Alumna in Action, November 2009: Janet Schreier Shafner ’53

The Life in Your Years: Janet Schreier Shafner ’53


Janet Schreier Shafner often gazes into a mirror these days, examining the lines of her face. Some 78-year-olds might find the exercise depressing. Not Shafner.

“Oh, no, no, no!” says the Class of 1953 alumna who studied art history at Barnard, and has been working on a series of original drawings in the last six years which explore the process of aging. “I thought it was really graphically interesting. The wrinkles have gotten a little more insistent,” she laughs. “You have to be lucky to be old. It’s quite a privilege.”

Shafner, who has painted in oils for much of her career as an artist, and has focused on biblical themes for the last two decades, turned to the medium of charcoal after she and her husband bought a winter home in Boca Raton, Florida. Unlike her long-time home in Connecticut, the Florida apartment didn’t have room for a big studio. Her husband played golf; she wanted a project to occupy her time.

The black and white drawings, some of which show Shafner in various stages of undress, suggest power and poignancy and also a bit of the exhaustion of old age. In one, Shafner sits as if posing for a centerfold, outfitted only in underwear, her hair shooting out in all directions as if electrified. Another, humorously labeled, “Adam and Eve in Boca,” shows two naked forms from the rear, their heads bent under the strain of aging, bowed toward each other in intimacy. The series will be on display from October until December at Congregation Beth Shalom in Chester, Connecticutt.

In exhibiting the works, Shafner hopes to spark a new direction in discussion of one’s senior years. “We don’t talk very much about what is wonderful and exciting in old age,” she says. “Not that old age is dignified. It’s not. We’re watching the disintegration of the physical self. But there’s something to be said about the endurance of the spirit.”

Shafner calls the series I Hope I Never Get Old, inspired by an encounter with a young clerk a few years ago. She had brought an engagement photo of herself and her husband to a local printer to create an invitation for their 50th anniversary party. The photo, shot near the Columbia campus, was taken when she and her husband were about 20, “young and beautiful.”

“Lady, is this you?” the young clerk at the print shop asked in amazement. “God, I hope I never get old!”

“In that case,” Shafner informed him, “You’ll die young.”

—Elicia Brown ’90