmas Day surprising those big, bad Hessians.
I am the largest un-dammed river east of the Mississippi.
I am shad and herring and stripers and sturgeon fighting the current north, through tidewater making way to Ellerslie Museum in Cadwalader Park and east to Art All Night at Roebling Steel Wire Works and swimming in my parents’ and grandparents’ stories of “remember the Jews of Cooper Street,” now swallowed by government housing and I am waiting at the rehabbed train hub to Philly and New York in the shadow of tony Einstein Princeton.
I am William Trent, waiting at my house to scoop up the flotsam and jetsam from unsuccessful ventures along the Delaware. Thanks for naming the town after me.
Trenton, I shop at the Spruce Street Farmers Market and Halo Farms and the Roebling Super Market.
Trenton, I explored the abandoned Cooper Iron Works that melted metal for rifles before it was Katmandu or Rho, fished off the pier, in the shadow of the PA/NJ railroad bridge, before it was fixed and then collapsed after it was fixed, not accounting for stress abilities of 100 year old beams and pilings, catching 3, 4, 5 herrings at a time on gold hooks, filling spackle buckets, selling half and using the other half in the garden, tomatoes love bones, and Granma Salway, in last class of old, old Trenton high 1931 and great Aunt Ann’s first class of old, new Trenton high 1932, which was leveled last year to be replaced with a new, new Trenton High, walking by the State House with plywood boards over windows while Christie closes down government and takes some time to work on his tan.
Trenton, I am standing at your open mic in Classics, a used book store, on Lafayette Street just a stones throw, if you have a good arm, from the barracks built during the French and Indian War because colonists were tired of housing soldiers.
Trenton, there’s no escaping your history unless we choose to not remember.
Classic Books is located at 4 West Lafayette Street. The Trenton City Museum is in Trenton’s Cadwalader Park. 609 346-4329.
‘Bold Will Hold’ Opens at Artworks
‘Bold Will Hold’ is the tattoo-inspired exhibition on view at Artworks Trenton through November 19.
Curated through the coordinators of the Trenton Punk Rock Flea market, the exhibition features roughly two dozen artists who approach the concept from various angles and media.
As organizers note in their promotional materials, “For thousands of years, tattoos and the artists that create them have utilized their human canvases to tell tales of survival and the hunt, love lost, life at sea, and the weary road traveler, but in recent years the art form, and the massive growth of artists behind it, have become accepted as part of the cultural mainstream. What was once frowned upon as something relegated to sailors, blue-collar workers, and the downtrodden has now become a widely sought-after form of art.”
The Artworks exhibition uses the current interest in tattooing as the attraction and leaves the viewer to draw the lines that connect what appears to be original designs to photographs to works of art based on tattoo images or inspired by them.
The larger and bolder in color works obviously grab the eye. That includes two intricate paintings of swirling designs by Addison Vincent (who also serves as Artworks artistic director), a set of Timothy David photographs that mainly celebrate the outsider allure of tattoo culture, two intensely patterned images by Robbinsville artist Alia Benslimane, two glowingly colorful works — with one seemingly evocative of early 20th century designs — by Toms River tattoo artist Ted Wallen, and the very appropriate heart image by Trenton/Hamilton tattoo artist Carley Granger (who will be tattooing live during the November 4 opening from 6 to 9 p.m.
Tattoo aficionados, for whom the exhibition seems to be more aimed, and those willing to linger also will find rewards in the smaller and initially less eye filling works. Among them are Jess Fields’ “Modern Day Madonna,” a watercolor portrait of a young woman sporting tattoos; and Alex Flannery’s “Capital City Flash,” wit-laced screen print survey of Trenton icons, including a wandering pork roll tube.
Bold Will Hold, Artworks Trenton, 18 Everett Alley, Trenton. Opens Friday, November 4, 6 to 9 p.m., and remains on view through November 19, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free. 609-394-9436 or www.artworkstrenton.org.
Jess Fields' 'Modern Day Madonna' from Bold Will Hold.,
Barry Gross reading at Classics Books.,
