Arts & Entertainment

Gift of Nature

West Bloomfield artist Sandra Levin's landscape painting graces
this year's Our Town exhibit and sale in Birmingham.

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

s

andra Levin enjoys the
beauty of natural sur-
roundings and puts them
into her colorful paintings.
Dialogue, a landscape with two
empty chairs, was planned to
give the sense of repose and har-
mony she experiences in coun-
tryside settings. The artist com-
pleted her project on Mylar
acetate paper with water-based
acrylic paints.
The work will be among 343
projects featured in this year's
Our Town Art Show and Sale,
presented Thursday-Friday, Oct.
20-21, at the Birmingham
Community House.
"I grew up in Canada, where
there's a great tradition of land-
scape paintings:' says Levin,
whose West Bloomfield home
near a nature trail overlooks a
lake. "I get my ideas from all over
— taking walks, watching TV
and reading different publica-
tions."
Levin, who has been in the Our
Town exhibit in other years, was
juried into this show by Gregory
Wittkopp, director of the
Cranbrook Art Museum. An ear-
lier submission captured the
landscape of the Leelanau
Peninsula.
"Landscapes are what I want
to share with other people says
Levin, whose personal commit-
ments encouraged her to protest
the removal of natural sites.
"When I was 5, I used to say I
wanted to be an artist. I watched
artists on vacations in the
Laurentian Mountains, and I
worked with crayons and paint. I
even loved the smell of turpen-
tine:'
Levin took art classes in public
school and won prizes. After

52

Sandra Levin: Her landscape Dialogue was done with
water-based acrylic paints on Mylar acetate paper.

marrying and having two daugh-
ters, she returned to studies and
moved in gradual steps from
Oakland Community College to
Eastern Michigan University, the
Center for Creative Studies and
Wayne State University.
Her first show was at Temple
Israel, where she sold five paint-
ings. Other shows attracted the
interest of Marilyn Finkel, who
became her representative.
Levin's paintings, which some-
times capture abstract land-
scapes, have been on view at the
Janice Charach Epstein Gallery
and with the Michigan
Watercolor Society and the
Women in the Arts Invitational
as well as many other presenters.
Her projects also are shown in
corporate collections, such as
those of Meritor Automotive in
Troy and American Axel Co. in
Detroit.

With husband Edwin retired
and her daughters grown, Levin
can give more time to her work.
"I don't like to paint in dribs
and drabs:' explains Levin, who
has taught adult art students at
the Jewish Community Center. "I
like to work on one project with-
out stopping except for meals. I
make lists of things I have to
catch up with after each project
is finished:'

Other Artists

Four other Jewish artists also
have been juried into Our Town,
which will award $10,000 in
prize money. The opening pre-
view, a Community House bene-
fit, takes place 6-10 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 19, and includes
a dinner and live music. There
also will be an afterglow party
that same evening.

Harry Velick's Sycamore Twirl
is a random-shaped platter and
his fourth Our Town project.
"I've been turning wood for 10
years:' says Velick, an Oak Park
retiree. "I think of wood as warm
and pleasing to the eye and
touch:'
Velick, whose skills are self-
taught, has shown his projects at
the Detroit Artists Market and
the Birmingham Temple. He has
done carving and made furni-
ture.
Linda Zalla, who recently had a
one-person show at the Cary
Gallery in Rochester, has turned
more figurative for Our Town
with the collage Loves
Remembered. Based on a book
about a woman thinking of two
past loves, the piece has three
faces done with watercolors.
"I'm new to the storytelling
motif:' says Zalla, a Bloomfield

Hills resident who has been
active with Congregation Shaarey
Zedek.
Prudence Bernstein, a retired
West Bloomfield social worker
who has shown paintings at the
Janice Charach Epstein Gallery
and in the Michigan Watercolor
Society show, offers Synthesis, a
colorful abstract work suggesting
movement and vitality.
"Abstract is the way I work:'
says Bernstein, who has been a
member of the National Council
of Jewish Women and the Jewish
Community Center.
Deborah Friedman presents
two drawings in Our Town, both
taking her back to childhood.
Derived from photos, they are in
reaction to the recent death of
her mother.
"I always said I wouldn't be a
flower artist, but my mother
loved roses so I brought them
into both images with stamp
imprints," explains Friedman,
whose works have been shown at
the Paint Creek Center for the
Arts, placed in the corporate col-
lections of Pfizer and ABN Amro
and donated to the Fleischman
Residence.
"Good Girl has me alone, while
Yard of Roses places me with my
sister, Carol Holdengraber. As
someone who has been an
abstract artist, this is quite dif-
ferent."

❑

Our Town Art Show and
Sale runs 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Thursday-Friday, Oct. 20-21,
at The Community House,
380 South Bates,
Birmingham; free. $200 for
dinner preview 6-10 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 19; $75
for afterglow only. (248)
644-5832.

October 13- 2005

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