Special to Times
Join Blackstone’s of Beacon Hill for a Spring Artist Event at Blackstone’s featuring local artists Janice Hayes-Cha and PJ Szufnarowski on Wednesday, April 24, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. This event benefits Women’s Lunch Place, a charity empowering women in need. Refreshments will be served. Come celebrate spring, support a great cause, and discover new art! Blackstone’s will be donating 10 percent of all sales from the entire day to Women’s Lunch Place.
“At Blackstone’s we enjoy every opportunity to recognize the local businesses and artists that we proudly support in our store,” said Jennifer Hill, co-owner of Blackstone’s with her husband Jim. “This spring we want to take the time to spotlight a couple of Boston-based female artists – whose work we currently offer at the store – by devoting a special evening specifically to these two women: Janice Hayes-Cha and PJ Szufnarowski.”
The event will be hosted at Blackstone’s of Beacon Hill at 40 Charles St., benefiting these two wonderful women and Women’s Lunch Place. Women’s Lunch Place (WLP) is a charity that Blackstone’s has been involved with for over five years (Jim has volunteered weekly in the kitchen for the past five years preparing breakfast and lunch). WLP is a day-shelter located at 67 Newbury St. and serves women in need Monday through Saturday. The shelter serves freshly prepared breakfast and lunch to women who have experienced severe trauma, loss and abuse. It also provides hygienic, advocacy and medical services to its guests. To give a sense of the breadth of the service Women’s Lunch Place provides to the women of Boston, in the last fiscal year alone, the shelter served 113,420 meals.
Janice lives in Boston with her husband and four children, making mixed-media collages from cards sent to her from both fans of her work and patients. While she began her career with watercolor, she was inspired to transition to mixed-media collage upon receiving hundreds of get-well cards during her two years of cancer treatment. Her artwork has been widely commissioned for hospitals in the Boston area.
P.J., also a Boston resident, works as an artist full-time with watercolor as her medium inspired by the timeless and natural beauty of New England. She also draws inspiration for her scenes from her winter haven in the Florida Keys, Key West in particular, where she has painted vibrant scenes, which beg you to experience them in person or recall a warm vacation memory of your own.