Featured Artist Jaworek

49 WINDOWS

About the Project

In the year following the death of my father I began a journey of painting with the intentions of examining and maintaining the bonds which held our relationship. I set an appointment with him in the studio each week for a year. I kept these appointments (with myself) and worked. The form of a window pane on an amorphous shape emerged within the first week, and the theme was one that carried through the body of the work. I continue to explore the meaning of these mysterious shapes and forms. Symbols a book I set aside until the series was finished with me after the year and 49 canvases, states, "The window is where the inside and the outside meet and cross, bringing together two worlds and their elements." The purpose for me was to actively engage and renew a commitment to one of the most meaningful relationships of my life; despite the journey being one that I was taking solely on my own. I remember the images remained workable for months due to the materials and process, and that experience is something I bring to my current work.

Why Temenos?

The Gallery Director, Gregory Flis, and I began conceptualizing the gallery when I opened my art therapy practice in downtown Tucson. The space, in an historic adobe building, felt enchanted. We knew we had to share it with others. It is an intimate gallery, and yet just the right size to tell a large story. The challenge to the artists who exhibit here is in the name, Temenos, a space for the soul to grow. The artist's work is to share part of their the journey with all.

Current Work

My work has evolved from being about communicating something I believe in - to that of being a part of a process. The complexities of the work sometime take me a couple of months to accept the resting point in the journey I take with the art materials, but that means I have many projects which I'm working on simultaneously. So, in essence my art has become of great urgency in my process of being. Respecting the uncertainties and celebrating the subtlety of each moment: when I forget these things I miss too much.

ARTIST'S BIO

Joseph Jaworek

Joseph obtained a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University and received his Master of Arts in Art Therapy from New York University in 2006. During his time at Northwestern, Joseph studied illustration and figure drawing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and finished the first of his children's books, The Twelve Months. Through supportive educators, mentors and friends, Joseph fell in love with the subversive acts of creativity, healing within storytelling and the power of narrative which runs through all. In graduate school, Joseph was an intern at Penn South Senior Center, Lennox Hill Neighborhood House and St. Luke's Hospital having completed his fieldwork studies at Bellevue Hospital. He was inspired by the resiliency in the people of these programs as they approached aging creatively despite in some instances living with illness, blindness, dementia and certainty of death. Because of their participation and their supportive caregivers, Joseph was able to complete his thesis on Supporting Resiliency with Group Art Therapy: A Proposal for Elders Living with Dementia and Their Caregiver. In addition to receiving professional training in Multi-Modal Approaches to Learning, Creativity and Communication from Teachers College Columbia University, and he has held a certificate in thanatology from The Association for Death Education and Counseling. Joseph is trained SoulCollageTM facilitator and a registered & board certified art therapist with the Art Therapy Credentials Board (Registration Number 07-267).

Joseph paints and sculpts, and his work has been presented in numerous settings including the Marywood Art Faculty Biennial Exhibition 2013, Mahady Gallery, Scranton, Pennsylvania; the National Arts Program, Juried Group Exhibition, Morristown Memorial, Morristown, New Jersey and Overlook Hospital, Summit, New Jersey in both 2008 & 2009. Joseph has participated in a group project through reconstructing a chapter in a collaborative Altered Book Project, “The Mad Hatters Tea Party” of Alice in Wonderland a fundraiser for the NJ Art Therapy Association at the Riverdale Art Center in Riverdale, New Jersey. Joseph's work was included in the 2008 program "In the Pink," a group exhibition in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Atlantic Health Mind Body Institute, Morristown, New Jersey. The Windows project is on exhibit at the Temenos Gallery until January 15, 2022. Please call 973.570.0312 for a private showing, and check the Tucson Weekly Events page for other viewing times.