Arts
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
Id
itch Wolok left
Michigan in the late
1970s as a plumbing
contractor but returns
periodically as a wood-turning artist.
Wolok, now at home in Florida,
will be among 300 artists in this year's
Birmingham Fine Arts Festival. He
will show his latest collection of work
May 13-14 in a display area that fills
Shain Park and adjacent streets in
downtown Birmingham.
The transition from plumber to
artist took many years, but it brought
Wolok back to an interest he had as a
youngster attending classes at the
Detroit Institute of Arts. The once
hobby gradually became his livelihood
after he switched careers from plumb-
ing to roofing, enrolled in classes,
joined an artists club and took advan-
tage of opportunities to market the
decorative ware claiming more and
more of his attention.
"The fun of the bowls is making
them, so I have no interest in keeping
them," says the wood-turner, also
showing his wine-bottle stoppers. "I
always think tomorrow is going to
have a better bowl."
Wolok, a cousin of the late basket
artist Lillian Wolock Eliott, plies his
craft at a machine that spins the piece
as he chisels away. He keeps the
appearance natural.
"This process is the opposite of clay
processes," Wolok explains. "With
clay, the artist adds; with wood, the
artist takes away and gets only one
shot. I use salvaged logs that have
ranked the show 24th in both fine arts
and fine crafts.
Adding •to the ambience of the fair
are food courts set up by local restau-
rants and children's events. For the first
time, a ticketed preview party, First
The Birmingham Fine Art Festival kicks off
Fest, will be held 6-9 p.m. Friday, May
a season of visual delights.
12, at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art
Center to showcase what will be
offered at the actual event.
"I do about 20 to 30 shows a year
and take between 30 and 50 bowls to
each one," says Wolok, whose pieces
also are carried by the Ariana Gallery
in Royal Oak. "My studio is across the
alley from my home, where I continue
to find that wood is a very warm
material."
Wolok, easing his way into retire-
ment and cutting back on the number
of fairs he attends, plans to follow
some new instincts as he gets more
sculptural with his projects. He regrets
he can't continue a project in Panama,
where he taught Indians how to make
bowls by wrapping rope around a piece
of wood, stepping down on the cord
and spinning the material.
-VMY:
The artist was invited to Panama
WW1
•
after
another volunteer read an article
15806241521120#1%&
about him, but, Wolok laments, the
Former Detroiter Mitch Wolok
level of crime has made the country
features his wood-turned vessels
too dangerous for American travelers.
and bowls at the Birmingham
Stuart Golder, a Cincinnati artist,
Fine Art Festival.
will travel to the Birmingham fair for
the first time to show his woven jewel-
The fair is a production of the
been cut down by storms or people."
ry. Working with 18-karat gold, he
Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center
Wolok, who attended Cass
developed a process that gives his
and the Birmingham-Bloomfield
Technical High School and was a
rings, necklaces and bracelets a differ-
Chamber of Commerce. The 1999
member of Temple Kol Ami, comes to
ent identity.
ArtFair Source Book nationally ranked
a fair that has an 18-year history and
"I make loom-woven gold jewelry,
the fair 20th in fine arts and 39th in
now draws 60,000 visitors. There will
weaving
by hand in a way that cloth is
contemporary crafts, and the 1999
be ceramics, sculpture, glass, paint-
woven
on
a loom," says Golder, who
Sunshine Artist 200 best arts shows list
ings, photos and jewelry.
Art Fair Fever
Let The Art Pairs Begin
Spring and summer signal a plethora of art fairs in the metro
Detroit area. In addition to the Birmingham Fine Art Festival
previewed above, here is a listing of some of the highlights
around town scheduled in the coming months.
May 12-13 -- Mount
Clemens 20th Annual Art
Fair
The Art Center &
Downtown Merchants
Downtown Mount
Clemens
(810) 469-8666
June 3-4 — Art on the
Avenue
5/12
2000
116
Dearborn Community
Arts Council
Monroe Street, Dearborn
(313) 943-3095
June 3-4 --- Annual
Springfuried Art Show
Grosse Pointe Artists
Association
Elworthy Park, Grosse
Pointe
(313) 882-4626
June 10-11 — Art on
the Pointe
Assistance League to
Northeast Guidance
Center
Edsel 86 Eleanor
Ford House
Grosse Pointe Shores
(313) 882-3220
June 10-11 — Livonia
Art in the Village
Livonia Arts
Commission
Greenmead Historical
Village, Livonia
(734) 466-2540, Ext. 3
June 10-11 --- Sixth
Annual West Bloomfield
Art Festival
Howard Alan Events
Henry Ford Medical
Center, Maple Road,
west of Orchard
Lake Road
(954) 472-3755
June 14 — Women of
Bloomfield Art & Craft
Show
•
•
.
.
First United Methodist
Church
Birmingham
(248) 3358308
June 16-18
—
Strawberry Festival of Arts
& Crafts
Trinity Episcopal
Church, Belleville
(734) 699-3361
June 17-18 — Art in the
Sun
Northville Chamber of
Commerce
Downtown Northville
(248) 349-7640
June 24-25 — Annual
Fine Art 6- Fine Cra
Show
D & M Studios/Canton
Township Parks 86
Recreation
Heritage Park, Canton
Township
(734) 453-3710
July 1-2 — Art in the
Woods
City Of Huntington
Woods
Huntington Woods
Lutheran Church, 11
Mile Road
(248) 543-9720
July 8-9 — Royal Oak
Recreation/Royal Oak Arts
Council
Royal Oak Memorial
.