Arts & Eniertainment Nelson packs up a collage for exhibit at FerndalA Lawrence Street Gallery. — — Moving On THE LIVING ROOM JCC gallery director steps down to pursue her own career as a hands-on artist. TouR Saturday July 9 On Sale Now TICKETS THROUGH Palacejletcom THE PALACE BOX OFFICE, ALL ticketrnar LOCATIONS CHARGE BY PHONE AT 248.645,6666. unique private rooms suitable for engagement parties, bridal showers, ' 73 me al they're hot 3 course dinner $15.95 m - F, 3 - 6pm happy hour m- F, 4 - 7pm 000000 country europcan cuisine. "Restaurant of the Year" - Hour Derma magazane 2004 991590 Enjoy the JN without JR 6/30 2005 46 breaking the bank! for about a dollar a week, you can have the JN delivered to your door. Call today to start your subscription 248.354.6060 .51691611111KOMMVIONIIIIIMMIIKW... • 1 824 wes t 14 m ile ro ad, roy a l oak, m ichig an 4807 3 248- 655- 5000 www. boocoo. com 995890 "It or diEADOW BROOK SUZANNE CHESSLER Special to the Jewish News S ylvia Nelson has devoted more than 12 years of workdays to many kinds of artists, but she is about to give her work time to just one — herself. Nelson, director of the Janice Charach Epstein Gallery at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield, has decided to retire from administrative responsibilities and instead expend her energy completing and placing her own paintings and collages. Although she'll continue at the JCC until a replacement has been found and trained, Nelson already has been asked to be part of a group exhibit, Invitational '05, running July 5-29 at the Lawrence Street Gallery in Ferndale. Her position at the Epstein Gallery made her 'eligible for the upcoming show, which consists of work done by mentors, muses, peers and former students of the artists managing the co-op space. Nelson, who shares a mall studio . with two other artists, was brought into the invitational by one of her studio mates. "I submitted two collages for the exhibit, and the people planning it will choose one," says Nelson, 59, of Farmington Hills, who adds dimen- sion to her pieces by using recycled materials. "One collage, called Escape, is a tex- tured painting with butterflies appear- ing to be exiting the piece through a crack. The other collage, called M2, has a combination of pastels with orange letters referenced in the title. "Whatever I do generally combines a lot of materials. I'm enamored of the shapes of letters and numbers, and I keep clippings from magazines and newspapers so that I can work them into different projects." Although Nelson has been using personal time to develop her artistic interests, including the crafting of jewelry from found objects, she only has shown one project at the gallery. Nelson, mindful of conflict-of- interest issues, allowed herself to make a tzedakah box for a group show that was a fund-raising effort for the space. Nelson's box, titled Tzedakah Is a Four-Letter Word, was covered with words related to philanthropy — give, hope, love and care. "I ran the words together and used red to emphasize that tzedakah comes from the heart," Nelson says. 200 Exhibits The director's artistry, always abstract, has come from her heart since child- hood, when favorite elementary school field trips took her to muse- urns. She remembers the first affirma- tion of her work as a teacher's recom- mendation that a painting of hers be placed in an art show. After majoring in painting at the University of Michigan, Nelson was hired to plan Woodward windows at Hudson's in downtown Detroit. One year after graduation, she married real estate developer David Robert Nelson and decided to stay out of the work- force while their three children were still young.