krts & Entertainment

Capturing The Outdoors

Southfield artist Diane Zogut focuses
her talents on flowers and landscapes.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

L

ine remains Diane Zogut's prime artistic inter-
est so colorful pencil drawings stand out as her
means of expression.
Twenty of those drawings — landscapes and florals
— are being shown throughout May as the Community
House in Birmingham recognizes her as Artist of the
Month.
"I consider my work very contemporary because
there is some abstraction and distortion in the draw-
ings," says Zogut, 60, a Southfield resident. "I love the
outdoors, and my travels and garden projects are cap-
tured in my work."
Purple Time, with a tree at the center and branches
winding throughout, showcases an outdoor scene
with sky and background in shades of purple. Garden
Flowers offers another look at nature with a different
array of colors. Samana, D.R. presents some native blos-
soms of the Dominican Republic.
"I'm not interested in the typical interpretation of
flowers and landscapes," says Zogut, a former Southfield
art teacher whose shadings give a sense of texture to the
plant life she captures. "My aim is to make my drawings
strong and vivid."
Zogut's one-woman show represents a lifelong inter-
est in art.
"As soon as I was able to pick up a pencil, do finger
painting and dig up clay from our yard in Oak Park, I
knew what was special to me," says Zogut, who earned
a bachelor of fine arts degree at Eastern Michigan

University and has devoted some of her talents to
ceramics.
Although her projects do not have Jewish themes,
they have been displayed at Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield and at the Birmingham Temple in
Farmington Hills. Her art also has been part of the Art
in the Village fair in Clarkston and a display housed at
the Mercy Center in Farmington Hills.
Zogut's commitment to two and three-dimensional
pieces recently was shown in Birmingham, where she
was selected to decorate a large outdoor dog sculpture
for Dog Town, a fundraising event sponsored by the
Community House. Her canine, with a parrot riding on
top and flowers included, was sponsored by Woodward
& Maple, a boutique in downtown Birmingham.
"My drawings have been inspired by what I grow,"
says Zogut, who plants flowers in her own yard and is
a third-year senior gardener for the city of Southfield.
"I enjoy working with colorful perennials and exotic
varieties:'
Zogut, who is married to Robert Shapiro, has done
graphics work for state government. A lifelong member of
the Eleanor Roosevelt Group of Hadassah, she has been
affiliated with the National Council of Jewish Women,
Congregation Beth Shalom and Adat Shalom Synagogue.
"I'm very happy to have more time to devote to travel
and art:' says Zogut, a retiree. "There's a corner in my
den set aside for my drawing.
"I've worked from photos taken during trips to
many places, including Hawaii and the Caribbean. I
like to visit gardens and remember my impressions
through my art."

In addition to her artistic pursuits, Diane Zogut is a third-

year senior gardener for the city of Southfield.

Purple Time

New Mexico

Garden Flowers

Diane Zogut's work is
on display throughout
May on the second
floor of the Community
House, 380 S. Bates,
in Birmingham. Hours
are 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
weekdays and vary
over the weekends.
(248) 644-5832; www.
communityhouse.com .

ews

y

14.1 I Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

s um

Shayna Punims

, The April 30 issue of People maga-
zine was a double-blockbuster and a
vow huge seller. Not only did it include the
(111 first interview with Sandra Bullock
about her adopted baby, it contained
this year's list of "the world's most
beautiful people."
People gives the "really hot" a full-
body photo in the magazine spread.
In that category, you'll find actresses
Dianna Agron, 24;
Emanuelle Chriqui,
32; Scarlett
Johansson, 25; and
Julianna Margulies,
42. Actor Jake
Gyllenhaal, 29,
earned a large
photo, as did singer
Dianna Agron

40

to)

52 M y

• o

iN

Adam Lambert, 28.
Limited to a head-
shot and relegated
to a sub-category,
like "beauty at any
age," were actresses
Zoe Kravitz, 21;
Kate Hudson, 31;
Adam
Lisa Edelstein, 43;
Lambert
Rashida Jones,
34; Jane Seymour, 59; and Barbra
Streisand, 68.
On the People.com website, howev-
er, all the Semitic cuties, above, were
given "full-body shots."

TV Notes

Leonard Nimoy, 79, says he is retiring
from acting so his guest appearance
on the two-part season finale of the
Fox series Fringe is probably his TV
swan song. The first part airs 9 p.m.
Thursday, May 13, with the conclusion

the next week at the same time.
Neil Patrick Harris will guest-star
on Glee 9 p.m. Wednesday, May 19, on
FOX in an episode titled "Dream On."
Harris will play school-board member
Bryan Ryan, a former glee-cub rival
of teacher and glee club director Will
Schuester (Matthew Morrison).
Also returning for
four more weeks
beginning May 19 is
Broadway musical
star Idina Menzel,
38. There was a lot
of talk on fan Web
sites that Menzel
Idina Menzel
would appear on the
show as the biologi-
cal mother of high-school student
Rachel Berry, the Jewish lead char-
acter of Glee, who was adopted by an
interracial, gay couple.
Menzel and actress Lea Michele,

23, who plays Berry,
bear a striking physi-
cal resemblance
to each other and
casting Menzel as
Berry's mother
seemed right.
However, in her
Lea Michele
first appearance on
the show a few weeks ago, Menzel
played the coach of the Glee kids'
biggest rival club.
Michele, who is the daughter of
a Sephardic Jewish father and an
Italian Catholic mother, recently told
Seventeen that when she was in high
school, she worked in a New Jersey
bat mitzvah dress shop, cleaning and
vacuuming. She did this in between
her first Broadway singing engage-
ments, including a part in a 2004
revival of Fiddler on the Roof.
Ever wonder about the actor who

