arts & entertainment

Bruce Reinfeld:

Lone Star Bus,

black-and-white

photography,

colored with oils

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.*:r`Ar s

and airbrushed.

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Art Extravaganza

More than 1,100 artists will display a variety of juried selections in the
four separate shows comprising the Ann Arbor Art Fairs.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Philadelphia, has shown her work in Ann
Arbor and thinks of the annual event as
having the best quality of work she has
seen at fairs. She will be in Booth A138 at
the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair.
"I like the interaction with fair visi-
tors," says Adelson, who grew up in a
Conservative home and discovered jewelry
design just clicked with her. "The people I
meet help give me ideas for new pieces:'
In a very different approach to art,
Jews Kick Ass is an iconic image of
Bruce Reinfeld, an urban photographer
whose career also includes performing
as frontman for the band High Fidelity
Distribution Co.
While this will be Reinfeld's first time at
the Ann Arbor Art Fair (Booth E108 in the
South University section), he has appeared
with his band at Arts, Beats & Eats,
returning this year and introducing songs
from his original rock and alternative pop
CD, Analog Style for a Digital World.
"My photography is black and white,
colored with oils and airbrushed;' says
Reinfeld, 38, and based in Philadelphia.
"The subjects are people, places and
things, traditional photos with nontradi-
tional presentations.
"I did Jews Kick Ass (shown on T-shirts,
tiles, posters and baby clothes) as an iron-
ic image of Jewish
people. I thought
of it as an interest-
ing take."
Reinfeld focused
on art at New York
University after
earning a busi-
ness degree from
Pennsylvania State
University
"I enjoy the
traveling that's
Marsha Fleisher:
part of appear-
Pastiche, hand-woven
ing in festivals,"
chenille jacket.

he says. "My work also is shown in galler-
ies:'
Although Marsha Fleisher, 64, does not
loom any Judaica, one of her weavers does
have a line of silk tallitot, and she can
make referrals for anyone coming to her
booth (E165b at South University).
Hand-woven chenille scarves and jack-
ets have become her specialties.
"I was looking for something creative
to do when my children were growing
up, and someone suggested a local class,"
explains Fleisher, who has built a busi-
ness with showroom and workroom in
Woodstock, N.Y.
"I like chenille because it's a challenging
and soft yarn, and I have plaids, stripes
and twills. My first account was for the
Bendel store in New York, and I do a cus-
tom men's collection for Barney's."
Fleisher, who has had her business since
1983, travels to some 25 art shows a year
and was in Ann Arbor last summer for the
first time.
"I was an English major in college, and
I went back for music and art',' says the
textile artist, whose religious affiliation is
Reconstructionist."I always enjoyed crafts,
and I think my jackets are very fashion-
forward."
Although religious items are not the
usual work of glass artist Henry Levine,
he has made Passover tableware on special
order. A woman requested a washing pitch-
er and bowl set shaped in blues and greens
to go along with her holiday service.
When Levine travels the summer art fair
circuit, he takes along some 50 selections
of tableware specialties, including pitch-
ers, fruit bowls, cookie jars and cups. He
describes his range of colors as balanced
and bright with depth and transparency.
"I like the immediacy of working with
glass," says Levine, 50, whose interest was
ceramics before he began studying glass-
blowing at Alfred University in New York.

"Ceramics projects require
many steps, such as drying,
firing and glazing."
Levine, who began his
professional life in banking,
returned to college for arts
studies. He worked in neon
manufacturing before
establishing Thorn Ridge
Studios in 1999, setting up
equipment in a building
behind his Ohio home.
"I've spent time on
Mackinac Island because
my family owned a house
there," says Levine, mak-
ing his second visit to the
Ann Arbor event (Booth
543 in the State Street
Area). "Last year, I brought
George Raab: Mystree VI,
my bicycle to Michigan and Harvey Levine:
intaglio print.
Lidded
Pasta
rode with other artists who
Jar,
glass.
have become friends. We
Raab, who lives outside Toronto, travels
had lots of fun."
Remembrances of Michigan enter some to about a dozen shows each year with on-
the-road views — the hills of Texas, the
of the scenic printmaking designs of
mountains of Colorado, the lush land of
George Raab, 63, whose acid engravings
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan — often
are infused with watercolors and some-
becoming the subjects of later etchings.
times photography.
"Art fairs give me the pleasure of hang-
"I take artistic liberty with some of
ing work and getting feedback," says Raab,
the places I've seen," says Raab, who has
whose projects soon will be in a touring
spent many summers at the Ann Arbor
exhibit stopping at museums and galleries
event, this year in Booth E49 at South
University. "I try to get a unique combina- throughout Canada. "I relish being able to
tion of media with rich and grainy effects. develop relationships with the people who
buy the art." I I
My images are usually peaceful, contem-
plative and ethereal.
"After I began going to the University
The Ann Arbor Art Fairs run July
of Toronto, I found nothing Hiked more
20-23 in downtown Ann Arbor
than art:' says Raab, whose focus led him
to the Ontario College of Art and Design.
and around the central campus of
the University of Michigan. Hours
"When I graduated from college, I
are 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday-
bought property and built a studio. I liked
Friday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday.
intaglio printmaking because it's a corn-
TheAnnArborArtFair.com .
plicated medium. I liked the discipline
and what it had to say."

July 14 <• 2011

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