OUR COMMUNITY Hank Fleischer at Fox Run with ‘Pavo Cristatus,’ his majestic strutting proud peacock, subtitled ‘Remembering Rhoda’s beauty and poise.’
BRADEN RADTKE
ArtPrize-Winning
Turkey
Re-purposed file folders become remarkable ‘Birds of a Feather’ sculptures. SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I
f you think it’s time-consuming to order, purchase, prepare, cook, slice and serve your Thanksgiving turkey, imagine how Henry ‘Hank’ Fleischer feels after spending 508 hours over the course of four months to create his! Albeit, Fleischer’s turkey was made of file folders with no need for an oven or refrigeration, but the artist did create it in his kitchen. Unlike the Thanksgiving bird, gone after a few days, Fleischer’s cre-
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ation “lives on” as one of three sculptures showcased as his award-winning entry in this year’s international ArtPrize competition, and again at a special exhibit at Fox Run Senior Living Community of Novi where he lives. Adding to the impact of the creation, which is part of his mixed media “Birds of a Feather” trilogy, is the fact that the artist is 97 years old! Along with the turkey, the three pieces include a peacock and a phoe-
nix, all of which took more than two years to complete. Fleischer wasn’t always an artist. He wroked for 53 years as an engineer, retiring from Numatics Inc. in Highland when he was 78, spending the next 12 years as a consultant. “When I was 84, I had done everything on my (late) wife Rhoda’s ‘honey do’ list and needed to find something else to do,” he said. “I happened to be in the Gifts of Art Gallery at the Taubman (Health) Center in
Ann Arbor and saw some pieces of art made from folded cutouts. I was intrigued by this and went home and spent six months folding and cutting materials, but it didn’t hold my attention,” Fleischer said. “Then Rhoda suggested that I try drawing and putting my work into 3-D form. “I started working with paper, but it was too soft and then I used the cardboard that comes on hangers from the cleaners, but it was too heavy.” Through trial and error, he discovered file folders were the perfect material in a medium he calls “architectural art.” “I made smaller things at the beginning,” he said. “An owl, a swan, a cat, a penguin, and a lot of geometric forms and shapes.” With smaller leftover folder-pieces, he would create jewelry for Rhoda, who he calls his muse. “I made her earrings and pendants and broaches, and used her clear nail polish as a finish,” he said.
