PHOTOS BY DANIEL LIPPM
Eighty-five-year-old Florence Spector explains
how she stays "young at art."
SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
F
lorence Spector celebrates artistic change. She
started out as a representational painter, tried
her hand at abstract works and moved on to pot-
tery. Spector, 85, prefers looking ahead to dwelling
on the past.
Repeat patrons of the Annual Potters Market spon-
sored by Oakland Community College (OCC) have tak-
en home many of her platters, easily recognized by their
blue, flowing tones.
Spector already is getting ready for next December's
show, which will offer trays with a new design feature —
finger imprints that give a soft, layered effect along the
border.
"I always have tried to keep up with trends and try new
techniques," said the clay artist, who spends four days
a week at OCC, where she pays a fee to use studio space.
"I've been concentrating on platters and trays because
they're both artistic and practical. All the glazes, planned
to bring beauty to these serving pieces, are dishwasher
safe."
Spector gets 80 percent of the sale prices of her plat-
ters. The OCC share goes toward buying kilns and oth-
er equipment for the school.
"I'm a hand builder," Spector explained. "I don't like
the wheel because it's too restricting. I use the fired clay
as a canvas, coloring with high-fired glazes."
Pieces that have not been sold yet are tucked away
neatly in her Southfield apartment, some under a couch,
others under a bed, more under a chest of drawers.
"I like the OCC studio because you can come and go as
you like," said the former art teacher, who worked at Kim-
ball High School in Royal Oak.
"When I had a house, I had a studio downstairs. With
an apartment and limited space, it's too dirty for me to
work at home.
"There's a whole group that works independently as
I do, and I love them all. We're like a family and happy
that the OCC pottery shows are the biggest in the coun-
try."
For her 85th birthday, Spector was honored with a
large party at OCC, where she is the most senior artist.
Spector learned how to paint from her father, a hob-
byist who let her use his palette to create her own form
of expression. She kept up her interest and attended the
Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, the city where
she first taught.
After she married, moved to Michigan and had two
daughters, Spector enrolled at the Center for Creative
Studies. When her husband, an English teacher and
college professor, became ill, she resumed her own
teaching career.
"I had become a temporary teacher in Royal Oak
when I started using the OCC studio 15 years ago,"
Spector said. "I subbed in art and had a contract to
work in the library until they could find someone to
work full time."
When she was still employed as a full -time teacher,
Spector used free hours to join artistic groups and try
experimental methods. Her
Florence Spector
Keeping up with trends work was exhibited at art cen -
ters i i n the Midwest.
and new techniques.
"I tried putting my work in
galleries, but they paid me only 50 percent of the sale
prices," she said.
When Spector is not creating her signature pot-
tery — her favorite activity — she likes to swim and
travel. She spends two days rotating between pools
at the Jewish Community Centers and plans for ex-
cursions to places as distant as China.
While some of her trips are made with her daugh-
ter, others are taken as part of tour groups.
"My daughters are not artists, but they love mu-
seums as much as I do," she said. "I bought them
all kinds of equipment when they were young, and
there was a rule that they had to make all of their
greeting cards themselves. I still have some."
Moving through Spector's apartment gives an idea
of the movement of her style.
There are representational paintings of her father
and grandmother, and there are three-dimensional,
abstract wall hangings. Bowls, dishes and platters
of different designs decorate her tables.
"I've always been curious about exploring some-
thing new," said. Spector, Who seeks out the latest
books and magazines'detailingartistic trends. "I think
that's really what keeps me going." ❑