-MK
Five Jewish women artists collaborate in a mixed media group
show of vibrant hues and sumptuous shades.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to The Jewish News
C olor them friends
o. Rosen: 'juggler's Magic," watercolors.
Joan Schwartz: 'All That Jazz," mixed media.
9/11
1998
90 Detroit Jewish News
before coloring
them artists.
It's not by
chance that Joan Schwartz,
Barbara Messer, Andrea
Tama, Patti Tapper and Jo
Rosen are represented in a
group exhibit filling
Gallery XVIII in Pontiac.
"We're a circle of friends
who share a common love
for art," says Schwartz,
who came up with the idea
for the joint show based
on the most outstanding
feature in all of their work
— bold color.
To the exhibit, titled
"Color," Schwartz and
Messer bring sculptural
forms and wall reliefs,
while Tama, Tapper and
Rosen offer two-dimen-
sional renderings.
Schwartz, who gravitates toward
people as shown in her figurative
pieces, actually studied anatomy
before moving on to sculpture. After
years of working as a registered nurse,
she enrolled in a mixed media class
at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art
Center (BBAC) and found her focus
— contemporary people with carica-
ture-like faces and bodies. -
"I do a lot of commissions," says
Schwartz, whose work has appeared
in many other group presentations,
including shows at the BBAC, Birrn-
ingham Temple and Art in the Woods
in Huntington Woods.
A
"A young, Orthodox family asked 4i
me to do a Shabbat dinner scene, and I
that's my current project."
Messer, Schwartz's sister, also does
sculptures, but hers are smaller, more
whimsical and made of wood. Origi-
nally an interior designer, she saw
samples of fanciful forms in a maga-
zine and got the idea to build her
own.
"I use a lot of scraps and turn
them into folk art," says Messer,
whose first project was commissioned
by an architect friend. "I don't plan.
My pieces evolve from the scraps put
together in unusual combinations."
Messer has much in common with
Tama. Both Wayne State University 41
graduates, they have divided their
hours between interior design and
fine arts projects, although turning
out very different styles.
Tama's approach translates photo-
graphic images into brush strokes.
"The variety of mediums for my
artwork include acrylics, pastels, oil
pastels, watercolors and collage," says
Tama, who has attended travel-study
programs in Greece, Italy, France,
Scandinavia and Israel.
"I can use these media separately
or combine them to achieve color
richness and texture qualities. I am a
visual artist, motivated and inspired
by life and beauty around me."
Tama, who has been a designer for
Walter Herz Interiors and John
Mitchell Associates, fashioned jewelry
before taking a painting class and
realizing that was the discipline for
her. For a number of years, she was
owner and executive board member
of the Artists' Gallery, a collective for
30 artists.