A Touch
Of Glass

Sculptor Joyce Gottlieb
achieves special effects with glass.

SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

lass sculptor Joyce Got-
tlieb is very clear about
her professional goals:
showing her work and
selling her work as often as she
can. Right now, she is very hap-
py that April is showering her
with opportunities.
During Michigan Glass Month,
the Swami Gallery in Detroit will
feature 20 examples of her work
— figurative statuary, scenes
painted on glass and mixed me-
dia abstractions.
The Swann exhibit
comes at a time when
Gottlieb also is repre-
sented at the Flint Mu-
seum, the Biddle
Gallery in Wyandotte
and Gallery: Func-
tionArt in Pontiac.
"I am inspired by
the human figure,"
said Gottlieb, who
teaches art at School-
craft College and West
Bloomfield Schools. "It
is the form I use for
creative expression,
and through it, I at-
tempt to depict the in-
ner feelings of a
person.
"My intent is to ex-
plore and develop the
relationship between
the underlying and
visible person. While
combining different
materials — glass, metal,
polyurethane, clay and paint —
I address issues concerning the
individual and the positioning of
that individual in society."
Although Gottlieb liked to draw
as a youngster, she didn't become
serious about art until she was
a wife, mother of three and suc-
cessful dental hygienist.

Cr

"I had surgery and couldn't do
dental hygiene anymore," she ex-
plained. "My children were in
school, and I was used to work-
ing.
"I went back to school for an
art class, and I liked it. I took an-
other class and another class and
another class. First, I went to
Oakland Community College,
then to the Center for Creative
Studies and on to Wayne State
University.
"I got my degree from Wayne,
spent a year getting
a portfolio together
and went up to
Eastern Michigan
University for my
master's degree."
After finishing
college in 1987, Got-
tlieb leased a studio
on the grounds of a
Clarkston foundry,
where she stayed for
a year. When a
teaching position be-
came available at
Schoolcraft in Livo-
nia, she decided the
commute was too
much and moved
her studio into her
West Bloomfield
home.
With heavy equip-
ment in her base-
ment and three kilns
in her garage, Got-
tlieb can easily use
any found time to forge her three-
dimensional forms. Her models
are family members, friends and
professionals hired for specific
projects.
Whatever the subject, Gottlieb
likes the special effects she can
achieve with glass.
`There's something compelling

and sensuous about glass," Got- as she and her husband, Arnold, a member of the office staff.
tlieb said. "I found the same a dentist, became empty-nesters.
Although Gottlieb belongs to
things in plastics, but they were "I'm adding more children to my the Sculptors - Guild, Alpha
so toxic. I took a glass class in work."
Omega Women and ORT, she is
1991, and started buying my
In addition to following not as active with those organi-
own equipment. After
through with her own zations as she had been because
a few years, I was cast-
ideas, Gottlieb accepts
Above: Joy ce Gottlieb projects on commission. her teaching, guest lecturing and
ing glass."
personal art projects claim so
with he glass
While the main floor creation Arb r or,
A sculpture of Rabbi much of her time.
1997.
of Gottlieb's home gives
M. Robert Syme is at
Her schedule includes a May
no hint of the work- Lett: Joyce Gottlieb's Temple Israel, and an- 7-June 7 exhibition at the Port
space below, the rooms
Modesty , glass,
other of Aid Kushner is Huron Museum and a May 23-
199 7.
are filled — and peri-
at Temple Beth El. June 23 exhibition at the Uni-
odically changed —
Kushner's miniature versity of Michigan Hospitals in
with the results of her
synagogues and tem- Ann Arbor. .0
artistry, which also includes ples decorate the Beth El library,
`8'; Joyce
drawings.
sculpture
and her replica of him rests near-
can be seen April 18-May 18
"As I grow older and as my by.
at the Swann Gallery, 1250
family grows up, I have more in-
An acrylic relief of two chil-
terest in the relationship among dren surrounded by fairy tale
Library St., Detroit. (810) 965-
4826.
family members," said Gottlieb, characters hangs at the Bing-
whose sculpting time intensified ham Farms School in memory of