NEW SENIOR HOUSING WILL HAVE THE ARTISTS' TOUCH.

Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer

Artist Belle Osipow has a home with a view of the Hollywood Hills, a pool and rooms full of her own prints, paintings and sculptures.

But Osipow will leave it all for a home among dozens of fellow artists at the Burbank Senior Artists Colony, where nearly 50 of her pieces will adorn the walls when it opens later this month.

``I want to be with people,'' said the elderly Osipow. ``I'm very gregarious, and I'm finding that I'm feeling, since I've been widowed, I've been alone up here.''

With fine arts and arts instruction studios, a 40-seat theater and editing bays, managers at the $22 million colony at San Fernando Boulevard and Verdugo Avenue expect residents will find plenty of company and ways to stay creative.

About half of the 141-unit center's residents will be artists; the rest will be art lovers.

Saxophonist Tom Fabre, 64, is moving to the center from West Los Angeles. Despite several attempts to change careers, his love of music always brought him back.

``My real love in music is jazz,'' said Fabre, who began playing professionally in 1956. ``To make money and earn a living, I've been forced to play a lot of other stuff, I've learned to play blues really well.''

Among his gigs, Fabre has played in a band for a public television station in his native Milwaukee. When the band was not needed for studio performances, station managers would send it into the city to perform. Some of those shows included a performance in a mental hospital and at a school for the deaf.

Now, Fabre performs at senior-citizens dances.

``That can keep you busy two to five nights a week,'' he said.

Allan Dubkin, 67, of Oxnard, sculpts with cement and volcanic rock, making garden art and planters for bonsai trees. The retired sales and ranch manager said he is looking forward to moving to the center, where he can feel free to pursue his art.

``Nobody wants to have a sculptor next door to them or working in cement,'' Dubkin said. ``But, with this particular unit, they're going to have (a work) area so you'll be able to live in a nice area and also be close to your work as well.''

On a recent afternoon at home, Osipow was surrounded by her creations.

The door itself is a piece of art, with a polyester-resin-on-Plexiglas piece at its center. Each room is filled with her pieces, from a living-room TV tray with a photo collage to a dining-room sculpture of a swooning woman called ``Mon Dieu.''

Over the years, Osipow's creations have made it into museums, galleries and art books, but pinning down her creative process can be difficult.

``I really don't think; it just happens,'' Osipow said. ``Something grabs me, and then I just continue through it.''

That creative process is something that Fabre is looking forward to as part of his move to the Burbank Senior Arts Center.

``When it comes to creative people, that kind of energy tends to flow,'' said Fabre. ``And, with a little bit of luck, it will all flow and stimulate everybody.''

Alex Dobuzinskis, [phone]

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

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Saxophonist Tom Fabre, 64, will join other artists and musicians who will live at the Burbank Senior Artists Colony, which opens this month.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News