Image is everything. And my friend Lorain artist Peg Asensio and Lorain-area building owners are out to brighten up the empty storefront windows of downtown Lorain. Peg, who has her studio near Fourth Street and Broadway, enlisted the help of her friend and origamy artist Barb Zilko, also of Lorain, to decorate street front windows.
Spurred on by the recent volunteer efforts of Lorain resident and downtown property owner Joe Skodny, who took it upon himself to decorate a downtown street corner for fall, Halloween and for Christmas, Peg spoke to Skodny and Mike Challendar of the Lorain Growth Corporation about what they could do. Since Easter, the results can be seen in the storefronts of the old Woolworth building and the former Seymour Jewelers building. Peg, Barb, and other area artists decorated the windows with large, papier-mache Easter eggs for spring. Currently the windows hold flowers and bugs for summer, and butterflies are being added in conjunction with Relay for Life.
The idea behind the displays is to bring a little color and whimsy to downtown Lorain and hopefully encourage more community art projects, Peg said. "There is no visual arts presence in the city of Lorain," she said. So far, those artists who have participated have been friends of hers, and I'm pleased to say that she asked me to participate. She wants to get the word out so people in the community can get involved. She has no funding and suggested that we use materials that we have on hand -- wire, beads, fabric, metal -- to fashion the flowers and bugs. I also gave her some art pieces that I'd made with silk ribbons flowers.
The project may expand into other empty storefronts, if the building owners give the go-ahead, and Peg is hoping to get more artists involved in the window displays.
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