Senior Artists Alliance in the Spotlight

The "Hidden Rockville" summer art exhibit series is wrapping up with a show of the Senior Artists Alliance in the Spotlight Gallery at VisArts.

With more than 25 pieces and 11 participating SAA members, this multimedia exhibit includes original oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings, digital black and white and color photography, steel, wire and wooden sculpture, pastels and fused glass.

"Some of our members have been doing this for over 40 years," said Stuart Glickman, who coordinated the show for the SAA and is exhibiting five of his photographs. "We made sure to include as many pieces as possible to showcase the diversity of our group."

The SAA has more than 100 active members from the Washington metropolitan area, most of whom are older than 60.

Glickman's photographs alone demonstrate a breadth of interests and subject matter. He documents special events such as the opening the Rockville Public Library in "Rockville Library Opening Day" and Rockville's Hometown Holiday Memorial Day celebration in "May I Have this Dance?" He recently exhibited 10 of his photographs at the Ratner Museum in Bethesda and has been experimenting with focus stacking in "African Daisy."

Focus stacking, Glickman said, is a digital technique that resolves the problem of having a shallow depth of field when photographing a subject from up close. Multiple images, taken at different depths of field, are combined to yield a greater focus area than possible in any one individual image.

Bruce Blum, another featured SAA photographer, is a veteran of the technique. His "Iris" demonstrates the full potential of focus stacking, with the entire flower bulb in the picture in focus. Blum is a self-taught photographer who has exhibited widely in Maryland. Like Glickman's, his work demonstrates a breadth of interests and techniques. According to his artists statement, the unifying factor in his work is his fascination with textures and photography's uncanny ability to capture it uniformly, whether the subject is a person, an animal, a landscape or an urban artifact.

Estelle Zorman seeks to express the ineffable through her vivid watercolors. Like many other SAA members she belongs to multiple art organizations, such as the Rockville Art League, Strathmore and the Gaithersburg Fine Arts Association. Zorman, whose work embodies spirituality and the search for inner peace, has an upcoming show at Framer's Choice Gallery in Gaithersburg this October.

Bonita Tabakin-Latterner's "Ocean Stroll I" and "Ocean Stroll II" were painted with flat inks in plein air at Rehoboth Beach, Del. Tabakin-Latterner, whose multimedia work focuses on our relationship with the environment, was recently juried into the National League of American Pen Women and will be showing this month at Frostburg State University. She had a recent show at the Ratner Museum.

Mary Ellen Gordon's pastel "The Path" shows an azalea garden at Brighton Dam in Brookeville.

"It's impressionistic, but not totally. I have fun doing my art. I like to paint pictures that have meaning for me," said Gordon, who is president of the Maryland Art League.

Murray Stein's "Pygmalian Enigma" is a carved sycamore sculpture that references the Pygmalion myth and George Bernard Shaw's fabled play.

"Pygmalion is an ageless story about man's foolish attempt to change the people around him," Stein writes. "My sculpture embodies this notion in that it appears completely different from several views, but it is still the same old piece of sycamore. I added another dimension of change by distorting some elements to suggest melting wax. If my enigma could speak, it would say, 'I used to be different, but now I'm the same.'"

Joe Giacalone and Barry Perlis, whose miniature painted steel sculptures add a level of play with a minimalist aesthetic to the mix, are SAA co-presidents.

The SAA was founded in 2001 with to provide senior artists with opportunities to share, exhibit and sell their work. SAA workshops have included hands-on tutorials in the print and graphics departments at Montgomery College.

The group has exhibited at the Montgomery County , Glenview Mansion, the Goldman Gallery at the , , the Clinical Laboratory Gallery in Bethesda, at Unitarian churches in Rockville and Bethesda, the Ratner Museum in Bethesda, Friendship Gallery in Chevy Chase, Kentlands Mansion in Gaithersburg and the Sandy Spring and Columbia Art Centers.

The SAA exhibit, cosponsored by VisArts and the City of Rockville, is on view through Sept. 25 at VisArts.

Gallery hours are: Monday, 2-5 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5-7 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.

Artists includes: Bruce Blum, Marilyn Falik, Joe Giacalone, Stuart Glickman, Mary Ellen Gordon, Joe Homes, Barry Perlis, Regina Price, Sandra Siman, Murray Stein, and .

Past exhibits in the "Hidden Rockville" series include  and

Correction: The original version of this article misidentified Murray Stein as co-president of the Senior Artist Alliance. He is a past president. Joe Giacalone is a co-president. This version corrects the 14th paragraph. Sandra Siman's name was misspelled in the second to last paragraph. It has been corrected. Rockville Patch regrets the errors.