New Jersey Newsroom.com
Art and Business are Complementary - March 2011

“Umbrella,” the chic shop and gallery she and sister-in-law Linda Sciarra own and run, starts its third year next month. Though her artwork has been widely exhibited and the galleries representing her have ranged from Madison Avenue, Manhattan, to Canyon Road, Santa Fe, the idea of her own gallery began to have appeal a few years ago.

Central Jersey Tempo
One Perfect Day
February 2010

Mother - daughter photography team Jane and Pam Grecsek capture iconic wedding images. One Perfect Day is on view at Umbrella, 2nd floor of the Tomato Factory, 2 Somerset St., Hopewell, through Feb. 21.

Town Topics
May 2009
It’s New to Us

A visit to Umbrella at the Tomato Factory is a visual pleasure. Filled with the colorful and intriguing art of Fay Sciarra and an eclectic selection of antiques and home furnishings from a number of dealers, this “gallery and more” is a haven for collectors, buyers, and browsers.

Located on the second floor of the 100-year-old Tomato Factory, an antiques cooperative at 2 Somerset Street in Hopewell, Umbrella is the perfect setting for her art, says Ms. Sciarra.

Princeton Packet Online
November 2008
'Divine in the Mundane'

"Artist Fay Sciarra uses everyday objects to evoke the holy, and create a smile or two.

THE bleak economic picture has everyone in the dumps, but artist Fay Sciarra is holding her head high. Following Buddhist teachings, she is practicing mindfulness, appreciating 'the gift of life in this moment, just as it is, without judgment.'

Her exhibit at the Gallery at Chapin, appropriately titled In the Now, focuses on the act of creation as meditation. The artist takes us 'on a path toward wholeness. My work is always about the wonder of the moment,' she says. And Ms. Sciarra's playful use of color, pattern and whimsy is just the thing to lift the spirits during these difficult times."

Garden State
Town & Country Living
Spring 2008

"Above all else, Fay Sciarra's artwork is utterly feminine. The lovely grace that shimmers in her art has made Fay a popular and successful artist in the greater Princeton area. Her gentle and nurturing touch is extraordinary.

The philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said 'The eternally feminine draws us upward.' ('Das ewige weibliche zieht uns hinein.') These words aptly describe Fay's highly personal idiom. Her art is stylish, imaginative and easily recognizable. Bright colors, rich textures, lavish patterns, a lack of perspective, intricate detail, subtle wit and an arabesque of line have become her characteristics".

Princeton Magazine
Fall 2007

"... Sciarra's work has evolved from painting on canvas and found objects to reverse painting on glass, mixed media, assemblage and collage. The self-taught artist started painted in her bedrooom in 1994 at a time in her life when she was struggling with personal loss and the demands of an infant. Thus began a healing journey that has produced a substantive body of work that makes people smile. ..."

Princeton Packet
Time Off
November 24, 2005

“...The more mature I become as an artist, the more I am willing to take risks with altered reality,” she says. Not having faces and paring down to the essences “makes it odder and more suggestive, a magical reality. Other people can project the faces of their world onto them....”

Art Business News

"...her imaginative paintings have been gaining attention for their bold colors, intricate patterns, unexpected details and a lack of perspective. A self-taught painter, Sciarra calls her style 'sophisticated naive.'"

Time Off
April 25-May 4, 2003

"...Take the dreams of Frida Kahlo, mix in the patterns of Henri Matisse and add the colors of Milton Avery. Now, make the subject contemporary domestic life, throw in some whimsy for good measure, and paint it on found objects from the early 20th century--you've entered the world of Fay Sciarra..."

Philadelphia Style Magazine
Spring 2003

"...offers a dizzying array of images with a colorful, dreamlike confluence that draws you in immediately to a world that is familiar, yet strange. On the flip side, some paintings are filled with a homey warmth that even the most jaded aesthete would surrender to on sight..."

Princeton Packet
Homes of Prestige
Summer 2002

"...She sometimes paints on found objects--a memorable triptych on three ironing boards is an early example. Lately, her surfaces have expanded to include washboards, mirrors, windows, and even wooden sleds; in the process, some work has become more sculptural--and yet her studio is probably her most three-dimensional work to date..."

The Times
At Home Section
June 28, 2001

"...I'm attracted to the old and the new. I'm drawn to the refined and the rustic and like to paint things like a fine antique next to an old shutter. I wanted that feeling to be incorporated into the studio. When I paint interiors I am decorating on canvas. I wanted it to not only be a studio, but a painting I could walk into..."

The Times, Fine Art
May 25, 2001

"...Spending time with Fay Sciarra's paintings is like going on a treasure hunt. They are rife with symbolism, objects and artifacts from her personal life, figments of her imagination and autobiographic glimpses.

"...when I got a call out of the blue from the 'Today Show,' I became a basket case for a couple of months, Sciarra says..."

"...To be honest about my dreams on national TV was not easy to do. It was a real coming of age and moving past that kind of old limiting belief that if I shine too brightly, people won't like me. It's time to let that go. To accept the gifts gratefully and graciously is my goal..."

Princeton Packet
Lifestyle Section
August 1, 2000

"...Her work is influenced by Matisse, Bonnard and Chagall--she minored in art history--and yet she redefines perspective in the way of self-taught artists..."

"...Before Ms. Sciarra's mother, an artist, died, she spoke magical words to Ms. Sciarra, divining that her daughter would be a good artist, that she would be talented and love it. She wanted her daughter to write and illustrate children's books, and so she bequeathed her brushes and easel to Ms. Sciarra..."

Today Show, profile

"...'Mother's Day has been a bittersweet holiday for me since my mom died eight years ago. But this year feels different,' said Sciarra. 'I miss my mother, of course, but I feel her presence strongly. She sees me creating an incredible reality. She sees me pursuing my calling in a beautiful churchlike studio. And there's no accident that my "Today" show profile is airing on this day of all days'..."