Sharon Zimmerman

1979 through 1986, she
chaired Detroit's Palmer
Park Fine Arts Festival, an
annual event which brings
together 100 artists for a
weekend every August to
sell and exhibit their work.
She's also coordinated
Michigan Artists, a
statewide juried exhibition,
which took place in the early
1980s. Right now, Ms. Zim-
merman is editing a book of
selected state-owned art for
the Commission on Art in
Public Places and Wayne
State Press, as well as
curating an exhibition of
sculptural objects for the
Michigan Potters Associ-
ation.
She does all this while at-
tending Wayne State Uni-
versity to finish the bache-
lor's degree in art history
she started almost 16 years
ago.
"I wasn't very happy with
the authority of school," she
said. "I started college and
-then dropped out for awhile.
I wanted to learn things I
couldn't learn in school."
So in between her stints in
the arts, Ms. Zimmerman
worked at various secretarial
jobs, ultimately running a
small interior design firm.
"I've always been a sort of
a free, yet disciplined
spirit," she said.
She says she was a
precocious child. Even at
Hampton Elementary
School, Ms. Zimmerman had
a mind of her own.
"I remember having to do
a book report when I was in
elementary school," she
said. "I had started reading
in kindergarten, so by the
time I was a little older, I
was reading some of the
classics. I got in trouble for
doing my book report on
Moby Dick." The teacher
thought it was too advanced
for her grade level.
Ms. Zimmerman said she
wasn't raised to have a com-
petitive nature, "I just com-
peted against myself."
Since both her parents
passed away a few years ago,

Ms. Zimmerman has had to
increasingly rely on herself.
Her brother and sister, Ed-
ward and Monique, are both
married and have moved
away from Detroit.
After her father died, she
and her mother bought a
ranch house together in
West Bloomfield.
"We were always extreme-
ly close. My mom was in re-
mission at the time from
lymphoma, so I didn't want
her to have to go to any
trouble packing up," she
said. "I remember staying
up all night and just doing it.
"It was really worth it,
however, because when she
came home, the new house
was completely finished and
already had a lived-in feel to
it."
Her mother, who was a
gourmet cook, brought all of
her specialized cookware
with her. The kitchen has an
entire wall filled with anti-
que copper pots and pans, old
vinegar bottles, and almost
every time-saving appliance
imaginable. There are coffee
makers, electric can openers,
bread kneaders, egg holders,
milkshake mixers and food
processors.
"My mom passed away a
few months after we moved
in, but I use so many of her
things, I'm constantly
reminded of her. Luckily my
friends are a great support-,"
Most of Ms. Zimmerman's
friends are involved in some
way or another in the arts,
she said. They travel in
packs, often go to gallery
openings together,
sometimes even investing
together.
"I belong to an investment
club. A bunch of us just
decided one day to learn
what we could about the
stock market. Making
money from it is quite
secondary," she said.
Ms. Zimmerman also
belongs to a birthday club
she and some friends started
a couple years ago.
"It kind of started as a
joke, but it's become a great
way to get together. We all
make gift lists and hand them
out to each other so we can
give the kinds of presents we
really want."
One year, she was given
500 different flower bulbs for
the garden in her backyard.
, "My friends love to come to
my house," she said. "I've
worked hard to provide a
very comfortable artsy at-
mosphere. I also love to
entertain a lot.
"I wish my mom was here
to share my life with me, but
I think she'd be proud of me
now. I miss her a lot." ❑

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