Art
tertainment
Rare Earth, Precious Metal
Pottery, jewelry and a bit of something for everyone are
featured in a new exhibit at the Janice Charach Gallery.
Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News
F
unky city life, elegant necklaces
of polished silver, Mother Earth
and an art gallery may sound
like unlikely partners, but Terri Stearn
makes it work.
Stearn is director of the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit's Janice Charach Gallery, where
she is building a city of sorts in anticipa-
tion of the gallery's newest exhibit.
Hillary Levin, assistant director, and
Steam have been scouring the Metro
Detroit area in search of "glass windows,
pedestals, old doors and crazy, cool stuff"
to create the urban look that will serve as
the backdrop for "Earth and Metal:'
Opening Sunday, June 6, "Earth and
Metal" will feature jewelry and pottery by
a diverse collection of artists. All items will
be for sale and offer a bit of something for
every taste and pocket, with prices begin-
ning at about $30 to pricier one-of-a-kind
gold items decorated with gemstones.
"Earth and Metal" marks a completely
ews
new theme for the gallery. Stearn and
Levin spent more than a year in search of
exceptional art, looking everywhere from
Web sites to restaurants.
Yes, restaurants.
Stearn was out to dinner when she
noticed another patron whose necklace, a
kind of modern take on a 1940s look, with
large, glorious glass flowers, was exquisite.
She introduced herself to Michelle Shornack
— and then invited her to exhibit her work.
Shornack, like many other artists whose
works are featured, stands out not only
for her graceful skill but her diversity. The
flower necklace will be for sale at "Earth
and Metal" as will Shornack's contempo-
rary necklace that looks like a waterfall of
bright beads.
About half the exhibit comprises jew-
elry; the other half is pottery: cups, vases
of all sizes, plates.
Stearn, with an artist's eye, appreciates
every detail of every item: the crafting of a
necklace made, surprisingly, of wood and
shimmering with bits of mother-of-pearl
by Bryan and Jessica Vanloo; the gentle
blue of a mug by Dana Menken; wine stop-
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
lw -
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Aldous Redux
The 2008 hit comedy Forgetting Sarah
Marshall featured England's Russell
Brand as the delightfully quirky Aldous
Snow, a British rock star who woos
away the girlfriend of the film's hero,
played by Jason Segel (who also wrote
the film). Directing the movie was
Nicholas Stoller.
Now, Stoller, 34, has written and
directed Get Him to the Greek, opening
Friday, June 4. Brand is back as Snow,
whose career is ruined after he puts
out a music video about Africa that
everybody but him takes as incredibly
offensive. He starts seriously abusing
drugs and drink.
Enter Aaron
Green (Jonah
Hill, 27) a record-
company intern
who successfully
proposes a come-
back performance
for Snow at Los
Angeles' Greek
38
June 3 2010
Theatre. The comedic plot has Green
made responsible for getting the
addled Snow to the theater.
Fearsome Foreman
On Saturday, June 5, after the sun
has set and Shabbat is over, Yuri
Foreman, 29, an Orthodox Jew and
the current holder
of the World Boxing
Association (WBA)
Super welterweight
championship, will
enter a ring in the
middle of Yankee
Stadium. He will
Yuri Foreman
box Miguel Cotto,
the holder, at vari-
ous times, of three boxing champion-
ships. They will fight for the WBA
junior welterweight title (154 pounds).
The bout will be televised live on
HBO's World Championship Boxing,
beginning at 10:15 p.m.
There is no clear favorite in this
match, which is the "main event" of
the night. Cotto, who is of Puerto
Rican background, has fought better
competition than Foreman. But he has
pers, made by Jeanette Risco; fine silver
pins displayed not on cardboard but deep-
black metal holders — works of art in
themselves — by Mark Beltchenko.
Among the artists included in the exhibit
is Amy Hiller, who grew up in Franklin and
can't remember a time when she hasn't
been passionate about art.
"I truly love and care about what I
design and make — I even lose sleep over
it." she says. "The majority of my custom-
ers become close friends.
"One of my favorite pieces is a leopard
pendant that is 14K white gold with bril-
liant cut and black diamonds',' she says. "It
is only about 1.5 inches high, but it is really
cool. Of course, I like everything that I
make, but this piece was really special."
"You can see Stearn says, "that we did
not go for mainstream with this exhibit."
But they did go for adventure and free-
dom and fun and a bit of the whole wide
world. "Earth and Metal," Stearn says, "is
everything you could imagine."
❑
Elizabeth Applebaum is a marketing specialist
at the JCC.
not been boxing that well in the last
few years and is fighting at a weight
that is higher than usual for him.
Foreman has attracted enormous
attention in the Jewish and secular
press. The reasons are obvious: He is
an Orthodox Jew who can fight, he is
well along in his studies to become a
rabbi, he's good looking and his wife,
Leyla Leidecker, 29, a professional
model, documentary filmmaker and
former top pro boxer, trained Hillary
Swank to box for her Oscar-winning
role in Million Dollar Baby.
Foreman, born in Belarus, moved to
Israel when he was 9 and learned to
box in an Arab gym there. He moved
to the U.S. in 2000 and turned pro in
2002.
Neither he, nor Leidecker, a native
of Hungary, was religious when they
met in 2003 and fell in love. However,
they both felt something was miss-
ing from their lives. Not long after
they started dating, Leidecker looked
into Kabbalah classes, which led, in
a roundabout way, to both of them
taking classes about Judaism with an
Orthodox rabbi.
Bangle by Ashley Heidrich
"Earth and Metal" runs June 6-July 15.
The gallery will hold a patron pre-
view, for anyone who has donated
$100 or more, at noon on June 6. The
patron event features champagne,
mimosas and light refreshments, the
chance to meet the artists and a
private showing of winners of a jew-
elry contest sponsored by Grinstein
Jewelry & Design in Birmingham.
"Earth and Metal" is free and open
to the general public beginning at 1
p.m. June 6.
The Janice Charach Gallery is open
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday
and noon-4 p.m. Sunday and is
located inside the Jewish Community
Center, 6600 W. Maple Road, in West
Bloomfield. For more information:
(248) 432-5579 or www.jccdet.org .
It was a gradual process, but they
both got more and more into the
study of Judaism; and Leidecker who
wasn't born Jewish, underwent an
Orthodox conversion in 2006. The
couple follows virtually all Orthodox
practices, including keeping kosher
and not working on the Sabbath.
White House Welcome
As this item went to press, all of
Washington was buzzing about who
would be invited to the first-time
ever White House reception honoring
"Jewish Heritage Month" on May 27.
The White House
wouldn't release
the guest list, but
confirmed attend-
ees include singer
Regina Spektor,
Regina
Spektor
scheduled to
perform at the
reception; Olympic
swimming star
Dara Torres; Mindy
Finkelstein, who was wounded in 1999
attack on a Los Angeles Jewish Center
and children's author Judy Blume. Li