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Freehold Art Gallery will feature ‘Life, Love and Works of Elaine Smith’

The Freehold Art Gallery, 7 W. Main St., Freehold Borough, will present a new exhibit, “The Life, Love and Works of Elaine Smith,” opening with a reception from 4-7 p.m. Sept. 21.

The show will include a colorful display of Smith’s creations in watercolor, pastel, colored pencil, charcoal with pen and ink. According to a press release, the show will celebrate Smith’s life, tremendous energy, amazing spirit and lifelong passion of creating art while inspiring others to do the same.

All proceeds in her memory will go to her nonprofit charity, the Elaine Smith Memorial Art Scholarship Foundation.

Members of the public are invited to celebrate with family and friends at the opening reception from 4-7 p.m. Sept. 21. Receptions are also scheduled for 4-6 p.m. Oct. 13 and 7:30-9:30 p.m. Oct. 25.

Guitarist Amy Schindler from the band ViRAGO will perform, with special guest Chip Hodges on fiddle for an interesting and eclectic musical backdrop to “The Life, Love and Works of Elaine Smith.”

The show will run through Nov. 3.

According to her biography, Smith was born in Freehold Borough in 1937 and resided in the town for most of her life until 1988, when she moved to Freehold Township. She married Ronald Tashjian in 1957 and together they raised four children, Ronnie, Mary, Chris and Tommy. Smith died in 2016.

Her biography states that Smith was blessed by being born with the natural ability to draw and always had a passion for creating art. She believed the creative world was everyone’s heritage and was well known for her Come Draw With Elaine art class. Her students called her “Miss Elaine.”

Smith spent most of her career dedicated to teaching her students in the community at  Around the Corner Art Center in Freehold.

She believed she had received so much from teaching her students that she wanted to find some way to give back to them and their families. She created and sponsored Miss Elaine’s Annual Student Art Exhibit and Juried Art Show every January, with the support of the Freehold Public Library.

Children, teens and adults would submit their artwork to be hung on display for four weeks at the library. Their artwork was divided into categories by age and medium to be viewed by a panel of outside judges. The exhibit concluded with an awards ceremony and reception in honor of all of Smith’s students.

Smith served the community by volunteering to judge the annual Halloween window painting event in the downtown business district.

In 2002 she donated art lessons and paintings to the Monmouth-Ocean Foundation For Educational Enhancement, whose mission is to supplement the educational
needs of local children.

In 2006 Merrill Tilker, owner of Around the Corner Art Center, donated his studio for Smith to donate her time to teach art classes to 15 children who had special needs. The children got to see their artwork auctioned off at a fundraiser for the Special Strides program to benefit children with disabilities and emotional needs.

Her teaching experience included Around the Corner Art Center, Brookdale Community College, the Monmouth County Park System and Freehold Township Adult Education.

Smith was employed by the Freehold Borough K-8 School District Board of Education as a secretary/bookkeeper to the business administrator.

The biography quotes Smith saying, “I love to create. I love life … heal the world and everything in it. I’ll always believe in magic, miracles and fairy tales.”

The Freehold Art Gallery, 7 W. Main St. (second floor), Freehold Borough, has four show spaces in the former J.J. Newbury Co. department store. The gallery rooms blend the traditional 19th century salon styles inherent to the space with the needs of a contemporary art gallery, according to its website.

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Benjamin Das, far right, a 1999 graduate of Wardlaw-Hartridge School and an Edison native, was recently named a Distinguished Teacher by the Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago.
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