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Oct. 18, 2013
Women of the world united
Exhibit focuses on Vancouver Jewish community women.
OLGA LIVSHIN
Since her childhood in Buenos Aires, Jazmin Sasky has juggled two sides of her personality – artistic and entrepreneurial. “I was always creative,” she told the Independent. “I always had the drive to make beautiful things and sell them to people.”
Several times in her life, the entrepreneurial side gained the upper hand – life was good and financially stable – but it left her empty inside, longing for a change. And the change always came from the artistic side, rejuvenating the artist, proclaiming a new direction.
After completing her art education in 1994, Sasky worked as a graphic designer in Israel. “It was a good job, interesting, but it was mostly on computer, designing packaging: shopping bags, food wrapping. I wasn’t satisfied. I need to touch materials, make things with my hands. I made jewelry and ceramics and sold them in gift shops and fairs around Israel.”
When the family moved to Canada in 2004, Sasky recalled, “I had three young sons at the time but I still managed to do some art. I couldn’t stop. When the children grew up a little, I started painting.”
Her painting portfolio includes many whimsical children portraits that she created on commission, plus multiple designs for cards and other paper products. She has illustrated several children’s books, and her funky, bright pictures radiate the joy of being young. Girls dance among flowers and butterflies, while boys ride horses and frolic with crocodiles.
Similar stylistic fancy illuminates the designs of Sasky’s stationary. Two years ago, she started her own company, I Do Care Design, which produces products – cards, bags, journals, invitations – made from recycled, locally manufactured paper. She sells her stationary through local yoga stores and online, and the venture has become quite successful. While her entrepreneurial side was flourishing, the artist in her needed new energy and expression.
“One day, I was driving my kids to school, later doing online promotion for my company, as I did every day, [and] I thought, ‘Is it all I’m going to do in my life?’ I felt dried up, cold. My energy was low. I needed something different but I didn’t know what. I contacted a life coach.”
The life coach was a friend of a friend, located in London, U.K., so all the coaching sessions took place online through Skype.
“She told me that I had some kind of a glass ceiling I had to get rid of,” Sasky recalled. “She recommended I think of what I was going to be in five years and write a detailed plan, the steps I should take to get there. I started writing right away, and my pen flowed. I wrote three pages and stuck them on my wall.”
One of those steps was the idea for the project currently on display at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery: Honoring Women. The show opened on Oct. 10 and will run until Nov. 10.
“This project was a miracle,” Sasky said. “I’ve met so many wonderful women in the Jewish community since I came to Vancouver. They helped me, supported me. Each one had a story to tell, and I wanted to honor them all in my paintings. I thought of several themes, like motherhood and sisterhood, women united by their ethnic roots or embracing diversity. Then I wrote a proposal for the show and showed it to Reisa [Schneider] at the gallery.”
Sasky got approval and the date for the show in March 2013 and got to work. “I had a schedule: I needed to paint 16 paintings in six months. My sons were very supportive; they always asked me if I was on schedule. It was a very intense project. I contacted many women and interviewed them. I also had a plan of the gallery and knew the sizes of each wall I had to cover with my paintings. I finished painting the last picture 10 days before the show.”
She added, “These paintings are not exactly portraits. There is no facial resemblance, except for one specific picture. They are my interpretations of these extraordinary women’s stories.”
The show embodies several distinctive themes. Four paintings represent the theme of ethnicity. Sasky explained: “In this series, I focused on four groups of women in the Vancouver Jewish community – Canadians, Israelis, Latinos and South Africans.”
The paintings are the artist’s exploration of what unites each group, including their social attitudes, clothing and colors. Of course, the visual cues are exaggerated, but they convey the artist’s perception of the groups’ differences.
Another well-represented motif is sisterhood. The two women in each painting in this category are not necessarily biological sisters. They could be united by breast cancer or life-partnership, by their conversion to Judaism or their common business, but their mutual affection is clear in all the paintings.
“I’d like to bring this show to the other women’s communities in B.C.,” Sasky said. “It’s universal. But first, I’ll rest for awhile.”
She doesn’t have much time to rest though. On Nov. 3, she is going to conduct a book-making workshop for families at the gallery and, on Nov. 5, she is going to be one of the speakers at the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual women’s philanthropy event Choices. She donated one of her paintings to Federation for this event.
For more on Sasky and her work, visit jazminsasky.com and idocaredesigns.com/the-company.html.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
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