Art

Entertainsr

The Fabric Of Life

The Janice Charach Gallery's latest exhibit spins a beautiful
yarn of creativity, fiber and a birthday celebration.

Elizabeth Applebaum

Special to the Jewish News

I

magine the matriarch of Whistler's
Mother, her bony hands clutching a

pair of long, clacking needles as she
knits an afghan, groovy style circa 1967,
with yarn of chalky pink, dark brown and
green one shade lighter than lima beans.
It's not a pretty picture.
It's certainly not for the weak of heart.
But it doesn't have to be that way!
On Sunday, the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit's Janice
Charach Gallery will open an exhibit that
will knock the purple polyester socks off
anyone who ever believed the words "hand-
crafted art" invariably translates to "ugly
clothing."
"Not Your Grandma's Fiber Show" runs
Jan. 16-March 3 with an opening event at
1 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 16, including a patron
preview at noon.
The exhibit will highlight avant-garde
works of art and wearable items that are
cool, funky and with something to suit
every taste. Works by leading artists from
throughout the country will be featured,
and the exhibit will include fiber-art
creations by students, alumni and staff
of Eastern Michigan University's Art
Department, with guest curator Brooks
Harris Stevens.
"Think you've seen everything there is
to see in fiber?" said Gallery Director Terri
Stearn. "Well, think again. This fiber show is
like nothing you've ever experienced"
Consider, for example, Anne Flora, whose
life, like her art, is bright and richly textured.

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4

ma

Flora began as a printmaker, then worked
in social services in New York, and finally
graduated from culinary school, after
which she cooked gourmet meals for senior
citizens in Manhattan. She later worked as
director of University Unions Food Services
at the University of Michigan and owned a
bed and breakfast in Barmouth, Wales.
Flora and her husband, John, are the own-
ers of Floraworks, where Anne is a fiber art-
ist and John, a former English teacher who
also worked in hotel management, serves as
accountant and marketing director.
The works of Urszula Gogol, of Chicago,
also will be included in "Not Your
Grandma's Fiber Show."
"I come from five generations of seam-
stresses',' Gogol says. "My maternal great-
great-grandmother and my great-grand-
mother made a living by tailoring dresses.
Next generation after that: My grandmother,
and mother, had only the basic sewing skills.
"Today's needle works that I create take
on conceptual and narrative meaning, yet
still the needle feels like that natural exten-
sion of my hand.
"My visual vocabulary consists of a mod-
em range of materials',' she added. "I stitch
on paper and vinyl. The transformation
accrues by hand stitching, coiling, layering
and weaving the thread onto paper. The
forms that I create emphasize the movement
and rhythm of the human body. I think of
each specific element in my art piece as fluid
cells that are searching for unity. I make the
shapes' departure from the flat surface of
paper by exploring the application of a single
strain of yarn to flat-surfaced vinyl. The
circular motion of stitching forces the vinyl

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

Golden Globes

The 2011 Golden Globes Awards airs
live on NBC 8-11 p.m. Sunday, Jan.16.
The Jewish nominees in the TV
categories include: best actress, com-
edy/musical, Lea Michele (Glee); best
actress, drama, Kyra Sedgwick (The
Closer) and Julianna Margulies (The
Good Wife); best supporting actor,
Scott Caan (Hawaii 5-0).
Jewish film nominees: best actress,
drama, Natalie Portman (Black Swan);
best actor, drama, James Franco (127
Hours) and Jesse Eisenberg (The

36

January 13 • 2011

Social Network); best actor, comedy,
Jake Gyllenhaal (Love and Other
Drugs); best supporting actress, Mila
Kunis (Black Swan); best supporting
actor, Andrew Garfield (The Social
Network) and Michael Douglas (Wall
Street: Money Never Sleeps); best
director, Darren Aronofsky (Black
Swan) and David 0. Russell (The
Fighter); best screenplay, Aaron
Sorkin (The Social Network), Lisa
Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg
(The Kids are Alright) and David
Seidler (The King's Speech); best
song, Alan Menken (Tangled) and
Diane Warren (Burlesque); best score,
Danny Elfman (Alice in Wonderland).

shape to expand and create bloat forms,
then I stitch over them with needle to create
translucence." ! I

Elizabeth Applebaum is a marketing specialist
at the Jewish Community Center

of Metropolitan Detroit.

"Not Your Grandma's Fiber
Show" runs Jan.16-March 3 at
the Janice Charach Gallery in
the Jewish Community Center
in West Bloomfield. There will be
an opening event 1 p.m. Sunday,
Jan. 16. The gallery is open to
the public at no charge. Hours
are Monday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-
5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.;
and Sunday, noon-4 p.m. The JCC
is located at 6600 W. Maple Road
in West Bloomfield. For informa-
tion, go to www.jccdet.org .

You, Too, Can Fiber

Ready to create a scarf, shawl or
other awesomely fiberlicious item
of your own?
All artists, fiber lovers or those
who simply want a great after-
noon are invited to join Kathy
Shanteau at 11 a.m. Wednesday,
Feb. 2, to make their own fiber
work of art to keep.
The class is three hours long,
and there is a small materials
fee. Reservations are required to
(248) 432-5579.

The best foreign film category
includes films written and directed
by, respectively, a Danish Jew
(Susanne Bier, In a Better World) and
a Romanian-born French Jew (Radu
Mihaileanu, The Concert).

New Flicks

Jennifer
Connelly

Opening Friday, Jan.
14, are The Dilemma
and The Green
Hornet.
The former is a
Ron Howard com-
edy starring Vince
Vaughn and Kevin
James as brothers

Above:
Art by Anne
Flora, whose
talents also
extended to the
culinary and
social services
fields

Right:
Art by Urszula
Gogol, who
uses swirls to
echo human
movement

Happy Birthday!

This year, the Janice Charach Gallery
turns 20 years old, and the celebration
is certain to take the cake. And to get it
started — something truly bright!
In conjunction with the opening of
"Not Your Grandma's Fiber Show,"
Gallery Director Terri Stearn and
Assistant Director Hillary Levin have cre-
ated a two-dimensional mural picturing
a delicious birthday cake that will cover
part of a wall in the gallery, leading up to
the second floor.
Guests who visit at any time dur-
ing the exhibit may purchase candles
(wooden ones, of course. Real ones, while
eye-catching, would burn down the build-
ing — and that would be a bit of a prob-
lem) to be affixed to the birthday cake
mural. Each candle costs $18 and may be
inscribed with a name in honor of a birth-
day, bar/bat mitzvah or other occasion.
All proceeds will benefit the gallery.

- Elizabeth Applebaum

who are trying to land a big auto
design contract. Jennifer Connelly
plays Vaughn's girlfriend, and Winona
Ryder plays James' wife.
Hornet stars Seth Rogen in the
title role; he also co-wrote the flick.
As the film begins,
Britt Reid (Rogen), a
slacker, inherits his
father's huge fortune.
He uses the money
to buy high-tech stuff
and launches himself
as the Green Hornet,
a crime-fighting vigi-
Seth Rogen
lante. LI