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 .