rojects temporarily receding in the
background is architectural glass for
the Metropolitan Detroit Convention
& Visitors Bureau. She lists stained
glass windows for Temple Emanu-El
among her favorite projects.
"I. get a lot of commissions through
glass companies," says Kelman, who
also gets new clients on the recom-
mendations of former clients. "A cou-
ple of years ago, I worked on a very
large house on Long Lake. I did a
wine cellar window with renderings of
a vineyard and chateau, which was a
replica of the home. I did exercise
room mirrors with gymnasts in the
design, and I did bathroom windows
with bird and flower images."
Over the past 15 years, Kelman has
explored techniques and trends with

in glass because it seems the best
material for revealing my ideas."
Cohen became committed to art
while attending Groves High School
and enrolled in classes at the
Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center
and the Michigan Hot Glass
Workshop. Besides her sculpture,
Cohen also created a line of beaded
jewelry sold privately and to stores
and is a member of Girlie, a group
that promotes 50 local female artists.
"Currently, I am concentrating on
the process of slumping glass over a
variety of structures, from pod shapes
to bathtubs," says Cohen, whose
work is shown at Gallery:
FunctionArt in Pontiac, Creative
Resources in Birmingham and the
WARD Gallery in Harbor Springs.
A retrospective of the work of Jon
Kuhn, including pieces from his own
collection and collections of
Michigan glass enthusiasts, fills the
space at the Janice Charach Epstein
Museum/Gallery in West Bloomfield.

not very active in the
Jewish community
now, she celebrated
her bat mitzvah as an
adult member of
Congregation
T'chiyah.
"The Washington
Street group rented a
storefront to show our
Janet Kelman: "Royal Anemone," glass. Her recent work
own work and in
is inspired by her interest in deep-sea exploration.
December started hav-
ing guest artists," Kelman says. "We're
an informal group of 15 women
going to begin six-week shows and are
artists who meet for regular discus-
looking for artists to include.
sions. Last year, she began her associa-
"One of my reasons for joining the
tion with the 10 other artists at Ann
gallery
was the opportunity to start
Arbor's Washington Street Gallery to
new projects and show them without
renew her attention to smaller pieces.
having to go through a lot of work
For Michigan Glass Month in
finding exhibit space. I'm very happy
1999, she did seder plates. Although

Kuhn, whose pieces are in the collec-
tions of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York and the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington, D.C., works
with glass that is cut, fused, polished
and assembled cold.
"I'll be showing 20 years of work,"
says Kuhn, who lives in North -
Carolina and prefers glass because of
its three-dimensional qualities and its
access to images retained beneath the
surface. "The show pieces are repre-
sentative of periods in my life I can
never, go back to:Many current
forms show cubes that float in the
middle of the works."
Kuhn, interested in mysticism for a
time, has done Judaica although not on
any regular basis. The Jewish Museum
of San Francisco has a Ten
Commandments tablet that he created.
One-of-a-kind pieces by local and
national artists will fill Art Leaders
Gallery in West Bloomfield during
Michigan Glass Month. Leon
Applebaum, who creates massive tex-

tured pieces, will be among the
exhibitors.
"I juxtapose fluidity and control of
thick and massive glass," says
Applebaum, a New York state artisan
who uses all kinds of tools to alter
texture. As I shape and manipulate
the hot glass, optical impressions and
effects are created between the exteri-
or and the interior."
Applebaum, inspired by art nou
veau glass, learned many of his tech-
niques in Sweden.
"I like the immediacy of glass as
opposed to ceramics, and I like the
physical nature of glass, " he says. "I've
made menoras which are a
takeoff on my textural work."
Lance Friedman, whose
latest pieces will be at
Habatat Galleries in
Pontiac, is new to Michigan
Glass Month. He will be
showing three glass sculp-
tures, including Nested,
which consists of nine gold

with what I've come up with, and my
goal is to keep going with this new
work. I've always loved building clear
pieces that sparkle." ❑

"For the Love of Glass" will be
on display 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Tuesdays-Thursdays and 11
a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays,
April 4-May 6, at the
Washington Street Gallery, 215
East Washington Street, Ann
Arbor. A reception for the artist
runs 2-4 p.m. Sunday, April 9.
She also will be in the gallery
April 6, 15 (evening) and 27.
(734) 761-2287.

bird nests in an ebony grid.
"I'm interested in showing how
things are contained, says Friedman, a
Chicago glass specialist named one of
the "New Talents for the Millennium"
by actss magazine. "I think of my
work as intimate and glass as a very
challenging medium. There never is an
end to learning how to handle it.

--- Suzanne Ches.s-kr

For a Michigan Glass Month
brochure with complete listings,
call (248) 357-0783.

Counter-clockwise from. top left:
David Goldenhagen creates each piece of art glass at the end
of a blowpipe. His work is on display at Ariana Gallery.
Leon Applebaum juxtaposes fluidity and control of thick and
massive glass in his work, on exhibit at Art Leaders Gallo)].

Lauren Cohen: "Empty," glass, copper, steel, at Gallery:
FunctionArt. For Michigan Glass Month, she also shows her
work at the Prism Contemporary Glass Gallery in Pontiac.

A retrospective of the work of Jon Kuhn takes place at the
Janice Charach Epstein Museum/Gallery. Pictured are
"Stellar Specter" and "Sultan's Rainbow."

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