Start photos by Armando Rios

Joseph Bolotina, photographed in front

of one of his murals at the Meer Family
Friendship Center in West Bloomfield

Russian-trained
artist Joseph
Bolotina brings
beauty to lives
of children with
special needs.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

C

hildren with special
needs learn to master
everyday tasks — and
have some fun along the way
— by participating in programs
offered by the Friendship Circle in
West Bloomfield.
The Ferber Kaufman Life Town
in the Meer Family Friendship
Center lets the youngsters enter
a simulated town square, where
they can go into a drugstore, visit
a pet shop with real animals and
use an actual ATM machine.
Before stepping down the stairs

or boarding the elevator that takes
them into the areas for life skills
learning, youths are surrounded
by original art covering two of
the walls in the main entry of the
instruction and activities center.
The area's mosaics — depict-
ing different stages of creation
— were completed by Joseph
Bolotina, an artist who moved to
the United States from Russia in
1997.
One mosaic shows the sun,
greenery and water as the earliest
elements making up the Earth's
• environment. The other mosaic
places animals amid the greenery.
Instead of showing facial fea-

tures for Adam and Eve, Bolotina
has two oval mirrors where the
faces would otherwise be. The
mirrors were used out of respect
for religious tenets, taken from
Halachah, that forbid the use of
human images.
"I am committed to this project
because I believe children need to
experience art in their everyday
lives just as much as they need
other experiences," says Bolotina,
37, hired to design and arrange
the colorful, tiled scenes.
"One of my best times at the
building was when I observed a
little girl in a wheelchair looking
closely at one of the mosaics. She

had asked her mother to take a
few minutes so that she could
study the scene before her.
"Of course I want everyone
to enjoy seeing what I did, but
watching a little girl appreciate
my designs is especially meaning-
ful for me. I hope that the other
children like what I have done as
much as she seemed to:'

Family Career
Bolotina developed his own
appreciation for art as a youngster
with inspiration right at home. He
admired the sculptural work of
his father and grandfather, both
professional artists, and decided

he wanted to pursue the same
field.
After learning the basics in his
dad's studio, he had his first solo -
show "Dogs and All Others:' com-
pleted when he was 10 years old,
presented lifelike sculptures as
seen from a child's perspective.
The young sculptor went on
to a school for the gifted in what
used to be Grozny (the capital city
of Chechnya), where he majored
in life drawing and composition.
He went on to earn a degree in
monumental art and design from
the Institute of Industrial and
Fine Arts in the same city The
degree program placed him in the