'dear jeff ...' has a permanent home in NYC ....

 Upon doing some research on this blog I have realized that I have fallen hopelessly behind on sharing the ebbs and flows of my creative journey ... but in lieu of explanations and apologies, I just diving in.

'dear jeff ...' had found a permanent home at the
National September 11 Memorial & Museum 9/11 MEMORIAL.

It has not been on exhibit as of yet, as the museum has so many pieces to share and exhibit.  When I delivered it to one of the warehouses in NJ, I was aghast at the shelves and shelves of items that are connected with the events of 9/11.  

At this point in time, nothing is on exhibit as the museum is temporarily closed because of the COVID virus.  But when it does reopen, the museum's administration will inform me when the piece is on view in their galleries.  And when it is I plan to have some kind of celebration gathering in that wonderful city - NEW YORK, NEW YORK (SO GOOD THEY NAMED IT TWICE).

Until then you can see the piece online as well as the many other art pieces regarding 9/11.  Also below I have added some of the notes and comments from the page.

Historical Notes
Hartford, Connecticut, native Amy Toyen lived in Newton, Massachusetts. She and her fiancé, Jeffrey, planned to marry in June 2002. Amy liked writing, drawing, and going to the theater. A marketing employee at Thomson Financial in Boston, on September 11, Amy was presenting at a technology conference on the North Tower’s 106th floor. She was 24 years old.

Curator's Comment
Amy Toyen (age 24) was engaged to be married in June 2002 to her college sweetheart, Jeff Gonski (age 26). The couple was busy planning their wedding in 2001 when Toyen’s life was cut short by her untimely death on 9/11. She had just ordered her wedding dress.

Around the time of the 10th anniversary of the attack, Gonski embarked on an artistic endeavor in honor of Toyen in what he referred to informally at the time as “The Dress Project.” Using a photograph of Toyen's wedding dress for inspiration, Gonski commissioned Virginia Fitzgerald, a Natick, Massachusetts-based artist, to design a replica of Toyen’s dress made from the newspaper clips, cards from well-wishers after 9/11, Toyen’s own letters and cards to Gonski, and other ephemera, such as announcements of Gonski and Toyen’s engagement and would-be nuptials and Missing posters. “It’s not just about Amy and myself,” Gonski told reporters, “but the support that came out of the community after it.” 

Fitzgerald titled the finished sculpture Dear Jeff . . .  . Created on a smaller-than-life-size scale, the delicate wedding dress is composed of largely handwritten notes and ephemera designed to tell a story of a courtship violently interrupted. According to Fitzgerald, “It was this outpouring of love and sympathy that Jeff really wanted to highlight with the sculpture. When we met and spoke about the commission it was clear that this wasn’t to be a memorial to Amy, but a testimony to the power of community and how Jeff would not have made it through this horrible life event without the love and support from friends, family and the community. He spoke about how not only did he survive but he wanted to celebrate the idea that even after such a hard loss, life goes on. To represent Jeff’s thoughts and emotions about survival and recovery I created branches with leave[s] and seedpods coming off the bottom of the sculpture and growing back into the piece. I wanted to capture the feeling of the phoenix, rebirth from the ashes.”


 https://collection.911memorial.org/Detail/objects/118706