Thursday, October 12, 2017

Curator's Notes: Spotlight on Toni Quest

Toni Quest, U.S. in Us, 1994


Toni Quest (aka "Screaming Woman") is a Renaissance Woman: artist, entrepreneur,  undergraduate professor, life coach, jewelry designer, host of Energy Stoners  Jewelry Design Salons, talk-show host for Talk with TQ (available on YouTube), podcast personality on the internet radio show Seeing Beneath the Surface with Peter Elvidge and Toni Quest, curator, and author.  Best known among her publications are her autobiography Actualized, a Life in Progress and poetry in View of the Middle of the Road, Volume II (PRA Publishing).  She also contributed a photo of her painting U.S. in Us to the book's cover.  And Toni has posted numerous articles on LinkedIn. For Bosom Bodies, Toni painted her self-portrait entitled Giving It All.


Toni Quest, Giving It All, 2017
oil on canvas

Toni explains: "Giving it All is an awkward depiction of a woman who has not experienced a pregnancy. In spite of this, she does feel genuine maternal instincts. So she offers whatever sustenance she can manage to squeeze from her virtually empty breasts. Albeit cumbersome at times,  she generously offers her love  however she can."  And indeed Toni gives her love, her time and her wise counsel generously and unconditionally.  She is Peekskill's "hostess with the mostest" (a sobriquet created for DC socialite Perle Mesta). Moreover, Toni's energy knows no bounds.



Toni Quest with her work U.S. in Us during the exhibition Art Above the Sofa,  NYC
April 28, 2017

Toni teaches "Self-Actualizing Portraiture"© based on her own experience after a debilitating accident in 1994.  "[I] later formally wrote the instructional design for this course while in graduate school in 2008. [The] instructional design focuses on the needs of combat veterans who suffer from the symptoms of PTSD. "  Toni Quest has also taught psychology, sociology, geriatrics, writing and American history at the College of New Rochelle and is a certified Law of Attraction Life Coach, who specializes in artists' careers.

Toni Quest, Self-Portrait, 
on the cover of  Actualized, A Life in Progress (2016)



This Saturday, October 14th, Toni opens the exhibition she curated: Dia de los Muertos, featuring  Sue Zoon, Studio 4, 925 South Street, Peekskill,, October 14-November 17.  Opening hours: 6 - 9 PM.  




Also the next meeting of Energy Stoners  Jewelry Design Salon will be held at Studio 4 on October 20th.  Contact Toni for details and to make a reservation: toniquesttv@gmail.com.


I have had the pleasure of being interviewed by Toni on Talk with TQ and Beneath the Surface with Peter Elvidge and Toni Quest.  Hopefully, they will invite me back for more - great fun, great conversation!

* * *
Bosom Bodies remains open through Sunday, October 29th.  Gallery Hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 12 noon - 5 pm.  SIA Gallery, 1 South Division Street, Peekskill, NY 10566.  For more information, please contact the curator, Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, director of the New York Arts Exchange, LLC at nyarts.exchange@verizon.net.

Bosom Bodies is a 
Project


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