jay schadler
studio and gallery
Read About Jay Schadler – Artist, photographer and journalist living the dream in Portsmouth – carpe diem in the Portsmouth 2013 issue of Around Town In New England Magazine.
Meet artist, photographer and Emmy Award winning journalist Jay Schadler and discover a thrilling world behind his lens.
82 Fleet Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801 • 603-531-9998 • jayschadler.com
Jay Schadler: The Man and Artist of Today
I
Uncovering the mystery behind the lens.
It was a rainy Friday on Portsmouth’s Fleet Street, and I sought refuge from the downpour in Jay Schadler’s intimate art studio and gallery. There, I discovered a proprietor who is also an explorer and artist, one heavily influenced by family, memory, fantasy, history and mystery. It is a story worth telling here. Descended from Midwestern stock, Schadler is proud and grateful for his successful 36-year career in both journalism (two Emmy Awards) and mixed media photography. Ultimately, though, what drives Jay is his down-home exuberance for life – qualities that have transformed him into the man and artist he is today. With a “carpe diem” philosophy, Schadler’s knack for seizing opportunities has long been at the heart of his daily routine and is therefore central to his life story. Such an outlook also explains why Jay has spent a large part of his life living his passion -- discovering, developing, and telling stories through various media. When asked, Mr. Schadler credits his grandfather, Pop, with helping spark his enthusiasm for exploration and discovery. Growing up in a bucolic Michigan town on the shores of Lake Michigan, Jay learned to view the world through various lenses. He explains that Pop intentionally worked the graveyard shift at a laundry so that the bulk of his day would be free to spend as he truly wanted – exploring and learning. When asked how his
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By Kate Wen
interest in art arose, Schadler recalls a childhood spent creating art with his grandfather. With this foundation, sketching and painting became part of his own life as it had for his beloved grandfather. So, what has molded Jay Schadler into today’s storyteller and artist are the special memories and influences of Pop (Louis Ueck). His Norman Rockwell-like flashbacks of days spent relishing a piece of the local cherry pie or scaling the mountainous Lake Michigan sand dunes so admired by Ernest Hemmingway and Bruce Cotton can’t be denied. Similar to Pop, Hemingway’s father’s motto was “a good life is an active life.” Perhaps also there has been the excitement of covering fast-breaking news stories in sometimes exotic, always unpredictable situations. Whatever the case, Schadler believes that “intelligence is deeply tied to memory and deep memory is why things become archetypal and classic.” Much of his photography and art reflects this notion, with certain images, colors, subjects or settings evoking personal memories for so many viewers. With Jay’s ability to connect emotions and memory, he has developed a strong following among people drawn to his stories and art. In life and work, Schadler says, “I am always trying to get back to a childlike vision, and the freedom of a child. They aren’t restrained by anything.” Similarly, he believes that, “there is a touch of fantasy in everything.” Jay explains that
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through photography he is trying to “build a story through each piece, but it’s an unfinished one and it’s up to the viewer to complete the story” with whatever he or she brings to the image. With a personal motto of, “every story tells a picture,” Schadler’s news stories have inspired a multitude of his photographs. His intimate yet progressive, multimedia studio houses many of his creations, and from them one sees that Schadler’s work is comprised of what he calls an “unbelievably eclectic selection and a range that is so wild.” With the studio displaying a quiet explosion of color, subject matter, and uses of media, this scene on Fleet Street is emblematic of his varied interests and passions. Jay Schadler’s artistic approach has been described as a modern, mixed-media one, incorporating and utilizing photography, watercolor, pastels, colored pencil and the creative enhancements made possible through Photoshop. He explains, “I want to use these tools and be so adept at using them that they become invisible.” He continues, “there’s a lot that you’ll see in the work that you’ll never know was manipulated. I use tools like Photoshop to make art more compelling and beautiful. As I’ve employed more technology, my imagery has become simpler by using techniques like low-level light, such as at dusk and in fog.”
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He continues, “today is a renaissance for photography. We are walking around with the most sophisticated technology with our lap tops.” With an appreciation for his freedom and time, both as a journalist and an artist, Jay is finding himself more and more at home in his studio. There, as he says, he’s a “one man band… rising and falling on precisely what I do.” And that’s the way he likes it. Considering himself to have always been a rogue as a journalist at ABC-TV, having asked for and received freedom, he is grateful for the flexibility it has afforded him. That said, he seems to be leaning more towards his art these days. As Jay points out, it is important to him that the images he displays are his and he can do with them completely as he wants. In contrast, “TV is massively collaborative, with so many personalities that have to have their say in the product.” With that, Schadler admits that he will probably always need to incorporate both areas into his life, as each fuels a part of who he is. When it comes to art, though, Jay feels that “there is something special when people walk out with a piece of art – it’s going to have time to be in the family.” He says, “I am surprised by how happy I can make people with my art and how happy that makes me. With TV, it is only temporary.”
Part of Jay Schadler’s personal story, is a tale of transplanting himself from Atlanta to historic coastal New England. While covering a beat in 1985 on teenagers who were living in the Boston area, he found himself standing before an ancient church in Quincy. Drawn to the architecture, and having always had an affinity for history, Jay decided to explore the church’s interior. Doing what he does best, he chatted up the janitor. To his surprise, Schadler was soon in the basement with the proud
janitor, standing before a family crypt holding the remains of Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and their wives. The church is known as the United First Parish Church. It was from this epiphany in Quincy, that Jay realized he wanted to be living in an area brimming with history. He asked to be transferred to ABC’s Boston bureau, and relocated in 1986 from Atlanta. With a related yearning to return to life near the water, he slowly moved up the coast, to Dover, New Hampshire
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where he lives with wife, Jorden. Sharing a passion for history, they are building their own high-level, Early American reproduction home, situated amongst the meadows of coastal Dover. When asked what makes a good story and a good story teller, Jay says, “two things: the ability to reach back to a time that viewers can connect with. This is memory. The other element is mystery, which is at the heart of human existence.” His best example of mystery in his television work is his hitchhiking series, “Looking for America” where, as Jay says, “I discovered how every soul I met was carrying a heavy load and yet carrying on.” The best example in his art is a piece titled, “Midnight on the Marsh,” which through the use of color, technique, and subject matter is swirling with mystery. Jay explains, “the mystery in my art is the same element that is inside me. My best pieces are created when I can bring that strangeness and beauty that’s inside, back into the visual world.” With so many of Schadler’s pieces laced with elements of mystery, it is this idea of memory that one could say has personally come full circle for him. Since a child, he dreamt of having his own shop and stoop to sweep. While on a trip to Spain, he photographed a scene that struck him as timeless – a shopkeeper sweeping his stoop. “Sweeperman,” as he titled the photo, now hangs in Schadler’s studio-gallery, an evocative example of his use of mixed media art. As Jay says, he also considers it to be emblematic of himself and his dream. Now living that dream, at least for part of his time, Schadler continues to push himself and his art to the edge of his creative capabilities. He does so while keeping his antenna tuned for life’s next opportunities. Carpe diem in Portsmouth!
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“I am surprised by how happy
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Jay Schadler Studio & Gallery 82 Fleet Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801 603-531-9998 • email: jayschadler@comcast.net jayschadler.com
I can make people with my art and how happy that makes me.”
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jay schadler
studio and gallery
• 10,000 images, designs and dreamscapes • Custom installations for home and office • Archival prints, signed and limited editions 82 Fleet Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801 • 603-531-9998 • jayschadler.com