TRENTON, N.J. – Now a working artist, a local multimedia photographer continues to develop his interests in artwork projects after his life and health circumstances forced him to stay at home a decade ago.
Recently preparing for his transition from electronic means of photography, such as Photoshop, to creating more abstract artwork such as collages and manufactured pieces, Photographer C.a. Shofed, has been collaborating with other artists and printers to create new projects.
Earlier this year, at Art All Day, Shofed in collaboration with Artist Jane Zamost, featured a collage piece of artwork on tempered glass that they produced together.
Shofed said that he hopes “to naturally transition his artwork and photography to more abstract and sculptured pieces” in his next chapter.
A lifelong Mercer County resident, Shofed grew up with military parents, lived in Hopewell Township, and went to Mercer County College for a year after high school.
In college, he studied Advertising Art Design, and really fell in love with the art and photography.
However, he got a job shortly after college at Clancy Paul in Princeton, where his more than 25-years Information Technology (IT) former career started.
As an IT professional, Shofed worked several jobs in computers as a service tech, and later in project management, for many projects at the state level, and even nationally.
“I would fix different projects for my company around the country if they had gone awry,” explained Shofed.
But sometime around 2011 after he got married and moved to Trenton, Shofed, who lives in the neighborhood of Trenton Artworks gallery, would stop by there to volunteer his time.
It was during this time frame that he suffered a kidney failure, had a transplant, and was stuck at home with few options for work, so he started to paint.
“I would paint presents for my wife on our anniversaries, birthdays,” and so on, Shofed said.
Moreover, volunteering at Trenton Artworks galleries “got me back to my roots as an artist,” he explained.
So, Shofed decided to return to being an artist as a photographer, and he got support from Artworks. He would display his photography work there at Art All Day and at Art All Night, and those highlights helped to bring him back to being an artist.
A few years later, Shofed told his wife he does not plan to return to his former work in IT but wants to continue his photography.
He said she told him he has her support as long as he plans to make money soon enough. She was his number one investor, and now 10 years later, he is a successful, growing, and transitioning photographer and artist.
At this current level of his art, Shofed plans to transition his work to do more with multimedia and collaborators. He wants to stretch his photography to being something different and beyond just working with Photoshop. 
“I want to physically change my photography,” he stated. “I want to manipulate it either through painting or using the ideas of other artists.”
He still wants to be a contemporary and urban artist but plans to be more abstract.
“With the abstract art, my photography is based in urban moments. In Trenton, there are lots of history, natural stuff, construction, colorful stuff,” he explains.
He focuses on these items for his template paintings. Using printers to make more abstract artworks, he prints on clear glass, acrylic and make collages. He uses his camera to over-saturate pictures or uses his camera to manipulate nature in various ways.
Shofed says his artwork has been featured internationally and that people mostly discover him on Instagram and Facebook.
Locally, his work has also been featured at Trenton Ellarslie Museum at Cadwalader Park among their juried collection.
Apart from this, his art has been featured in galleries in Upstate New York at Woodstock, Canada, and even in Glasgow in the United Kingdom.
Shofed enjoys the recognition he receives for doing what he loves.
“There is joy in it. It’s not a job. I enjoy it. It can be solitary and social,” he said.
Most of all, it is how people interpret the artwork that is interesting to him, he stated.
The minute you create your work, it is no longer yours, but how people see it is what matters.