DECEMBER 17 • 2020 | 37

“I incorporate art as both an 
avenue for self-expression and a 
way to cope with their hospital 
experience,
” Kaplan said. Her 
face-to-face work ended when 
she was furloughed in March. 
Kaplan found a way to 
continue providing pediatric 
patients access to art, even when 
she couldn’t be with them. “I 
approached the hospital with 
the newly released kits, and they 
realigned the grant guidelines.
” 
In addition to her new ven-
ture into the frameable and 
3-D sticky board sand art kits, 
Kaplan, who describes herself 
as “the artist in the blue smock,
” 
has a website filled with other 
DIY sand art sets including 
challah boards, apple and honey 
trays and mezuzah designs 
whose sand creations are topped 
by a Lucite cover or case, with 
some connected by beads.
She also sells Judaic items, 
focusing on b’nai mitzvah gifts, 
Jewish ceremonial art and ketu-
bahs, along with personalized 
artwork and custom-designed 
T-shirts. 
Her non-sand art DIY sets 
include anodized aluminum, 
polished chrome, metalized 
plastic and glass bead Judaica 
including candlesticks, Kiddush 
cups, menorahs and mezuzahs. 
They also include yads, which 
were initially funded to Jewish 
day schools and synagogue 
religious schools through 
Federation’s Alliance for Jewish 
Education, DeRoy Testamentary 
Foundation’s Artist in the 
Schools grant, as a way to bring 
the arts into the curriculum. 

OUT IN THE WORLD
“My DIY business started with 
the Judaica kits, but the scope 
of my business has evolved 
to incorporate individual art 
projects with themes and instal-
lations for a larger audience,
” 
Kaplan said. 
 For Chanukah this year, she 
designed a DIY kit to create a 
menorah of beads and anodized 
aluminum candleholders on 
a Lucite base for the JCC’s PJ 

Library and JFamily-sponsored 
project to be delivered and cre-
ated at home. 
Natalie Friedman recently 
oversaw a sand art project with a 
group of kindergartners through 
the JCC’s PJ Library Detroit. 
“We wanted to do something to 
honor the life and legacy of the 
great Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and 
Gail’s sand art was the perfect 
way to create something beau-
tiful and meaningful to accom-
pany (Debbie Levy’s children’s 
book), I Dissent,
” said Friedman, 
a PJ Library parent connec-
tor. She said it took about an 
hour — along with some adult 

help — for the kids to complete 
the project.
Among the group’s members 
was Friedman’s daughter, whose 
completed work her mom refers 
to as a gorgeous piece of art to 
hang in their home. Next up, 
says Friedman, will be a family 
project to make one of Kaplan’s 
sand art challah boards.
Kaplan’s portfolio includes 
trompe l’
oeil clay, glass mosaics, 
printmaking and mixed media. 

Her award-winning pieces, 
created in her Farmington Hills 
studio, are exhibited worldwide. 
She has worked, along with fel-
low artist Dani Katsir on mosaic 
art installations at area hospitals, 
schools, libraries, community 
and senior centers and non-
profit organizations, including 
those created for Kids Kicking 
Cancer, Starfish Family Services 
and Brilliant Detroit. Members 
of the participating agencies 
and facilities are involved in 
the design and execution of the 
work. She is now spearheading 
community sand art installa-
tions on her own. 

INTO THE FUTURE
Kaplan continues to adapt to her 
new work direction. 
“I am presently doing Zoom 
workshops,
” she said. “The DIY 
Ruth Bader Ginsburg sand art 
kit has been successful for team 
building and has been pur-
chased for events, and I am able 
to create unique designs for spe-
cific events, celebrations, holiday 
parties and family events, which 
are now being done virtually 
and I am able to lead by Zoom.
” 
Kaplan said, “I reinvented my 
business strategy with the help 
and encouragement of my three 
children, and my eldest daugh-
ter’s significant other.
” They told 
her, “You have to go virtual.
” 
“
As an artist I am lucky to 
bring a different, more creative 
perspective to most problems 
than the average person,
” Kaplan 
added. “The pandemic present-
ed me with a host of challenges; 
chiefly that much of my work 
in the community involved me 
being on site, in person, leading 
workshops and other live events. 
With that off the table for now, 
I was forced to rethink how I 
could still get my projects out 
into the world.
“I asked myself, ‘Why not 
turn people’s homes into more 
of a ‘home studio?’” she said. 
“
As the pandemic limited the 
demand for in-person art 
experiences, I hunkered down 
and launched a new website and 
a host of new at-home kits.
”
And as far as how much more 
she can add to her new site, 
Kaplan said, “Looking ahead: I 
think the sky is the limit.” 

To purchase art kits and artwork, go to: 
www.grkartcreations.com
For information on Gail Rosenbloom Kaplan’s corporate projects and 
events, go to: https://gailrosenbloomkaplan.com/
Contact Kaplan at: (313) 410-0961 or gail@gailrosenbloomkaplan.com
Local porch pick up or shipping at additional cost are available.

Joey Boyer, Madison Friedman, Jenna Acker, all 5, 

and Sadie Alekman, 6, all of Huntington Woods, display their 

RBG sand art creations at a JCC PJ Library Detroit workshop.

JCC’s PJ Library and JFamily- 

sponsored DIY menorah