Press Articles About The Artist Mary Ahern

Life, Values & Legacy – A Chat With Mary Ahern by Bold Journey Magazine

Jan 10, 2026

This is a reprint of an article initially published by Bold Journey Magazine on December 29, 2025.

You can read the article in its entirety here or on my Art-Blog.

Mary Ahern shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Mary, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What is a normal day like for you right now?

Most days, I wake up without an alarm, and before I get out of bed, I enjoy a 30-minute stretching and meditation routine. Then I shower, have coffee & read the news on my laptop. Each day that the weather permits, I spend time in my garden either working, photographing, or just seeing and enjoying. By mid-afternoon, I head to my studio for hours of painting or drawing.

**Standing in my drawing studio, which overlooks my front garden.**

The slow start to my day begins the process of staying fit, both mentally and physically, in order to continue my decades-long practice of creativity. Connecting with my garden is critical, as it is where my artwork’s inspiration comes from. My two studios are custom-built in my home, allowing me total immersion in all aspects of the life I live and work in. They are seamless.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?

I am an artist with a fifty-year career in many forms and mediums of creativity. I began as an oil painter in the 1970s. During the 1980s and 90s, I moved into digital work as a career, first selling computer graphics equipment and later establishing my own graphic design business. No matter where I lived, I always carved out a studio for myself.

In the early 2000s, using a professional-leveI scanner, I captured live flowers from my garden, then composited the images in Photoshop. From these images I created what I called Designer Prints which I sold online and in art festivals in six different states. I created digital paintings of garden landscapes using Corel Painter. I programmed custom digital brushes to mimic the oil painting brushes I use to create my oil paintings on canvas for this artwork.

Over the past decade, I’ve returned exclusively to oil painting. What hasn’t changed is the inspiration I draw from my extensive garden, which I’ve designed and tended for over 35 years

**Work in Progress – “Cosmic Iris Squared”**

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?

I was raised in Brooklyn, NY, in a very strict old European environment with no vision beyond being a wife and a mommy. Though I graduated from high school with academic honors, my family offered no further education, believing that educating women was a waste of money. Throughout Junior and Senior High School, I was in the orchestra and band music programs. At graduation, I conducted Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, having been awarded the music department honors. That was the final act of my musical career. With no further educational or career opportunities in my future, I married and had two sons.

In my later 20s, I began to draw. Never having had art classes in school because of my involvement with music, this was a completely new experience for me. From the moment I picked up a piece of charcoal and put it to paper, I felt like it was an extension of my own body. I began taking oil painting classes on Wednesday evenings at the local YMCA. A college professor friend of mine suggested I apply to college to study art. At the time, I didn’t even know a person could go to college as an older student. I applied. Was accepted. And my life changed dramatically.

**Sitting in my office, surrounded by 3 views of the garden where I work and write.**

Do you remember a time someone truly listened to you?

I have been fortunate in this respect. I have had the benefit of several mentors and role models throughout my life’s journey. My friend Roberta, who told me I could and should go to college. Mary Ann, who showed me women could be executives, wealthy, and own sports cars. Martha, my mentor and boss, who steered me into a career in computers in the early 1980s, when this field was just dawning. This beginning opened a pathway into high-end technology sales, a field not populated by women and therefore better paid.

***Work in Progress – “My New World – Anemone Redux”***

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?

People who don’t really know me get me all wrong. My public persona has been sculpted by the challenging life and career I’ve experienced. Having worked as a single mother, in an almost totally male industry for quite a while, I’ve developed some of that style of speaking and traits such as assertiveness, competitiveness and confidence. Add to that the fact that I’m of Dutch heritage, which means I’m direct, opinionated, and rather straightforward. Many people, particularly women, misunderstand this about me.

My friends know me as a sensitive and empathetic human being. Generous and helpful with my time and energy when I believe I can make a difference. I’m serious and don’t engage in small talk, pop culture, or time fillers. I am easily bored. I have always, and continue to, take classes and workshops to expand my knowledge of a variety of subjects, including art, art history, horticulture, marketing, and writing.

I also have a balance between left- and right-brain thinking, which helps me in both creativity and logic. Though unusual in most artists, I enjoy this aptitude immensely.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Since I’m already 78, this is more of a question of what I have already stopped doing. When I turned 70, I closed my commercial graphic design business, although I still have a few legacy clients. Earlier this year, I resigned from a PR Chair position at a non-profit I had been dedicating about 30 hours a week to for the past 5 years. Working in a non-profit easily becomes a full-time job before you realize it because it is usually in an area in which you have passion.

I have replaced these efforts with a concentration on my own creativity. As an artist, I now have two solo exhibitions scheduled for next year and one for the year I turn 80. Creating that much artwork requires a full dedication to working in my studio every day. I am finding it liberating to focus entirely on my own work. I’m glad I made this choice! I’m glad I made this choice!

Image Credits
Images by Mary Ahern

Click here to read the reprinted article on Substack

Long Island Real Estate Article in Newsday Featured My Home & Studio

Long Island homeowners who enhanced features of aging homes rather than erase them

Article extracted from the article written initially By Arlene Gross
Special to Newsday. November 11, 2025

Antique or vintage homes are distinctive for their timeless craftsmanship, but they don’t always fit 2025 living.

They can mean living under imposing ceilings surrounded by intricate moldings but within cramped, closed-off rooms. Classic casement windows might let in less light. Staircases with carved wooden banisters often lead to dank, dreary cellars. And it could cost more than the homeowner paid for the house to bring it into the 21st century.

And experts say renovating an older home can be less expensive than building something completely new. But it depends on the project. It’s a special kind of person who would want to make the commitment and investment in a historic home that requires extensive updating to bring it up to today’s living standards… “It’s for the love of the style that somebody would want to do that type of renovation to keep the charm and the craftsmanship of the home…”

The goal of repurposing homes is “to preserve and accentuate and expand on the original qualities of the structure,” Falino said.

“If it has good qualities, you want to bring those out. It’s really nice to bring in more light and open the spaces up, but also maintain the feel of the original,” Falino said. “It has a lot to do with studying the scale of what the original structure is and, as you add to it, trying to add in kind.”

Seamless transition from interior to exterior

Ahern redesigned her home to have better views of her garden, which inspires her art. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin

Eleven years after moving into her Northport home in 1989, Mary Ahern transformed her prewar, one-story Cape-style farmhouse into a light-filled home and artist’s studio.

“I’m only the fifth owner of the house,” said Ahern, 77, an artist whose large floral portraits and landscapes are inspired by her own garden.

Working with architect Falino, they transformed the lower level from an unfinished basement into an office for Ahern’s husband, Dave Ruedeman, who teaches information technology remotely. The whole renovation took six months, during which they lived in a trailer on the premises.

The second floor, which was added, has a primary suite and two artist studios. The main floor, previously divided into a kitchen, living room, dining room, two bedrooms and a bathroom, is now completely open. According to Falino, the cost was approximately $400,000.

“It only has one wall now,” Ahern said.

Ahern redesigned her home to have better views of her garden, which inspires her art. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin

This post is an abstract from the full article written by Arlene Gross for Newsday.

You can view Arlene’s website here: arlenegross.com/

With a subscription you can read the entire article published by Newsday here.

To see more of the work by the architect Frank Falino visit his website here.

Photo Credits: Elizabeth Sagarin

Northport Neighbors Magazine Feature Article

“In Full Bloom” By Debbie Mercer.

Mary Ahern and Dave Ruedeman Find Inspiration in Life – and Each Other. May 2024

Mary and Dave in their garden. Len Marks Photography

Circles figure prominently in the lives of Mary Ahern and David Ruedeman. In her woodland garden and in her paintings, circles represent women. In a romantic example of life coming full circle, the two worked together, lost touch, and found each other again. Their first official date was on wheels – a memorable bike ride in which Mary got a flat and Dave came to her rescue.

But if you ask Mary, she’ll likely tell you it was all more of what she calls a zigzag. You see, these two are masters of the pivot. Throughout the years they’ve continuously reinvented themselves, whether out of a financial need at the time or simply an innate, overwhelming desire to learn new things and break new ground.

Forging a Path

Mary started out on a pretty straightforward course. She was raised in a traditional European upbringing in which her parents didn’t believe girls should get a college education. Mary finished high school, married at 20, and raised two small boys. “I didn’t know any women who were educated,” she recalls. That all changed when she met Roberta Koepfer at the YMCA, a professor at Queens College who inspired her to take some classes. On Wednesday nights, Mary began taking oil painting. She had no background in art but after the fifth class, her teacher told her, “Mary, I can’t teach you anymore. You need more instruction.”

Mary At Home In Her Studio. Photo: Len Marks Photography

Mary put herself through college, earning an art degree from Queens College in 1980. However, divorce followed, and Mary found herself on her own with two small boys to feed. “I had no training, no skills to earn a living,” she says. A quick zigzag led her to work at Columbia University, where she studied computer programming for free, only to take a job where the money was – the burgeoning field of computer sales. She understood the potential, and ended up being part of the team who opened the first computer center in Radio Shack in Valley Stream in the early 80s. More work zigzags later, she ended up at Chyron selling computer graphics to the television and production industry. “You really needed to teach people what these things were capable of,” she says. “I was one of the only women in the industry. My fine art had to take a back seat. But I was doing my art through the equipment I was selling.”

Rediscovering Each Other

Dave on their bike cruise on the Rhine River

The “go-to” guy at Chyron was Dave Ruedeman, who had a degree as an electrical engineer. “That’s where I stumbled on my life’s work,” he says. “I found out I was put on this earth to be a problem solver. I had to finish an abandoned computer design, which was crucial to the survival of Chyron. Delving in new technology and gaining an intimate understanding of how computers work was, for me, life changing.” As the head of engineering, Dave’s team were the ones who were creating the equipment that Mary was selling.

Fast forward about eight years. By then Mary had, as she says, “gotten a concussion on the glass ceiling” and started her own company. “I spoke tech, so all of my clients were smaller engineering firms. I was like an outsource marketing dept. I would get a photographer and shoot the products and then put the logos on digitally. I was consulting and creating brochures.” She took on the internet and taught herself how to design websites. On business trips she would take along her art supplies to relax – and once again reignited her passion. “My art started to seep back into me. And I knew I had to pay attention to it,” she recalls.

As fate would have it, one of her freelance gigs at the time involved writing an operation manual for her old company Chyron. She ran into Dave while there one day and the two caught up. He suggested a bike ride out to Eaton’s Neck, and Mary agreed. It was only when they pedaled out there that Mary discovered Dave too was divorced, and that this was, in fact, a date. Once back at her house, Dave saw her art hanging on the walls and was totally knocked for a loop. “I had no idea what she was about,” he says. “It actually blew me away.”

They tied the knot in 1997. By then Mary’s garden, which she’d begun in 1989, was itself a work of art – so much so that Dave encouraged her to design gardens for others. That led Mary to Farmingdale College where she graduated with a degree in horticulture in 2000 – 20 years after earning her art degree. A turn at the New York Botanical Gardens soon followed, where Mary earned a 2-year certificate in botanical illustration.

Circle entrance to Mary’s woodland garden.

Bike Cruising, Art, and the Garden

Mary working on her Iris painting – part of her one-woman show at the Atelier at Flowerfield

In the meantime, Dave did his own zigzags. He got his master’s in computer science in 1983 and started designing software. About 10 years ago, he took his love of biking up to a whole new level and started doing “centuries” – one hundred mile rides out to Montauk via a scenic route. Longer distances and more intricate trips soon followed. He’s done RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) – twice. “RAGBRAI is a thing of beauty,” he says. It covers 400-500 miles, and the route changes every year.

Riders dip their rear tire in the Missouri River when starting and their front tire in the Mississippi River at the end. For those trips, he joined an outfitter to move his tent, gear, and supplies up the road while he biked. “It’s a great incentive to keep going,” he laughs. “My clothes were fifty plus miles ahead!”

Mary on their bike cruise in the Netherlands

“He’s a more powerful biker,” Mary says. “He’ll ride 50-80 miles a day which isn’t my style. I’ll do 20-mile rides and stay on the bike paths.” Together they have taken bike cruises from Paris to Amsterdam, as well as Portland Oregon along the Columbia River, ending in Idaho. That first trip is truly a favorite memory for the couple. It coincided exactly with their 25th wedding anniversary, when they arrived in Paris and were greeted with champagne, balloons, and hearts on their hotel bed – courtesy of Mary’s daughter-in-law Sherri. “We couldn’t believe it,” Mary laughs. “It was so fabulous.” In another one of life’s sweet moments on that trip, Dave saw the Tour de France from the Champs Elysees, while Mary literally bumped into it later when she exited the Louvre. The two have other biking cruises on the horizon. In June, they’ll be heading down the Danube River, starting in Prague and ending in Budapest.

Mary and Dave at home in their garden.
Photo: Len Marks Photography

Today they’re retired in a non-retirement sort of way. “We don’t call this retirement because we both work intensely,” Mary explains. “But we’re working now at things we enjoy.” Dave does consulting and teaches IT for companies all over the world, including a NATO group earlier this year. In an interesting twist on today’s modern roles, he’s also “tech support” for his grandson – a fact which they clearly love.

Mary’s artwork continues to anchor her. Her solo exhibition “Not Just a Pretty Flower” featuring her large Georgia-O’Keeffe inspired artwork, is on display at the Atelier at Flowerfield through the end of May. It’s a provocative exploration of what she views as the interconnectedness and balance within the microcosm of her garden and the macrocosm of the cosmos. “The paintings are large so that they demand conversation,” she explains. “That’s why I want to do big paintings. So that it’s in your face. Why is she doing this? Why is it like that? What is the message?’ That’s my latest body of work.”

She also volunteers her time as the Public Relations Chair of the National Association of Women Artists which is celebrating its 135th anniversary this year. “I love paying it forward to help empower other women artists to achieve the success they envision for themselves. Feminism, Artists, Empowerment, these are my sweet spots.”

Not bad for two people who reimagined themselves through hard times and ended up on the other side. They’re clearly savoring each moment and drawing inspiration from each other. “Our lives were not easy.” Mary reflects. “We crawled over broken glass to get where we are now. So, every day we look at each other and we laugh and hug because we’re so joyful. We can’t believe how lucky and happy we are.”

National Association of Women Artists – Fall 2020 Newsletter

I am honored to have my painting “Pay Attention Here – Orange Hibiscus” on the cover of the Fall 2020 Newsletter of NAWA, The National Association of Artists. I was juried as a full member into this prestigious historic organization in November of 2018.

NAWA was founded on January 31, 1889 to offer women a greater opportunity as professional artists in a male-dominated art world. From the onset, the annual exhibitions of the women’s Art Club were a great success, attracting the participation of women artists such as Mary Cassatt, Suzanne Valadon, Rosa Bonheur and Cecelia Beaux. As the organization grew, its membership included prominent artists like Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Anna Hyatt Huntington.

Many members have taken their rightful place among the recognized artists of their time. Louise Nevelson, Nell Blaine, Alice Neel, Marisol, Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Janet Fish, Audrey Flack and Faith Ringgold. It is a great honor for me to be afforded such an inspiring brush with history and talent.

Here is a link to the National Association of Women Artists Fall 2020 Newsletter

Pay Attention Here - Orange Hibiscus 36x36" GW Oil on Canvas by the artist, Mary Ahern

Pay Attention Here – Orange Hibiscus 36×36″ GW Oil on Canvas. View this on other oil paintings on my website here.

This is the statement I wrote for the NAWA publication.

For years, I have created floral and garden paintings as the subject of my art. During the last number of years, I’ve focused ever more closely on the centers of flowers as they speak to me more deeply of the reason for their existence. And ours as well.

As a passionate gardener, I am inspired by the gardens I designed and tend surrounding my own studio in Northport. These flowers represent to me a microcosm of the universe. The outsize scale of these individual flower portraits demands attention. They ask questions beyond the canvas.

What is the purpose for such magnificence in nature? What is the reason for such color, such form, such diversity? What is their relationship to the communities in which they belong, their relationships with other plants and species that sustain them, invade them and nourish them? What of their lifecycle of birth, growth, senescence and rebirth? As humans, what can we learn from their seemingly simple existence?

Initially, we see with our eyes. We name the subject, identify it and classify it. But, we also have a duality of vision which allows us to contemplate with an inner vision. This art invites both the external and internal views.

The dual naming of each painting reflects the complex meaning of the work and is an enticement to think more deeply about the subject. This painting, Pay Attention Here – Orange Hibiscus, is at first a call for contemplation of purpose and secondarily, the common name of the flower which enables a more familiar entry into the conversation.

Mary Ahern Artist’s Talk at The Firefly Artists Gallery

As Featured in the Patch: Click Here

“Not Just Another Pretty Flower”

Thursday, December 12, 2019 at 6pm

The Firefly Artists Gallery

162 Main Street

Northport Village NY 11768

“Not Just Another Pretty Flower” Artist Talk with Firefly Mary Ahern: Winter may be coming, but flowers are blooming at the Firefly! Come, meet Mary Ahern and her bold, vibrant garden landscapes and flower portraits.

It’s a wonderful opportunity to hear this award-winning artist speak about how, over decades, her gardens inspired in her a deeper consideration of existence and purpose, and how her thoughts evolved and expanded as she moved closer and closer to the floral centers.

As a classically trained artist, Mary has created her vision through traditional as well as diverse digital mediums. Her work has been shown extensively from New York City to the Hamptons. Now, you can see her at The Firefly Artists Gallery in the beautiful Village of Northport.

Says Ahern, “My Art Starts in the Garden, which inspires me to create Art that asks questions beyond the canvas. Flowers represent a microcosm of the universe in their quest for life. Whether creating with digital or traditional mediums, flowers and gardens lead me to express not just with my eyes but also with my soul.”

This talk is featured in the Patch online publication here!

ChromaLuxe Spotlight Customer

Mary Ahern

Click here to download the brochure.

Dream Chasers.

At midlife, taking lower pay to begin more satisfying careers

By Arlene Gross
Newsday Masthead
Special to Newsday
11:07 AM EST, January 4, 2008

Newsday photo of Mary Ahern painting in studio

Mary Ahern had (experimented) in art for many years, but had never been able to actually make a career of it. Until four years ago, that is, when she made the switch to full-time artist.

“I had always been a creative artist,” the Northport resident, explained. “Life, however, intervened, and as a single parent, I was never able to create my art on a full-time basis.”

Changing careers at midlife is no small feat, and switching to one with substantially less earning potential is more difficult still. According to Randy Miller, founder and president of ReadyMinds, an online career counseling service, downsizing a career can be a source of great anxiety.

Newsday photo of Mary Ahern painting in studio

Yet for some people, any fear or hesitation is mitigated by the yearning to follow a dream. Seeking more spiritually uplifting endeavors can be the ultimate challenge, and Miller said any attendant loss of income is often compensated with a renewed sense of purpose and newfound happiness.

“There are a lot of people who go through life and think, ‘What if?'” Miller said. “With a strategic plan, coupled with the new passion and ultimate objective of doing something different, one can more easily achieve their ultimate goals.”

For Ahern, a new husband provided the impetus and financial support to move forward. Income, the couple concluded, was less relevant to the quality of their lives than the legacy they wish to leave behind.

Newsday photo. Mary Ahern working in her digital studio.

“When we married, Dave urged me to follow my dream,” she recalled. “The hard part at first was trying to find inside myself what that dream actually was. You spend so much time marching forward and doing what you do, you lose the essence of yourself.”

Once their five children — all from previous marriages — were finished with college, Ahern felt it was OK to follow her calling.

“My income from my art doesn’t yet come close to the money I’m used to making in either my career in computer graphics equipment sales or my own graphics design firm,” she said.

One of her greatest sacrifices was a big dip in retirement savings, which now come exclusively from her husband’s salary.

“We have a comfortable nest egg,” she said, “but by coming out of a conventional career, I no longer have the extra cushion to add to my existing portfolio of tax-advantaged savings vehicles.”

Despite her diminished earnings, Ahern says she is happier. “I am living the life I am meant to live,” she said.

Moving beyond money

Though financial rewards are, undoubtedly, necessary for life on Long Island, there are many people, experts say, who yearn for a sense of personal satisfaction and deep-down fulfillment, something that money just can’t buy.

According to career counselor M J Feld, of Careers By Choice in Huntington, more and more individuals are making such changes in their lives. “In particular, because corporate America has become a source of alienation to lots of workers,” Feld said, “we have a lot of folks looking to build their own road. It is no longer about what looks like success; it is about what feels like success.”

For Lisa Hodes, 41, of Huntington, the desire to be closer to her kids and have a simpler life spurred a decision to buy a local business. Hodes had been a stay-at-home mom until her divorce in 2002 necessitated returning to work.

“After being home with my kids, I didn’t want them to feel a drastic change,” she said, so she settled, temporarily, on a management position at a Plainview firm specializing in discounted health plans.

Before marrying, Hodes had worked as a management consultant for Fortune 500 companies, traveling on business a few days each week, three out of every four weeks. “I loved work, but I didn’t have much of a personal life,” she recalled.

At her temporary post, Hodes said, she felt something was always being compromised. “My kids weren’t getting enough of me,” she said, “and I wasn’t getting any of me. Nobody was being satisfied — even though there was a greater earning potential over the long run.”

Searching around for other possibilities, Hodes spotted a “For Sale” sign at Sweetie’s Candy Cottage in Huntington, a sweets emporium minutes from her home, and decided to take the plunge.

“Now I work around their schedule,” she says, referring to sons Cole, 9, and Quinn, 7. “I’m home after school every day and there for anything school-related.”

Another factor in Hodes’ decision to escape the corporate world: her disdain for bureaucracy and having to go through endless channels to get simple decisions approved. “Now if I feel that something should be done, it is done,” she said. “No waiting — just do things for the right reason and get on to the next.”

And now, she adds: “I remember what is important to me: family and living life in a certain way.”

Accomplishing the switch, however, meant losing the security of a regular paycheck.

“It’s a very unpredictable, seasonal income,” she admitted. “With children, that’s very hard. It means I can’t plan for any particular college and retirement savings. The way it works in our house is we only buy things at the holiday season, because that’s when we have a little bit of extra money.”

“You have to admire the courage of someone who gives up their income and their social status for the values that they’re trying to uphold,” said Susan Peterson, president of A-1 Resumes Inc. of East Norwich, who is also an adjunct professor of philosophy at Nassau Community College. “It’s not an easy thing to do.”

Over the past 18 months, headhunter Lhea Scotto-Laub said, she has seen a trend toward baby boomers taking positions with significantly less financial potential than the ones they previously held.

Scotto-Laub, president of Quantum Career Services in Jericho, said these people have realized they “want more — intellectually, emotionally and socially — and that something’s missing. They want more gratification in the new position that they’re seeking.”

After a three-decade career teaching college-level biology, Roberta Koepfer definitely thought something was missing.

“Although I had always enjoyed teaching, when I examined my life, I realized I had grown as much as I could,” the Bayside resident said. “The lab and the lecture hall had become too confining. I felt a need to explore these other spiritual interests I had.”

Her search ended at her daughter Diana’s wedding in 2005, where the ceremony was performed by Kim Kirkley as a celebrant, someone who officiates at ceremonies or rites.

“After speaking with Kim, I instantly felt that I had found the new direction … I had been seeking,” she said.

Two years later, Koepfer, now 65, became a celebrant and has presided over a handful of ceremonies.

She and her husband have never had an extravagant lifestyle, she said, but they have still had to adapt to her lowered income. “I don’t need business clothes anymore,” she explained. “I eat out less. My biggest cut was in buying books.”

Still, the greatest and scariest challenge, she said, was giving up a secure position and knowing that there was no turning back.

“But I wasn’t happy anymore doing what I did,” she declared. “Since I retired [from teaching], a whole new world has opened up for me.”

Recently, Koepfer decided to add the title of chaplain to her resume, and as part of her studies, will be doing a 100-hour internship at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison for women in Westchester.

The joy factor

Another “chaplain-in-training,” Karl Nelson, of Huntington Station, had considered going into semiretirement, with the benefit of savings, a small pension and Social Security payments.

“I was working for a nursing home in Queens,” he said. “While I was there I had to recruit a new chaplain. The three women who applied for the job had all taken this clinical pastoral education.”

While checking one of the candidate’s references, his conversation with the program director piqued his interest in the profession.

After talking it over with his wife, Nelson decided to pursue a new career and in 2006, at the age of 67, began a yearlong course for clinical pastoral education. He is now finishing up a certification program while working as a chaplain at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson Station, where he plans to remain once he finishes the course.

Of his 40 years in health care administration, which included serving as chief executive of Booth Memorial Medical Center in Queens, Nelson said, “I had a lot of big jobs with big staff. That work was very rewarding, but it was all management work. It was not dealing directly with patients.”

Now, as chaplain, he ministers directly to patients, counseling them and their families.

“The direct contact with people,” he said, “is so rewarding.”

What he’s losing in income — at the peak of his former career he made over $100,000 a year more than he does now — he’s making up in personal joy.

“I’ve never had a richer, more fulfilling experience in my life,” he said. “As people approach death, they become very aware of the spiritual aspect of their lives. I can help them navigate this journey.”

For years, Nelson ritually set aside 10 percent of his salary toward retirement. Today, he’s living largely on those savings, which, he said, have grown over the years, and he no longer is saving from salary.

His daughter has finished graduate school, so Nelson no longer has to support her. And to further make up for the salary differential, he and his wife have cut back on restaurant meals, movies and theater outings in the city. Vacations are shorter and closer to home, and since he’s no longer commuting, he’s saving on gas, tolls and parking.

“There’s no magic to it — it’s very careful attention to detail and a little belt-tightening. The little things really add up to make a difference.”

Paul Jenssen, 51, of Searingtown, moved from a lucrative career in investment banking to teaching because he yearned to leave a different sort of legacy. The move was made possible by years of prudent living and careful financial planning.

As he and his wife made increasingly more money, he explained, they shifted the higher earnings directly into higher savings. “We didn’t really grow our lifestyles as our incomes grew,” he said.

After years of working and saving for the education of their two children, Jenssen, an investment banker and financial planner, and his wife, Debra Esernio-Jenssen, a pediatrician, realized they could get by with significantly less income if they watched what they spent.

“My goal was to minimize the luxuries so that we don’t have to dip into our savings,” he said.

Luxury cars, according to Jenssen, offer a perfect example of something people can easily do without when they’re downsizing. He traded in his Lexus sedan for a Mazda, and the two have cut back on vacations and dining out.

Jenssen, whose last post was chief financial officer of an investment bank, explained: “I had gotten into accounting by default, to support myself. I always had an idea that I’d like to do something different at some point.”

Over the years, he had pondered career possibilities. “I always liked history as a kid, and I’d thought about teaching for a while.”

A trip to Tanzania in 2007 with a group of high school students from Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville cemented his decision to teach. He was impressed by African students who, he said, sacrifice everything for their ticket out of poverty: education.

“I would like to teach social studies in a way that connects to the children,” he said, “in a way that I would have liked to have been taught.” Jenssen started taking classes last January and is now observing other teachers, and loving it all.

“To be in school with younger people is fun,” he said, “and I find it very energizing. The side benefit of it is I get to delve into a subject I love and look at it with a more mature perspective.”

Up next for Jenssen is student teaching and completion of his master’s program in education by the end of the summer. Come next fall, he’ll be out looking for a full-time teaching position.

“The idea of having a legacy, more than making money, and at the same time rediscovering history to teach it, is both a challenge and reward,” he said.

For those downsizing careers, living their dream is their reason for being.

Roberta Koepfer sums up the transitional journey with one of her favorite quotes from the ninth century Japanese poet Akiro No Narihara:

“I have always known that at last I would take this road, but yesterday I did not know it would be today.”

Artist Cultivates Her Livelihood Like a Garden

Mary Ahern has green thumb for botanicals & business.

By Arlene Gross

2007-06-The-Times-header June 13, 2007 | 02:39 PM

Northport resident Mary Ahern is a successful artist who practices a unique technique she describes as “digital” painting.

But Ahern, who will be among the exhibitors at Arts in the Park in Northport July 8, was not born an artist. “I didn’t come to paint until I was older,” she said. “I didn’t even know I had a facility for it.”

As a young girl, she focused on music: playing trumpet and saxophone for the high school band and conducting her Fort Hamilton High School graduation in Brooklyn with a rousing rendition of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

“I’ve been in the bleeding edge of those kinds of issues,” she said. “In those days, girls didn’t conduct.”

A life-changing moment came in her 20s, when a friend gave her a coffee table book of Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings.

“I opened it up and turned the pages and wept,” she recalled. “It was completely transforming. I could only look at 10 pictures a day, it was so overwhelming.”

From that moment, Ahern knew she must study art and, then a resident of Queens, attended Queens College.

Although she was influenced by O’Keefe and painted similar subjects, such as close-up and sensual florals, Ahern said she did not mimic her idol’s technique. Whereas O’Keefe painted with direct and rapid strokes, Ahern’s traditional paintings were created in grisaille, or gray scale, and layered with washes of pigment on top, giving the subjects a glow through the optical blending of glazes of pigment.

After divorcing her first husband, Ahern took a job at Barnard College’s career counseling office, where she herself was able to get some career guidance. Through her Barnard position, she attended Columbia University for free by working there while raising sons, Chris and Michael, then ages 10 and 8.

“I knew if I couldn’t stay home and be a mom and paint, I had to make a decision: I’m going to make as much money as possible,” she said.

With profit in mind, Ahern went into technology sales, selling computer graphics and eventually becoming Northeast regional sales manager at Chyron Corporation in Melville. Then she started Online Design, a digital graphics company.

For Ahern, feminism was not a word to bandy about but, rather, her day-to-day reality — working as a single mother in a male-dominated industry.

“My single-minded focus on providing a good life for my sons enabled me to ignore the tremendous obstacles, prejudice, emotional assault and loneliness that comes from breaking through social barriers,” she said. “I, like my father, pulled myself up by my bootstraps. As a woman in a male industry however, I, like Ginger Rogers, did everything in high heels and backwards.”

In 1989, Ahern fulfilled her dream of buying a house with a spacious garden in Northport, which she said, “was like a step back in time to a slower and more gracious lifestyle.”

“The center of town with a Main Street embedded with trolley tracks leading to the harbor breezes and music in the gazebo captured my attention and insisted upon my attendance. I needed to move here.”

Eleven years later, she renovated her home, adding an airy, second floor art studio, and now natural light trickles throughout.

The garden, which Ahern designed, encircles the house, with its artfully designated focal points and meandering paths, everything flowing gracefully.

“I practice nonviolent gardening — no rose bushes to stab you — all soft inviting plants,” she said.

Seventeen years after her first marriage ended, Ahern married David Ruedeman, an engineer at Chyron. The couple worked together there but got to know one another only when he became a client of Online Design. This year will mark the couple’s 10th anniversary…

Early on in the second marriage, wishing to reinvent herself, Ahern got a degree in horticulture from SUNY Farmingdale in 2000, with the idea of becoming a landscape designer, which she did for a year.”It was too much for my… body,” she said, of the many hours spent working on bended knees.

From there, it was a two-year course studying botanical illustration at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx.

Her photographic painting, a culmination of expertise paralleling her life’s progressive journey, combines a passion for the fine arts, gardening, computer graphics and botanical painting.

“To be creative, you need to know your medium,” Ahern said of her computer graphics skills. Through her paintings, she seeks to make people look around them and become more aware of the nature surrounding us.

Dr. Roberta Koepfer, her friend since 1971, said, “She’s like a phoenix. I have seen her rise up from a fair number of devastating experiences. Every time she comes back, she comes back more dynamic, more focused on her art and with an increased zest for life and personal growth.”

When it came time to sell her art, Ahern’s business savvy came in handy; she started in Northport as an exhibitor at the annual Arts in the Park series and now participates in about 15 art shows in New York and Connecticut between May and September, with her husband lending a hand.

Ahern’s work has also been the focus of several gallery exhibitions, including a one-person show at Greenlawn’s Harborfields Library this past February.

Susan Hope, gallery coordinator for the library, noted that Ahern’s exhibit was well timed: her cheerful florals brightened the gloom of winter. “It has an eye catching appeal,” she said. “People really enjoyed it, whether they were art savvy or just seniors on their way to their meetings.”

Today, Ahern is either painting her botanicals, selling them or lecturing on the business of art at libraries or schools, although her business persona has changed radically over the years.”I did trade shows in high heels and silk suits,” she said, “now I’m doing business in Birkenstocks and shorts.”

To anyone seeking career guidance, Ahern advised, “Don’t throw away anything you’ve done because you want to transform yourself. Take the good portions, the positive elements and try to incorporate them into this new self you’re creating. That’s how I’m living my life.”

Mary’s Garden – The Long Islander Newspaper

The Long Islander Newspaper Article- February 15, 2007

Life & Style Section – Art
Mary’s Garden
By Ellen Thompson

So this is my garden, these are my flowers,” Mary Ahern said motioning towards a frame-covered wall in the gallery at the Harborfields Public library. “I grow these, I paint them, I draw them, I design with them.”

Whether Ahern is designing the color, texture and focal points of a garden or the navigational structure of a website, she still goes back to her roots as a classically trained fine artist.

Color, composition, rhythm and attention to detail are the bedrock of all her art.

In Ahern’s latest exhibit at the Harborfields Public Library, “Welcome to My Garden” running until February 27, (2007), the bedrock show through. Within each (digital) painting a colorful rhythm leads the viewer towards texture that is at most unreal.

“And then I produce them and market them, so other people can have them in their home,” Ahern added.

As a fine artist, Mary loves to awaken in others the awe of the world around us. “I seek to bring into sharp focus natural objects often overlooked or taken for granted in our everyday existence,” she explained.

With Ahern’s (digital) paintings that which is overlooked is certainly brought into focus, from a tiny grape Muscari to the petals of vibrant roses. The artist using digital graphic design, virtual painting and botanical accuracy creates digital paintings. The artist honed these techniques during her 25 years as a professional in the computer graphics industry and over 30 years as a passionate artist and gardener.

“I want to slow someone down for a moment in their life to take a close look at nature before they resume again their own activities,” she said. “Now more than ever our lives are moving at too fast a pace. We are too often losing focus and missing the details.”

Plucking the flower from her garden Ahern washes the mud from its petal and leaves to use in her compositions. Constructing the flower upon the screen the way it grew, but creating the work larger than life.

“How exciting is it that you can have something like this” Here look,” Ahern said with her nose nearly five inches from the frame. “The little bells they just curl out. Nobody would ever see that, they are this big” she continued pressing her index and thumb together, ” and its two inches from the ground. Its so exciting I mean, I just constantly get excited by it.”

Ahern works in her studio in Northport surrounded by her gardens. In these gardens she grows the source material for liftimes of art. It is where she pulls all her passions together to produce artwork meant to enliven the universe. Ahern’s prints are output to 100 percent archival canvas or fine art paper using pigmented inks. The combination of products has been tested by the firm of Wilhelm Imaging Research for archival permanence. Their published findings state that these products, when used in combination, will last a minimum of 90 years.