THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 22, 1995 TAG: 9506200066
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
CLAUDIA RUBINSTEIN has been in Norfolk for only about a year, but she has made her mark on the community during that short time, especially at the Van Wyck branch library in Ghent.
Rubinstein's artwork is on view at the library until the end of the month, when she will be leaving Norfolk for Glasgow, Scotland. Her small exhibit features paintings of tropical frogs and Australian flowers, but the centerpiece of the exhibit, and the one that is drawing most of the attention, is a 6-foot-by-6-foot wall hanging of dragons frolicking in the clouds in heaven.
The large painting hangs right over the main desk that visitors see when they walk into the library.
``It refers to fairy tales, stories I'm familiar with,'' Rubinstein said.
Bordering the picture of the frolicking dragons are 44 tiny paintings of ``images relating to the lifetime of the dragon, legends and folklore ... what a child could relate to ... what dragons should be,'' she said.
Rubinstein, 36, is German-Canadian and was born and raised in Canada.
She was a nurse in Calgary when she met Craig Rubinstein when he was a medical student from Australia. After a long-distance romance, they decided to marry, and she moved with him to Australia, where their two sons were born. Oscar will be 5 in August, and Oliver is 2.
For the past year, the Rubinsteins have been in Norfolk while Craig was completing a one-year fellowship in plastic surgery at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
They live in Ghent near the library.
When the Rubinsteins leave Norfolk this summer they'll be heading to Scotland, where Craig will complete another year's fellowship.
Rubinstein said she's looking forward to living in Scotland, not only because they have friends there and in other parts of Europe but also because it's ``the land of castles and dragons.''
After a year in Scotland, they will return to Australia and settle in Melbourne.
During her husband's training, Rubinstein has moved her family 10 times.
``The first thing I do when I arrive is establish where the grocery store is and then sign up at the library,'' she said. ``The library is a great place to make contact with the community.''
Over the past year, Rubinstein said she has spent a lot of time at the Van Wyck branch library looking for subjects for her paintings in books and magazines. She said the staff, especially director Bonnie Carriker, always has been very helpful.
It was Carriker who asked her if she would like to exhibit her paintings in the library.
``I had never focused on getting an exhibition together,'' Rubinstein said, ``but I always envisioned that I would.''
Since the exhibit has been up, the dragon painting has been getting a lot of attention, Carriker said.
``Everybody who comes in here comments about the dragons,'' she said.
Beside the wall hanging is a poem Rubinstein wrote to explain the inspiration for the piece:
When Dragons go to Heaven
And frolic in blue skies
Their caves are left behind them
Like faded battle cries.
So look to all these borders now
In each one lies a story
When Dragons Knights and legends reigned
In everlasting glory.
Rubinstein said that she had been thinking about painting dragons for a while when ``one night, I sat straight up in bed and thought, `I'll paint dragons in heaven.' ''
A registered nurse, Rubinstein says that she always has loved painting, drawing and music.
``I always knew that I wanted to be a painter,'' she said. ``But I was raised to do something practical from early on. And nursing has been a wonderful profession.''
Now that her children are getting older and as her husband's career becomes more established, ``I can pursue my art work more seriously and embrace it wholeheartedly,'' she said. MEMO: If you know someone whom you feel is deserving of a Thumbs Up! feature,
call Vicki Lewis at 446-2286. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Claudia Rubenstein's wall hanging of dragons frolicking in the
clouds in heaven is on view at the Van Wyck branch library.
by CNB