Arts & Entertainment

An Open-Door Policy

A new exhibit at the Janice Charach Gallery highlights emerging artists.

Elizabeth Applebaum

Special to the Jewish News

A

s a little girl, Jennifer
Maiseloff loved visiting
the Michigan Central
train station in Detroit. She loved
to take photographs of the once-
elegant decor and the rows and
rows of seats and the big hallways
that became, more and more
often, home to dust and thick
silence. Then she went home to
paint them.
But Maiseloff began to wonder:
\Vhat if she went beyond painting
what already exists and "created
my o‘,,ti world"?
Today, Maiseloff creates her
o\4-n worlds by painting on
wood — because she loves the
texture — and for the theater. A
graduate of the Royal Academy
of Dramatic Arts in London,
Maiseloff, 28, designs sets for the-
ater productions in England and
New York. She also is one of 11
artists whose works are included
in the new exhibit "Opening the
Doors To Fulfill Our Mission" at
Jennifer Maiseloff creates new worlds.
the Jewish Community Center
of Metropolitan Detroit's Janice
fierce texture. Here, she works with acrylics.
Charach Gallery
Another young artist whose works will
Janice, herself an artist, was only 38
be included in the new exhibit is Steven
when she died of cancer in 1989. In an
effort to help keep alive her dream of help- Gamburd of Oak Park.
Gamburd, 34, who has been drawing for
ing emerging artists find a place to display
their work, her parents, Natalie and Manny as long as he can remember, says his early
loves were Marvel Comics characters like
Charach of West Bloomfield, established
Spiderman, Wolverine, Hulk and X-men. "I
the Janice Charach Gallery.
Maiseloff, who grew up in West
was influenced by growing up with great
Bloomfield, says that designing a theater
comic art of the '80s and '90s," he says.
Gamburd began experimenting with
set is a combination of research and
watercolor, his favorite medium, when
imagination. First comes the research,
of course, which is the foundation. But
he was in high school. While attending
then "you step back," says Maiseloff, "and
Lansing Community College, he "really
you create your world!' Then the world
fell in love with watercolor" because he'll
becomes reality but only on this stage,
never be able to master it, he says.
and both the actors and audiences are
He begins with a general idea and then
transported to a place once solely in the
makes a rough sketch before starting to
imagination of the artist.
paint. The final step is going over those
Maiseloff does her storyboarding (first
works with ink "to give them a sharper
designing the set on paper) in watercolors, look."
In Gamburd's movement series,
which are more fluid and a bit dreamlike
included in the gallery exhibit, he uses two
and tend to have a mind of their own,
colors, layering each and working with
blending outside the lines to create a kind
various degrees of light and dark to create
of magical design, she says.
"an elaborate composition!"
For her paintings, though, Maiseloff likes
That "range of values really grabs your
wood because of its unfinished and often

Steven Gamburd's final step is going

over his watercolors with ink "to give
them a sharper look."

typical viewer will know Maddin, who
also is a graphic designer, loves it that
people always are amazed when they see
that he has carved an intricate design on
something that "appears to be so fragile
that at any moment it could fall apart."
One painting by the gallery's namesake
artist, as well as art from the emerging
artists, will be for sale at the show.
"Janice's paintings never lacked sym-
bols, and in this unique piece for sale that
is truly the case said Gallery Director
Terri Stearn. "Not only are their symbols,
but Janice included a story under the
painting which is very unique for her. The
blue sky comes to life, the young abstract
couple exudes love and the colors of the
background bring energy to her work.
This painting is truly a gem."

Elizabeth Applebaum is a marketing

eye he says. "There's just so much to
focus on and look at"
Gamburd also is a drummer with
the band Blacklodge. Music, he says,
allows him to use his left brain (the
logical, process-oriented side), while
his right brain is at work when he
paints.
For his newest art, Marc Maddin
combined a bit of a distant world (he
was inspired by the image of craters
on another planet) with the most basic of
objects here on Earth: an egg.
"I was looking for a new medium, and I
really wanted to get into carving; but carv-
ing on wood already had been done," says
Maddin, 36, of Walled Lake.
He decided to try carving on eggs
— not the kind you might scramble and
enjoy for breakfast, but much larger, studi-
er versions from the ostrich and emu.
Maddin, who also paints, buys many
of his eggs on eBay (they come unfertil-
ized and sterilised), then uses high-speed
tools to carve gentle, round circles in the
surface. Whether making the crater-like
images or wildlife scenes on the eggs,
carving is like tattooing, he says: "You have
to have a steady and light hand because
when you make a mark, it's not going
away."
Yet it's rare that the eggs break. In fact,
they are "so strong you can stand on one,"
Maddin explains. A baby emu or ostrich
depends on its mother to peck through
and let it out because the baby's own tiny
beak simply isn't strong enough.
Of course, this is not information the

specialist at the Jewish Community

Center of Metropolitan Detroit.

Marc Maddin's works require a "steady
and light hand."

"Opening the Doors To Fulfill Our
Mission" runs through July 16 at the
Janice Charach Gallery inside the
JCC, 6600 W. Maple Road in West
Bloomfield. Gallery hours are 10
a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and
noon-4 p.m. Sundays. (248) 432-
5579; jccdet.org .

June 4 • 2009

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