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Seeing With Fingers

"I liked what I saw in the sculpting
class," Abe Zitomer remembers. "I
liked the clay, I liked that every time I
looked at my work, I saw something
else to add to it. When we came back
[to Michigan], I started working on
my own. We built a studio about a
year after that visit to Palm Springs."
The studio, a generous, windowed
space that looks out onto the
Zitomers' park-like back yard, is large
enough to house all the tools of the
sculpting trade — chisels, stone, clay,
paints, sanders, drafting and work
tables. "In sculpting, more than in
painting or drawing," Zitomer
explains, "you have to see and feel.
What you see with your eyes you have
to get into with your fingers ... You
have to look at yourself [if you are
sculpting the human form], look
around you and really see."
Three years ago, at the age of 9 0 ,
Abe Zitomer became a teacher of
sculpture as well. One morning a
week, from 10 until noon, Zitomer
guides three "youngsters" as he calls
them, retirees in their 70s, to see with
their eyes and fingers.
"I never thought I could do it at
first. I have never taught anybody
anything. I resisted teachers my whole
life," he says, recalling the many
teachers who would pull him from his
desk when they caught him sketching.
"But after seeing the results with
my students, results that have come so
quickly, I was fascinated.
"It's a challenge to me to take
someone who has had absolutely no
art background and teach them to
sculpt."
And sculpt they do. Dan Babitch
of West Bloomfield has been working
with Zitomer for a year and a half.
He is as enthusiastic a student as a
teacher could want. "Abe's wife and
mine taught school together," Babitch
explains, "and one day my wife comes
home and asked me if I'd be interest-
ed in learning to sculpt.
"It's so rewarding. Abe isn't over-
powering, but he tells us what we -
need to do. It's a very friendly atmos-
phere and we are all supportive of one
another. Sometimes I have ideas of
my own and sometimes Abe gives us
books from his library and we take
our inspiration from his books."

"Golden Years"

Babitch is at work on two pieces at
the moment — one clay sculpture of
a terrier, a commission from some
friends, and a duo of faces reminis-
cent of the ubiquitous tragedy/come-
dy icon. Babitch's sculpted expressions
are on target, haunting and expressive.
The other student, Dr. Mathew
Borovoy of West Bloomfield, raves
about his sculpting teacher who for
years has been a patient in Borovoy's
podiatry practice. "One day," he
recalls, "Ruth [also a patient] told me
her husband was a sculptor and asked
if I would like to see his work. I came
by and when she saw my interest, she
asked if I would like to take lessons
from Abe. I grabbed at the chance."
Zitomer remembers the day
Borovoy came to his studio. "I gave
him some clay. 'Feel it, play around
with it,' I told him. And we talked. I
could see he was enjoying the clay