PASSIONS

Ingrained Talent

A collector of wood vessels discovers his own artistic flair.

BY LISA BRODY

B

y day, Allan Nachman is a
real-estate attorney at
Detroit-based Butzel Long,
focused on the deal. By night, he works
with chunks of wood, focused on art.
Nachman and his wife, Joy, fell in love
with art created of wood about 15 years
ago when, on a trip to Phoenix, they wan-
dered into the Hand and Spirit Gallery,
which was featuring a museum-quality
exhibit of Ed Moulthrop wood bowls. "I
had never seen that art form before, and
we bought a few pieces," he says.
The first vessel the couple pur-
chased was a very large bowl, and it sits

Allan and Joy

Nachman display a few

items from their 250-

piece-plus collection.

32 •

SEPTEMBER 2005 • JNPLATINUM

■

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS IVEY

prominently today against a large pic-
ture window in their living room in
Bloomfield Hills. Together, the
Nachmans began to look and buy at
local art shows, and then their interior
designers, David and Bobbye Goldburg
of Ingles & Associates in Bloomfield
Hills, introduced them to the decorative
art show Sculptural Objects and
Functional Art (SOFA) in Chicago.
Their interest expanded to encompass
baskets, ceramic vessels and beaded
objects, in addition to wood vessels.
"I'm very partial to miniatures," says
Joy, who often collects miniatures of larg-
er pieces in the house.
"I also try to collect the beaded pieces
whenever I can find them," she adds.
Today, the pair's collection includes
250-300 objects of varying sizes, all of
them vessels. Recognized by fellow col-
lectors and the art world as the Detroit
area's most prominent connoisseurs of
vessels, particularly wood vessels, the
Nachmans have featured pieces from
their collection in an exhibit at the Janice
Charach Epstein Gallery at the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield.
Some items were purchased at the for-
mer Sybaris Gallery in Royal Oak, back
in Phoenix at Hand and Spirit, SOFA
and art fairs. Others were found on the
Nachmans' travels all over the globe.
The Nachmans are members and cre-
ators of Collectors of Wood Art, sharing
their passion with 150 other members
from around the country, promoting the
art form and supporting wood artists in
an effort to raise the recognition of wood
art. "It's a hobby that enriches our lives,"
notes Joy.
In 1995, Nachman wanted to try his
hand at crafting the objects he loved. "At
the Birmingham Art Fair, I met a wood
artist from Indiana who I bought a few
pieces from. After a couple of years, I
asked him how I could make some, and
he suggested I look into learning from
wood artists," he recalls.
Nachman traveled to Berea College in
Berea, Kent., to study with Rudy
Osolnik, one of the country's foremost
wood turners. "He taught me the rudi-

mentary techniques of wood turning,"
says Nachman, who then bought a lathe
and tools, and turned his basement office
into a wood shop.
Over the last six years, Nachman has
studied with a number of other wood
carvers around the country, including the
arts and crafts schoolArrowmount in
Gatlinburg, Tenn., where he spent a
week in residence learning new tech-
niques. Once a year, he joins 10,000
other wood artists at the American
Association of Woodturners, attending
symposiums and live demonstrations on
different specialties, as well as buying
exotic woods.
In the collectors' home, it is difficult
to tell Nachman's beautifully turned
wood vessels from others in their collec-
tion. "I can't draw a figure or design, but
I love to take the wood and put it on the
lathe and create a design," he says. "The
thing I like the best about the craft is
when you get a piece of wood, you never
know what the grain is going to look like
until you turn it, and see what's inside.
It's like a surprise package, to see the
grain and color."
Nachman shares the gift of his art-
work, creating pieces as special bar and
bat mitzvah gifts for his nieces and
nephews. And he sees his love of wood
as a gift from the past. "It all goes back to
my father, who was a carpenter when he
came to the States from Russia. I helped
him in the summers. I have no doubt
that I was exposed to the beauty of the
wood from him." ❑