Point Reyes Light - December 2, 2004
Photographer and artist Jen Lovejoy of Inverness dies
By Larken Bradley
Inverness resident Jen Lovejoy, a photographer and artist who helped found a program at Marin General Hospital’s Cancer Center intended to make it seem less cold and more healing, died at home on Wednesday, Nov. 17, from breast cancer. She was 56.
In 1991, after undergoing a mastectomy, Ms. Lovejoy, also known as Castle, sat on a board of advisors that influenced the Cancer Center’s design and operation. She helped construct back-lit nature photographs for the ceiling of the radiation treatment room. She also contributed to a redesign of the standard open-backed treatment gown to one that helped preserve patients’ decorum.
For several years, Ms. Lovejoy assisted in the installation of the Center’s rotating gallery shows. "One of her favorite shows was of pink prayer flags all over the entry ceilings, walls and central atrium," its director Beverly Anello told The Light. Seeing them fluttering in the breeze, "she felt the flags instantly transformed one’s feeling upon entering the Center from those of fear to those of hope."
Accomplished photographer
A photographer whose work was shown in West Marin and San Francisco as well as on her native Cape Cod, Ms. Lovejoy studied with a renowned San Francisco photographer, Ruth Bernhard.
"One of her biggest photographic thrills was a mountain lion on Teacher’s Beach," said Dave Brast, her partner of eight years. Her favorite subjects included Tomales Bay and its surrounding rolling hills, images that remain on sale as greeting cards in several West Marin outlets.
Her photos appeared in several recent issues of Raritan, a quarterly review published by Rutgers University.
Also a weaver and paper artist, her work was shown in Gallery Route One’s annual Box Show.
Born on Jan. 27, 1948, in Brockton, Massachusetts, Jennifer Lovejoy was 1/16th native Passamaquoddy, a heritage of which she was proud.
She grew up in Yarmouthport on Cape Cod and attended Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies. In 1969 after earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, she took graduate courses in English literature at UC Berkeley.
In the mid 1970s, she moved back east to work at the Yale University Library as a research assistant on the papers of Benjamin Franklin.
After returning to California she held several administrative assistant positions before opening her own photographic enterprise, Escargo Press.
She studied photography at City College of San Francisco under Morrie Camhi and Paul Klein.
‘Never met a cat she couldn’t tame’
A local resident for more than 10 years, Ms. Lovejoy thrived on the natural beauty of West Marin and also loved both cats and birds. "She never met a cat she couldn’t tame," said Dave Brast. She invented her own hummingbird feeders, suspending eyedroppers filled with sugar water where hummingbirds could reach them, and nursed injured birds back to health. Into her 50s she wore her hair in two long braids that fell below her waist.
While hiking several years ago she happened on the native Indian paintbrush plant botanists named castilleja coccinea. Her discovery inspired the adoption of the name Castle, which many people knew her by.
Averse to the world of politics, bureaucracy and business, "she believed the human race was making a terrible mess of nature’s beautiful design," said Brast.
Challenged in her ability to relate to others in conversation, she became a prolific email and letter correspondent. "She had a powerful way of connecting with the essence of a person, his or her core, when that person was open to the connection," said Alden Wilson, a friend since high school.
An insatiable reader, her favorite authors were Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf and the Persian poet Rumi.
She is survived by her companion, Dave Brast of Inverness. Ms. Lovejoy also leaves behind three cats of whom she was fond – Fluff, Natasha and Simon.
Friends have suggested that any memorial contributions be made to Hospice of Marin, 150 Nellen Drive, Corte Madera, 94925.
A memorial service to be held in early 2005 will be announced.