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NEW JERSEY'S 'GRANDMA MOSES' OF POETRY
SHARES THE SECRETS OF A RICH LIFE.
Story by: Anne Marie Church
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| The Early Years..... |
Jean Goldstein, Tao Yin, a bona fide New Jersey cultural treasure, was born in Union City in 1922. The daughter of Samuel Harber, a prominent attorney, and his French-born wife, Bertha Levy, Jean will be the first to tell you she has lived a life of diversity, adversity and not a little adventure. A world traveler, artist, poet, and an expert in oriental art, she has packed just about as much into her 83 years as can be expected-and she will tell you she is not finished yet.
Jean adored her doting father, and he played no small part in helping her develop her philosophy that life is an adventure just waiting to be experienced-and LIVED. When she was six, he took her to hear Albert Einstein play the violin. Observant even then, she noted the eminent physicist was wearing unmatched socks. (She still makes no comment on his musical acumen.)
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Each one of Jean's passions led quite naturally into exploration and fulfillment in multiple disciplines. In 1934, at the age of 12, the then chubby little girl started collecting oriental art, buying a porcelain box she 'just liked' at a shop on 48th Street in Union City. She committed her weekly fifty-cent allowance to it until she was able to take it home.
It soon became apparent Jean had an 'eye' for hidden value in the items she loved. In the years after she received her degree in Fine Arts, with further studies at New York University and the China Institute, she created the Tao Yin Gallery. An earlier venture was Jewelry by Tao Yin, which she designed and manufactured in a loft in Union City with the help of 21 employees.
Jean often muses she must have been of oriental heritage in another life, hence her affinity for the culture's art. In her vernacular, "Tao Yin" means, quite literally, "the philosophy of the feminine." She had the phrase trademarked when she was only 18.
Lots more about Jean. Along Came Harold...
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