06-29-2023 Howard Magazine - Flipbook - Page 14
HIGHLIGHT
BY KAREN NITKIN For Howard Magazine
Roslyn and David Zinner of Columbia hold up fish and starfish created by Roslyn for the Coral Reef Experience, a large installation to be installed in the Jeffers Hill
outdoor pool in Columbia for one weekend in July. PHOTOS BY AMY DAVIS
Making a splash
This Columbia pool becomes a coral reef to explore
Roslyn and David Zinner are bobbing around in the
pool at the Columbia Swim Center one May morning,
testing the plastic fish, floating a fabric turtle and faux
coral that will become this year’s Coral Reef Encounter.
They want to see which pieces to repair and which
need replacing.
Neither one is surprised when 13-year-old Elijah Danzy
of Jessup comes over to see what’s going on.
Before long, he’s made friends with the Zinners and is
swimming with the turtle.
“I call this a kid magnet,” says Roslyn, 71. She could be
referring to the turtle specifically, or to the whole installation more generally.
Last year, hundreds of children — and plenty of adults
too — donned snorkels at Macgill’s Common Pool and
swam through the reefs, fish, octopi and sea urchins made
by Roslyn and other artists from materials like rubber
gloves, plastic bags, foam pool noodles and drinking
straws.
14
| Summer 2023 | howardmagazine.com
David Zinner holds a fish sculpture by an unknown artist. Hundreds
of sea creatures were made by his wife, Roslyn, artist Tauna Caffey,
and seniors at a Columbia Senior Center.