Matheny's Event Full Circle Reemerges

James Lane is an artist with a disability who has participated in the Matheny Medical and Educational Center’s Arts Access Program since its inception in 1993. Jasmine Oliver lives with her mother in New Brunswick, NJ, and is one of the newest participants in the Arts Access Program.

Both will have visual artwork on display at Full Circle Reemergence, a celebration of Arts Access being held from 3-6 p.m., Saturday, November 4, in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center on the Matheny campus in Peapack. Oliver is also a choreographer, and her dance piece, set to Migos’ “Bad and Boujee” and named “Unique” will be part of the Full Circle stage presentation. This will be the first live Full Circle program since the pandemic.

The Arts Access Program is designed to inspire, uplift, and encourage the aspirations of artists with disabilities. It encompasses painting, digital art, sculpture, choreography, creative movement, creative writing, and drama. Arts Access artists are able to freely express themselves regardless of physical limitations. Working one-on-one with professional facilitators, the artists create a unique vision that is truly their own. Arts Access facilitators use carefully designed and clearly-defined charts and menu systems to help establish all aspects of communication between the facilitator and the artist, enabling the artists to create pieces of work that are distinctly their own.

Lane, who lives at Matheny’s community residence in Frelinghuysen, NJ, is a very detailed painter and has developed a unique visual language full of interesting patterns and intense colors. The joy Lane experiences when he paints is clearly evidenced by the enthusiastic smile he often expresses throughout the creative process. “My art is creative and original,” he says, adding that, “painting makes me relaxed and happy.” His facilitator, Joe Matousek, points out that Lane “likes to take his time when creating his artwork. He’s very knowledgeable of all the techniques that are possible and tries to utilize all the materials available.”

Oliver, Matousek says, “has a freestyle attitude when it comes to painting. She loves hearts and cartoons and enjoys incorporating them into her artwork every chance she gets. She has used paint and crayons in her paintings and likes to experiment with splatter.”

The Full Circle visual art exhibit will feature 65 paintings and digital art pieces created by 34 different artists. Lane will have two paintings on display: “E.J.” an acrylic on canvas and “L.I.”, an acrylic with colored pencil. Oliver will also have two entries in the exhibit: “My Jasmine Connection”, an acrylic on canvas, and “Jasmine Monique”, acrylic and pencil.

Oliver’s dance is set to hip hop music for a large cast of dancers split into four groups: pink, yellow, green, and blue, chosen by her to coordinate with the colors of her street style costumes. Each group dances separately, one after the other, and Oliver will be part of the pink group. “The performance,” explains dance facilitator Alyssa Thostesen, “will be exciting and fun.” The recording of ‘Bad and Boujee’ features Lil Uzi Vert.

“Jasmine,” Thostesen continues, “is a vibrant and fun choreographer who often draws inspiration from social dances and music videos. In creating her work, she uses general movement categories to spark ideas and will either describe or demonstrate the movement before defining the details. She is always determined to make movements that she, her dancers, and the audience will enjoy.”

In addition to “Unique”, the Full Circle stage presentation will include three other dance pieces: a dance choreographed by Josh Handler to the Osmonds’ “Crazy Horses”; Isabell Villacis’s dance creation set to the music of Bruno Mars’ “Grenade”; and a dance choreographed by Karen Yates to the music of Mariah Carey and Silk. There will also be four short plays, and three original poems.

The Robert Schonhorn Arts Center is located at 65 Highland Avenue. For more information or to order tickets to Full Circle, visit https://artsaccessprogram.org/news-events/full-circle-2023/ or call (908) 234-0011.