A Look At This
Month's Art Scene ..
Wendell
Minor:
Everglade.
•
When Metal Meets Bark
T
SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
PHOTO BY NORMAN WATKINS
wo distinctive art-
ists share space at
the Sybaris Gallery
in Royal Oak this
month. Metal is the
primary material
used by ROY, a jew-
elry maker who alludes to cul-
tural issues through her
wearable art. Bark is the pri-
mary material used by Linda
Bills, a sculptor whose works
can be variously positioned for
different effects.
"We are drawn to both
artists because their works
speak to us," said Arlene Se-
lik, who owns Sybaris with
Linda Ross. "Their works of-
fer a visual language."
ROY, at Sybaris for the first
.
Above: Linda Bills:
Untitled, 1995, pine
bark, birch plywood,
paint.
PHOTO BY DAVID SMITH
Left: ROY: Jamaican
Beat tambourine
bracelet, 1995,
fabricated and
oxidized brass, reused
bottle caps.
centrates on the issue of home-
lessness in a mix of cardboard
Ware. Bills, a repeat talent at the with metal. The "Rhythm" series
gallerY;'-ev:aked from basketry features bracelets crafted from
bottle caps that resemble tam-
to abstract sculpture.
"I think it's great to show met- bourines and jingle when shak-
al and wooden pieces together en. Travel through the Greek
because I think of wood as the Islands influenced the imagery
opposite of metal," said ROY, in these musically inspired
who makes a womanist state- pieces.
"If I can have viewers reach
ment by discarding a surname
passed down by men. "Metal outside their usual thinking
needs fire to fabricate form, for even two seconds, I will
while wood is a hands-on re- have achieved my goal," ROY
said.
source."
Bills communicates about re-
ROY often incorporates found
objects in her sculpture, build- lationships and their changing
ing on the way they look, the nature as well.
"We tend to see people in cer-
meanings they convey or the
tain circumstances without
events they recall.
Offthe wearer, her jewelry be- thinking of other ways they
can be seen," Bills commented
comes sculptural objects.
A recent group of her pieces, about the intent of sculpture
titled "In God We Trust," con- .that can be repositioned. "I'd
time, started her metal artistry
DETRO IT JEWISH NEWS
1>Tereating hiiiloware and flat-
LU
08
like people to think about
seeing things in more than one
way."
Bills, a three-time National
Endowment for the Arts grant
recipient, enjoys working with
bark because she believes it is
visually handsome and because
it draws her outdoors. "I like the
reference of something from na-
ture, but I want it to transcend
its naturalness," she said. "I like
to combine natural and man-
made materials, such as bark
with plywood."
Bills' latest works are far re-
moved from the plaited bark
forms of a few years ago and are
not as intricately crafted as they
often had been.
The new structures often
possess solid bottoms connected
to vertical elements and can
be perceived as representing
either human forms or inani-
mate objects. Some, particular-
ly her cable and twig pieces,
are meant to be seen as drawing
and sculpture, where the
outlines of shadows simultane-
ously seem to verify both a
drawn and three-dimensional
presence. Di
1 23 "Visual Language," fea-
turing the works of ROY and
Linda Bills, will be at the
Sybaris Gallery, 202 East
Third, Royal Oak, through
April 20. Gallery hours are 11
a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Satur-
days. (810)544-3388.
;Artwork from children's books usually fills the Elizabeth Stone
Gallery, but April brings an important exception. With the dis
play of illustrations by Wendell Minor comes artwork for adults
as well That is because Minor has designed for both audiences.
His latest children's book is Everglades, and the art from
that will be available. His latest release for mature readers,
Art for the Written Word, features illustrations he has done for
contemporary book jackets.
Minor's pieces will be on view starting April 12. There will
be an artist's reception 6-8:30 p.m. April 19. The gallery is at
536 N. Woodward, Birmingham. (810) 6477040.
Many of Felix Braslaysky's paintings have traveled with him
from Russia. Some have found homes at the Warsaw Art Mu-
seum, Lathy Art. Museum in Finland and the Morayska Gallery
in Czechoslovakia. Since moving th the United States, Braslaysky
has continued working with acrylic and oil on canvas to capture
cultural and emotional moments of the past.
The Posner Gallery, 523 N. Woodward, Biriningham, is show-
ing, through April 10, paintings brought with him from St.
Petersburg and new ones created in the U.S. (810) 647-2552.
Suzantie Chewier is a freelance writer who compiles and writes
our "Hanging Around" Fine Arts pag- es.-If you have
information about art happenings you wish to have
considered for'our fine-arts section, including shou: openings
,