Janet Shafner

Janet Shafner New London — Janet Shafner, an artist and teacher in southeastern Connecticut, died of lung cancer on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011. She was born in New York City on Aug. 30, 1931, the daughter of Herman Schreier and Sonia (Glantz) Schreier. She attended New York public schools and was valedictorian of her class at the High School of Music and Art. She received a bachelor of arts degree in art history from Barnard College and a master of arts degree in studio art from Connecticut College. She began painting as a child at the Art Students League in New York City. As a teenager she was the youngest student admitted to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine. She developed her craft over many years and was a master painter and teacher. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, she honed her unique vision in still life, figures, and landscape painting. In the 1980s she discovered fascinating connections between biblical and contemporary occurrances, and began a long series of large, multipanel paintings to visually express those connections. In 2003, 36 of these paintings were shown at the Lyman Allen Art Museum in New London, and a book showing all of them was published. For 30 years she taught adult painting at the Lyman Allen Art Museum, and many of her students have become prominent painters. While working at the museum, she designed and developed a ten part series of programs for developing artists and curated three major shows. She had a brilliant mind, was a seeker of truth, and had little patience for pretense. She was not an idealogue. She saw what was of value in different movements and straddled the worlds of art, religion, family, and women's rights. She came from a non-religious background. After marriage, she settled in New London in 1955. As her family was growing, she became aware of her Jewish heritage, and her inquiring mind began looking at the moral issues presented in the Bible. She thought about Creation, about Adam and Eve and their two sons, but where were the daughters? After much biblical research, she did a number of paintings to make the women known. She did not wear feminism on her sleeve, but insisted that women's rights and dignity should not be denied. From her, our local Jewish community learned that the secular and religious worlds can, and ought to be, harmonized. Though she was a multi-tasking working mother, she made time for all of her family. Her children and grandchildren came to her for advice, which was always sage. Besides providing for their religious education, she made them aware of the larger moral issues they faced. Despite the challenges of raising children in the 1950s when there were few instruction books on the subject, her gut feeling of what was right, guided her children to become good, caring, and accomplished people. Breaking into the New York art scene was difficult for Janet, especially because her work is figurative and not abstract or merely conceptual. Even so, over the years she was featured in many solo and group art shows. Many of her paintings are in the permanent collections of museums, and many were purchased by individuals and corporations. Just before her death, to her great pleasure, a show of ten of her biblically-themed paintings and five recent drawings was curated and will be shown in New York at the HUC Museum in September. She was a member of the Jewish Art Salon, an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, a member of Congregation Ahavath Chesed Synagogue in New London and the Boca Raton Synagogue in Boca Raton, Fla., a member of Hadassah, the Lyman Allen Art Museum of New London, the Slater Museum in Norwich, and the Mystic Art Association. She is survived by Sholom Shafner, her husband of 59 years; four sons, Samuel M. Shafner and his wife, Rosalyn, of Sharon, Mass., David N. Shafner and his wife, Ellen, of Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel, Jonathan L. Shafner and his wife, Dana, of North Bethesda, Md., Rabbi Hyim G. Shafner and his wife, Sara, of St. Louis, Mo.; her sister, Esther Chachkes and her husband, Israel, of Teaneck, N.J.; six grandsons, six granddaughters, and six great-granddaughters. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011, at Congregation Ahavath Chesed Synagogue, 590 Montauk Ave., New London. Burial will follow in the Ahavath Chesed Cemetery, Boston Post Road, Waterford. The Memorial Week (shiva) will be at her late home, 40 Glenwood Place, New London. Visits to the mourners may be made Thursday afternoon and evening, Friday afternoon, Sunday afternoon and evening, and Monday afternoon only. Suggestions for donations in her memory are Congregation Ahavath Chesed in New London or a charity of the donor's choice. The Thomas L. Neilan & Sons Funeral Home is assisting the family. Please visit www.neilanfuneralhome.com for directions or to sign the family's online guest book.