Deborah Friedman: "Passage."
"Bn showing an unstretched
canvas painted with oil on a
long, abstract expressionist
landscape field. There's an
open area where you feel
you could walk through."

Harriet Gelfond•
`Mama Was a Gypsy."
"I have pictures of my
mother and her friends
in Europe in the 20s,
either at a party or a
gathering, and when
I saw the form, the
memory clicked"

Creative Studies, is
director of educa
tion at Pewabic
Pottery and designs
porcelain pieces for
shows reaching way
beyond the local area.
Her work also is fea-
tured in books
about ceramics,
including

Transforming
Teapots and The
Best of New
Ceramic Art.
"I started as a
painter, but it seemed
more natural to be
able to form some-
thing freehand," says
Beiner, who is bring-
ing a porcelain teapot
to the West
Bloomfield exhibit.
"The teapot is regular
size, bui the base is large.
It has lots of
different colors
with lots of gold."
Beiner, who
also will be
showing
mantle jars and
a menora,
describes her work as
baroque, decorative, ornate and patterned.
Ricki Berlin is showing an acrylic painting,
The Gathering, measuring 4x4 feet. It is part
of her "People" series, planned to capture
people from the past, present and future.
"These are abstracted people, some fading
in and out," explains Berlin, who also has
taught art and is getting ready to move into a

new studio shared among five artists.
"I'm concerned about balance and sym-
metry and try to have colors emanating
from one another."
Deborah Friedman wants viewers to
really enter her work.
"I'm showing an unstretched canvas
painted with oil on a long, abstract
expressionist landscape field," Friedman
says about Passage. "There's an open area
where you feel you could walk through."
A commercial illustrator for many
years, Friedman just finished her
graduate work at Wayne State
University, where her thesis exhibit
debuts the night after her West
Bloomfield opening.
"I want to do more paint and
metal work and show it all,"
Friedman says. "I have a studio in
Pontiac, and I work there a lot. I've
sold some corporate work, and I think
I've been very lucky."
Renee Gruskin, through a photo montage
on canvas titled Out of Earth,
presents images of Israel.
Working with photography is a
recent direction for her creativity
"It's supposed to be a fusion
of fragile and tough elements
that have gone into the
making of Israel, and it's
also a melding of history
and modernity," explains
Gruskin, who likes to
explore different media.
"I used to paint on silk and
have sold some 400 silk scarves
to retailers, including Saks.
Last year, I did about 70 por-
traits for Children's Hospital."
Other artists whose big works
appear in the show include

Bertha Cohen, Terry Lee Dill, Joyce Gottlieb,
Gail Kaplan, Richard Kozlow, Jay Lefkowitz,
Stan Megdall, Robert Schefman, Linda
Soberman, Deanna Sperka, Dale Sparage,
Elaine Treisman and Stephanie Zack.

❑

"A Really Big Show: Large Works by
Michigan Artists" will be on display
through March 16 at the West
Bloomfield JCC in the Janice Charach
Epstein Museum/Gallery. Gallery hours
are 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays, 11 a.m.-6
p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays and 11
a.m.-7 p.m. Thursdays. (248) 661-7641.

Sandra Levin: "Summit."
"Even my abstract paintings are derived
from my association with nature."

2/4
2000

