Arts & Entertainment

Left: Alice Frank: Sunlit Reflection, watercolor. Right: Frank created this necklace with hand-blown glass and antique Venetian glass beads.

Doubly Frank

West Bloomfield artist's work is showcased in two solo exhibitions.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

A

lice Frank joins the many artists
represented in diverse Michigan
Glass Month exhibits in April,
but she does not restrict herself to glass
projects alone.
Frank works with various media, and
her work can be seen in two solo shows on
view this month — one at the Lawrence
Street Gallery in Ferndale and the other
at the Birmingham Conference Center in
Beverly Hills.
"Alice Frank: Artistic Expressions" in
Ferndale features sculptures with enamel
(ground glass) coatings, jewelry with glass
beads, monoprints and watercolors. The
Beverly Hills show also includes a variety
of media but omits jewelry.
"Each piece of art has a unique per-
sonality, which I think draws appeal from
the energy and thoughts that were sur-
rounding me during the creative process;'
says Frank, who has two sculptures in the
permanent collection of the Holocaust
Memorial Center in Farmington Hills.
"I hope the scope and variety of each
exhibit will serve to intrigue, surprise and
possibly delight people in ways that they
might not have thought works of art could
do."
A series of three enamel-on-metal
sculptures Reach, Reach Again and
Reach Again and Again — were done
in response to a series of health issues
recently faced by the artist and her family.

—

The pieces, planned to capture strength
and steer away from anything depressing,
have figures stretching upward with the
idea that people have to keep on seeking
their dreams despite any difficulties.
In contrast, viewers will see examples
of Frank's glass jewelry, which were com-
pleted without the deeper meaning found
in the titled sculpture.
"I collect glass beads from all over, and
I have made series of glass beads on my
own," Frank says about the origins of her
jewelry. "I had them tucked away in a
cabinet and decided to incorporate them
into necklaces. Each one is different and
developed independently."
For the Beverly Hills exhibit, Frank, 63,
includes a series of three black and white
enamel-on-metal pieces that become very
different as the light changes or viewers
observe from different angles.
Planning artwork that changes as the
viewing changes has several places in the
Frank exhibits; she includes hidden imag-
es, such as a face, in large abstractions.
Although the Frank shows have no
specifically Jewish artwork, Jewish cul-
tural influences do enter into the mix
through whimsical sculptural figures.
The names of characters can relate to
Jewish or Yiddish phrases. Faye Esmere is
taken from the lament "oy vey iz mir." Sy
Gazundt derives from "zei gezunt" ("be
well").
"When I'm doing my whimsical pieces,
my sole purpose is to bring a smile to
somebody's face Frank explains. "I think

of them as fun to look at and give them
fun names
Frank tracks her interest in art to child-
hood, when she became intrigued by color
and spent considerable time drawing.
"I remember lying in the grass as a kid
and seeing how many different shapes
and feelings I could get from watching the
clouds;' she recalls. "One of the things I
like about watercolor is that it reminds me
of how clouds move. The color just moves
across the paper gracefully.
"In a similar way, I find it intriguing
to watch enamel after it has been heated.
The enamel comes out of the furnace with
an incredibly orange color that changes
into different colors during the cooling
process:'
Frank, who works out of a home studio
in West Bloomfield, studied art history at
the University of Michigan and included
art as an important part of the lessons she
presented as an elementary school teacher.
During travels to Asia in the 1960s, she
observed different artistic approaches in
South Korea, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia
and incorporated these influences into her
work.
As Frank pursued her artistry in the
1970s, she focused on large weavings and
watercolors. Explorations of metal enam-
eling followed, and she developed a line of
jewelry carried by Saks Fifth Avenue and
Neiman Marcus. Larger works became her
next interest.
The Ann Arbor Art Fairs, Arts and
Apples Art Fair and Temple Israel Art

Show, among others, have showcased
Frank's artistry.
Frank, a member of Temple Kol Ami,
hopes the variety of her work can draw
a variety of people into the two current
exhibits. The Lawrence Street Gallery
show came about from her continuing
commitment to the art collective. The
Birmingham Conference Center show
developed through an invitation from cen-
ter administration.
"I can go into my studio and think I've
been working for 45 minutes when really
four or five hours have gone by'' says
Frank, wife of attorney Sidney Frank and
the mother of three.
"I get up early in the morning and could
be down in my studio painting as early
as 5:30 a.m. Sometimes, I'll go into the
studio at 10 or 11 p.m. and paint until 2 or
3 a.m." I I

For more on Michigan Glass Month, see
page 36.

"Alice Frank: Artistic Expressions"
is on view through April 27 at the
Lawrence Street Gallery, 22620
Woodward, in Ferndale, where an
opening reception runs 6-9 p.m.
Friday, April 6. Gallery hours are
noon-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays.
(248) 544-0394. Other works will
be shown throughout April at the
Birmingham Conference Center,
31301 Evergreen, in Beverly Hills.
(248) 203-3670.

April 5 2007

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