Photo by Neidy Gutierrez / SOC Images.
A warm smile, flickers between a mechanical pencil and watercolors brushed against a small canvas—that’s what you’ll see if you ever catch Athena Toledo at one of her pop-up events.
This technique, which Toledo uses for her “aura portraits,” seems simple by description, but after just 10 to 15 minutes, Toledo is able to “encapsulate a moment,” using colors that emphasize emotions in that moment of time.
The Jersey City native does more than paintings, she is also an art therapist at the city’s Peace Care St. Ann’s and an art teacher at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind. As she sat at her booth at Riverview Park’s annual Día de los Muertos event, she thought about how Hudson County has influenced her.
“It comes through the artwork.”
“I meet a lot of families throughout the county and I feel like Hudson County is literally the whole world in one space,” Toledo told Slice of Culture. “There’s families from Guyana, there’s families from the Philippines, from Puerto Rico, from the Dominican Republic… so everybody has their own flavor. And through storytelling and spending time [with them], I get to learn more about different cultures. I think through the art, I’ve been able to expand.”
The Way Colors Move
Swirls of vibrant colors, radiant smiles and a picturesque background are all common elements in Toledo’s work.
Off the bat, these details stem from Toledo’s technique to use colors to evoke emotional responses, which differ for every person, but when the artist thought a little more about it, she said she could trace a deeper meaning back to her childhood in Hawaii and Puerto Rican heritage.
“In Hawaii, there’s a lot of a watery, light, airy feeling and I think I do put a little bit of that in my portraits. But also [with] my Puerto Rican history, and just being from an island, I feel like that could go into my portraits in a way [too],” she smiled.
“It’s something I never thought about, but I would say I could see that… with the way the colors move.”
Toledo’s family comes from Puerto Rico.
They later moved to Brooklyn before settling down in Jersey City in the 1980s. Toledo’s father went to Dickinson High School in Jersey City while her mother went to Marist High School in Bayonne.
Toledo was born in Jersey City, but when she was one, her father got a job that moved her and her family to Kapolei, Hawaii. But Toledo told Slice of Culture that her heart was still in Jersey City. She would visit the Hudson County city every summer before returning in 2013, when she was 17.
Some years later, in 2020, Toledo graduated from New Jersey City University and earned her masters degree in art therapy from the School of Visual Arts New York City.
Community ‘Keeps Us Going’
Toledo owes everything to the community. You can find her doing live portraits (her aura portraits) at a diversity festival in Jersey City, an arts festival in Guttenberg or a mercado in North Hudson.
“The community helps us survive this life. This life is hard. This world is going through a lot, especially when we turn on the news, we have so much heartbreak,” she said.
“I feel like communidad people keep us going each day. It helps us to check in with our friends. It helps us to stay in tune with our passions. Having community, it helps with staying resilient in a world that doesn’t make it so easy to do. That’s why I love to come together. It helps me as an artist.”
Toledo’s first job in Jersey City was at Peace Care St. Ann’s, a staple healthcare home for Jersey City’s Greenville neighborhood, especially for senior residents. Through recreational activities and opportunities for social interactions, St. Ann’s nurtures its residents in mind, body and spirit. Toledo has been with them since she was 17 years old, and now uses art therapy to promote emotional well-being among its residents.
“Art opens up so many different realms within ourselves. Sometimes we don’t know what we carry, but when we have a space to put something down, whether it be creating something with clay or doing a painting, I think it helps to translate that energy, whatever we have and whatever we’re carrying… it’s a good way to emotionally regulate…,” she said.
“Just like we use food to nourish our bodies. You can use art to heal yourself in a way.”
Toledo then expanded her reach by joining St. Joseph’s School for the Blind as an art teacher. She’s been at the Summit Avenue school for two years and explained how “incredible” the students are; she has them work on tactile art projects, which emphasize the use of texture to help those who are blind or visually impaired.
In May, Slice of Culture spoke with Toledo’s students Robin and Zachary who spoke highly of their art teacher.
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Back at the Día de los Muertos event, Vidya Neti had approached Toledo to personally thank her for her help with a school fundraiser and a portrait she did of her family.
Vidya’s son, Aran, attends Bergen Lafayette Montessori School. They do an auction every fall to support its low to moderate income families and partner with local artists and businesses. Neti said she asked Toledo to help, which she “graciously” did. Toledo did a sample portrait of Neti’s family to encourage participants for the auction.
“I wanted my son to meet the painter… and say hello. That’s why I’m here,” Vidya told Slice of Culture. “It’s just amazing, I think, for a local artist to immediately respond. Not everyone responds… but Athena was extremely prompt in responding and saying, ‘yes, I absolutely want to be able to give back to the community.’ And I really appreciated that.”
And Toledo has always seemingly found ways to intertwine her work.
In 2021, she worked with fourth graders from Ethical Community Charter School and artists Olivia Boules and Kelsey Reilly to create a mural in Newport Mall to show what Jersey City meant to all of them.
“When I think of Jersey City … I’m not immediately thinking of (high-rise) buildings,” Toledo said at the time. “I’m thinking about Kool and the Gang and how they originated from Jersey City and the Holland tunnel and, you know, the jitney buses and the NJ Transit that we take to get to the mall. And Indian Square, Loewe’s Theater, and Central Avenue … or just thinking about the fact that it’s Lenape land.
In June 2023, Toledo curated an art show with Pro Arts Jersey City that showcased the artwork of students from St. Joseph’s School of the Blind and residents of St. Joseph’s and St. Ann’s Adult Medical Day Programs and Peace Care at St. Ann’s.
Looking ahead, Toledo said she wants to do more pop-up events and work with local businesses. To see where you can meet Toledo next, you can follow her Instagram @flora.athens.
