Expressing herself through painting after illness

When Jaqueline Emanuel was young she loved to write. She had entered poems in several competitions, and had even begun a novel by age eight. When she turned 11, she contracted a rare autoimmune disease that caused her brain to swell and attack the language center of her brain.

Both speaking and writing became incredibly difficult for Jaqueline, and soon she was unable to express herself as she had previously done so eloquently. Now, 27, the Hewlett resident has adapted to the challenges that she has been forced to face, and through painting she’s found a new medium to express herself.

“Writing was how she made sense of the world, then she lost it,” said her mother, Janice Emanuel, a former special education teacher.

They had tried different painting groups before, but they all focused on instruction and were less expressive. That was until they found Mermaid Art Studio in Long Beach in 2015.

Janice helped organize a night for special-needs adults to come in for their own class. That’s where she met Kelly Occhiuzzo, on Monday nights at Mermaid Art Studio. The two of them would work together until the studio closed later that year. However, it wouldn’t be the end of their relationship.

About a year and a half ago, Janice contacted Occhiuzzo and she began coming to their home for lessons in their new private studio. All the paintings on display at the library were created in this time.

“They’re amazing together, its some unspoken thing that’s just kind of magic,” Janice said, about the way Occhiuzzo and her daughter work together. Occhiuzzo said, “[When we first started] I tried to teach her… now I let her express herself through the paint and color, I’m just there to keep prodding her and encouraging her.”

With the paintings collecting in the Emanuel’s home studio, Janice and Occhiuzzo decided it was time to go public. After some convincing, Jaqueline agreed to put together an exhibit with help from the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library.
“[Jaqueline] has much more confidence in herself after this,” Janice said. “She’s been better at communicating in all ways. People need an identity and this helps her feel like she has a place.”

Her mother has taken Jaqueline to museums throughout her entire life, and used them to help inspire her to share her artwork. “There’s no reason why your work can’t hang somewhere important, it doesn’t have to, but it can,” Janice has said to her daughter.

Occhiuzzo says these trips definitely have an affect on Jaqueline’s art, “She never approaches the work in the same way, but I see her picking up influences from the exhibits she visits,” Occhiuzzo said.

Emanuel said, “It’s so important that people who are challenged are given every opportunity… and finding people like Kelly is such a wonderful thing because she was so open to working with someone who was just a little bit different.”

Jaqueline was quite nervous to share her art at the beginning, but now said, “I’m proud when other people can see my paintings because it makes them feel happy.”

The exhibit is called “Creative Awakenings: Artistic Explorations by Jaqueline Emanuel,” in the Boehm Meeting Room of the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library through July 15.