‘A Flight of Empowerment’ highlights work by Jewish women artists

Before “A Flight of Empowerment” opened at Songbird Artistry, artist Yafa Negrete saw a woman crying in front of one of her six drawings on view. The woman was Jacklyn Orefice, daughter of Songbird’s owner, Debbie Jacknin. Negrete was shocked and moved by the moment and approached her.

Artist Yafa Negrete at work in her studio (Photo courtesy of Yafa Negrete)

“She told me she was crying because she read my biography and what I had gone through to get here,” Negrete, who comes from a Syrian Jewish family in Mexico, said. Negrete wrote in her biography about her struggles with postpartum depression, generational trauma, and how difficult it was for her to leave her life and career in Mexico to come to Pittsburgh for her husband’s PhD program at Carnegie Mellon University. “Jacklyn asked me to look at my drawings and internalize that this moment was real, to realize how far I had come,” Negrete said. “I hugged her and thanked her because those are the unique moments that art is nourished by when two souls connect and find peace and know they are not alone.”

“Flight of Empowerment” is a group exhibition celebrating women artists of all faiths and backgrounds. But as Jacknin is Jewish, she specifically wanted to spotlight Negrete, as well as the Jewish themes in her own work. Jacknin is a mosaic and glass artist, and many of her pieces draw from Kabbalistic images and memories of time she spent in Israel with her late husband.

“Larry, my husband, and I used to make the mosaics together,” she said. “During the last three years of his life, he stopped working and we traveled to Israel together.”

Jacknin especially remembers time she spent in Tzfat and the kindness and hospitality of strangers, even when her husband was having difficulty swallowing and walking. She was inspired to make mosaics of the tree of life, with two branches on either side and a single drop of red in the middle to represent human desire.

“We all have selfishness and imperfection in us,” Jacknin said.

“A Flight of Empowerment” shows one of Jacknin’s newer stained-glass pieces, “Eye Persist,” which features a hamsa and that same tree of life image around it. A mirror in the pupil at the hamsa’s center reflects back at the viewer. That and “She Persists,” which shows women underneath a blank space representing the glass ceiling, were two of the first works Jacknin made on her own after her husband’s death.

Negrete and Jacknin met when Jacknin was teaching an art class at a Chabad house.

“I could tell Yafa was talented,” Jacknin said. “She wouldn’t just slap something on it. Her artistic ability meant she had to make something good.”

When Jacknin approached Negrete about showcasing her art in “Flight of Empowerment,” Negrete submitted six works about women who inspire her: a self-portrait; Renee French, a healthcare worker who died during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic; Tamara Steiman, a Brazilian music therapist; Monica Unkel, a documentarian of Mexican Jewish life; her ancestors from Mexico and Syria; and her young daughter, Liora.

Self-portrait by Yafa Negrete (Image courtesy of Yafa Negrete)

Negrete’s self-portrait comes from a photo taken by one of her best friends.

“He captured the sensuality that lives inside me,” she said. “It was an exciting but also intimidating experience, but I liked the result. Even though my skin and my body have changed since then, I always try to feel as pretty as I felt in that session.”

The color portrait of Liora is the most striking piece in the show. Negrete gives her a sweet, knowing expression, her dark eyes are gentle and curious. There’s even a softness to the movement in the brushstrokes in her hair.

Negrete writes that Liora is non-verbal and on the autism spectrum, and the depth of emotion conveyed in the portrait is especially meaningful with this in mind. Her face conveys so much.

“Liora has shown me that everything in life is possible,” Negrete said. “Since my family was just trying to survive through generations, mental health was secondary. Now, I am working hard with my psychologist for my kids to have a happier life.”

Before painting the watercolor of Liora for “A Flight of Empowerment,” Negrete didn’t paint in color.

“My father was an architect and was very critical of me. He would always say things weren’t right,” she said. The soft, gestural marks in Liora’s hair were a result of Negrete painting with her eyes closed and working by feel.

“Working with watercolor at workshops with Debbie took me out of my comfort zone,” she said.
Negrete was so excited by working with color that she made a set of Rosh Hashanah cards in color, available for purchase at Songbird Artistry, with a portion of the proceeds going to Chabad of Squirrel Hill.

Jacknin hopes that “A Flight of Empowerment” which also features Ally Bartoszewicz, Elizabeth Myers Castonguay, Jen Gallagher, Kayla Kaminski, Kat Kirsch, Lacey Russell, Maria DeSimone Prascak, Stacey Pydyknowski, and Tori Solomon, will make people think about how far women have come and how far they still have to go.

“Just in the recent past, women couldn’t even vote, own property, or open their own credit cards,” she said.

Songbird Artistry is a woman-owned, mothers-and-daughters business, and Jacknin loves hosting craft workshops and classes that bring women together, just as she and Negrete met at an art class.

Negrete said she hopes “that people take away from this exhibition moments as beautiful as the one I experienced at the opening with Debbie’s daughter. I will always keep her words, her tears, and her hug in my heart.”

“Flight of Empowerment” runs through the end of the calendar year at 316 Penn Ave. PJC

Emma Riva is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.