Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/767445
46 December 29 • 2016 N atalie Balazovich is an extraordinary gardener. In only a matter of days, she is transforming a few indoor rooms — where there is little sun, no soil, no streams or lakes — into a beautiful forest. The forest will be home to trees (of a sort) and images of nature in all colors and sizes, some completely lifelike and some wild and fantastic. They will be painted and drawn, sculpted and made of glass. The forest will be called the "Essence of Life," an exhibit curated by Balazovich that cel- ebrates Tu b'Shevat, the Jewish holiday of the trees, marked this year on Feb. 11. The show will be on display at the Janice Charach Gallery at the West Bloomfield JCC from Jan. 8 through Feb. 9. Natalie Balazovich is assistant director of the gallery, and these days she's putting the finishing touches on "Essence of Life," which will include more than 100 works by 30 artists, along with a coloring event, a Tu b'Shevat seder and a hand-lettering work- shop. "The exhibit is vivid and uplift- ing," Balazovich says. "It's like the gallery will be alive with themes of renewal and rebirth." It began with a call for art, which gallery staff posted on websites and Facebook pages, seeking submissions for works based on Tu b'Shevat. The responses were quick and, Balazovich says, surprising, because they included mostly art- ists who have yet to exhibit at the Charach Gallery. Artists were allowed to submit up to five works. Balazovich then spent considerable time choos- ing what to include. There were so many submissions she loved that "Essence of Life" will begin on the bottom floor, wind along the hallway leading upstairs and continue throughout the second floor. There's an enormous range of experience among the artists, Balazovich says. Some are very well known; others are "emerg- ing artists who have never shown before." The final collection includes a father-and-daughter team, Paul and Camille LaMontagne — one who makes surreal images of trees with hidden elements, another whose paintings are life- like roses and cats; popular local ceramics teacher Allison Berlin; renowned artist Brenda Stumpf of Pennsylvania, who believes that "creating art is a mystical and potent act; it's a shamanistic environ that transcends time and space"; Lev Davidov (featured on the Jewish News cover this past February); and Miriam Svidler- Maximkov, whose interactive typographical works are 3-D models that include running water and sculptures of rice paper and string that show the Israeli desert. Balazovich begins the organiz- ing once all the art has arrived. She regards the empty gallery as her canvas, and when she curates arts & life e x h i b i t s A new exhibit celebrates Tu b'Shevat with art of birth and renewal. The Enchanted Forest Elizabeth Applebaum | Special to the Jewish News Emily Beadle, Sweet Sunshine Ken Axelrad, Ancient Evenings