Memphis, Tennessee. She re-
members creating art in gram-
mar school and she recalls how,
at age 9, she was inspired to
make a painting of a local gas
station in Orange, NJ, where the
family moved at that time. It was
“a very nice, but lower middle
class neighborhood,” an envi-
ronment that nurtured her ar-
tistic vision. She started formal
arts education in the late 1970’s
to devote to her art. And now
that she is selling her work she
is even more motivated to pro-
duce. She says with age comes
a realization that life is finite and
she has a desire to make her
mark before she goes. She has
a sense of “purpose and inten-
tion,” a motivation to “get the
work done.”
Yezza and Jones are part of a
broad community. “You don’t
She says with age comes a realization that life is finite
and she has a desire to make her mark before she goes.
studying at the Arts High School,
a well respected public school
of the arts in Newark, NJ. Over
the years she has taken many
classes at the Montclair Arts Mu-
seum and the Visual Arts Center
in Summit.
Jones says since retiring from
her high school teaching po-
sition she has had more time
NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 9
have to dig down deep,” Lazen
interjects. “In every family there
is a senior citizen who has an
artistic vision. In many families
there is a person who has a chal-
lenge whether it is a develop-
mental disability, a mental health
challenge, a physical disability,
or a chronic illness.”
Lazen points to the prosperity
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