ENTERTAINMENT

Tile artist
Deborah Hecht
puts art before
business.

MIKE ROSENBAUM

Special to The Jewish News

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Deborah Hecht: "You have a concept, you see it come to life."

ARTIST
FIRST

eborah Hecht enjoys
a thriving tile art
career. For the past
three years, she has never
been without ,a commission.
But while Hecht works for
her clients, who have includ-
ed Chrysler Chairman Lee
Iacocca, she remains an artist
in control of her work until
the day it leaves her studio.
"Even if the buyers are hap-
py with it, if I'm not happy
with it they can't have it yet,"
she says.
Hecht knew she wanted to
become an artist at age 6
when "I made a formal an-
nouncement," she says.
Although her mother was a
painter, Hecht received few
lessons at home, preferring to
learn on her own. "I was ter-
rified that people would think
my mother helped me."
Despite early knowledge of
her career choice, Hecht's
move into tile art happened
almost by accident.
She was graduated with a
Bachelor of Fine Arts degree
from Wayne State University
in 1974, where she studied
painting and sculpture. She
then moved to New York to
study at the New York Studio
School in 1974-75. She later
worked as a jewelry designer
for the Bulova Watch Corn-
pany and Artcarved, Inc.,
both in New York. She even-
tually left those 9-to-5 jobs to
devote more time to water-
color painting.
In 1985 Hecht, who had
since moved to Birmingham
with her husband, Joe Falik,
wanted to put tiles into her
kitchen. Because she could
not find a pattern she liked,
she decided to buy glazed,
white tiles and paint her own
designs on them.
"I had no intention of doing
this" for a living, she says.
Others who saw the finished
work encouragd her, however,
and she soon bought a second-
hand kiln and was in
business.
Hecht has never taken a
ceramics class and does not
make her own tiles. She
paints the glazed tiles with
an overglaze which dries to a
fine powder. If she is not hap-
py with it, Hecht can wash it
off with water and start over.
When she is pleased with her
work, she heats it in her kiln,
which fuses the paint to the

-

I GOING PLACES

WEEK OF
APR.27-MAY3

JEWISH EVENTS

JEWISH COMMUNITY
CENTER

6600 W. Maple Road,
West Bloomfield,
Michigan Young
Musician. Competition
Winners Concert, 8 p.m.
May 2, free, 661-1000.

DETROIT INSTITUTE
OF ARTS

Detroit Film Theatre,
Lodz Ghetto, 1, 3, 5 and 7
p.m. April 29, admission,
833-2323.

SPECIAL EVENTS

VILLAGE PLAYERS

Village Players of
Birmingham, L'eone Fur
Salon and Atrium, 255 N.
Hunter Blvd., "Theater
Arts Ball," 7:30 p.m.
April 28, black tie or
costume required attire,
admission, 643-8084.

COMEDY

MARK RIDLEY'S

Comedy Castle, Royal
Oak, Kip Addotta
through April 28; Bill
Scheft, May 1-5; Comic
Relief '90, to benefit
Detroit's homeless,
co-hosted by Norma
Zager, 8 p.m. May 2,
admission, 542-9900.

GNOME

The Gnome Restaurant,
4124 Woodward Avenue,
Detroit, The Ron Coden
Show, 9: 30 p.m., 11 pm.
and 12:30 p.m. Fridays
and Saturdays through
April, admission,
833-0120.

DUFFY'S

Waterfront Inn, 8635
Cooley Lake Road, Union
Lake, Bob Pasch, through
May, admission,
363-9469.

THEATER

NANCY GURWIN
PRODUCTIONS

Jewish Community
Center's Aaron DeRoy
Studio Theatre, Once
Upon a Mattress, 9 p.m.
April 28, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
April 29, admission,
661-1000; or 645-6666.

MICHIGAN OPERA
THEATRE

Masonic Temple Theatre,
Detroit, Don Giovanni,
through April 28,
admission, 874-7850.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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