Artists young and old beautify Evans City, Zelie
Two unique murals will have eyes popping in both Evans City and Zelienople this summer.
Students in grades nine through 12 in Jason Shorr’s art classes at Seneca Valley School District have been working at the intermediate high school for more than a year to create two mural panels depicting the interior and exterior of the former Blum’s Shoe Store.
The four-generation business was housed in the current Dapper Bicycle store on Main Street in Zelienople.
The panels will be hung on an exterior wall at the building before July 4, said Randy Hart, whose family foundation funded the project.
Hart, who has overseen 11 murals being painted or installed in his beloved hometown of Zelienople in recent years as part of the Zelienople Historical Society, said he knew the that Shorr, owner of Curio Art Gallery & Studio, is an art teacher at Seneca Valley.
So Hart visited Shorr’s shop to ask if his students could create a mural of the former Blum’s Shoe Store.
The result of that conversation is nearly complete, with students putting the finishing touches on the two impressive acrylic-on-wood pieces.
Shorr said the students worked from historical pictures of Blum’s exterior, and from a painting by May (Ziegler) Lutz that commemorated the store’s 100th anniversary in 1980.
The mural of the store’s interior is not an exact replica of Lutz’s painting, however.
“We changed a few things about it to make it different,” Shorr said.
Samantha McNeely, a senior, said she and her classmates in art class “workshopped” Lutz’s painting, which is the only known image depicting the inside of the shoe store.
“It was a little too stagnant and not real enough,” she said.
Samantha drew poses for three figures in the store, which were changed a bit from Lutz’s rendition.
Never having been involved in a historical art project before, Samantha found painting the floor and getting the lines right on the wall of shoeboxes were her favorite components of the work.
Sara Breeger, a freshman, helped block the characters, or paint them in silhouette using white paint so the detail could be filled in later.
“It was relaxing,” Sara said.
Miles Bornes, a junior and art department fixture, was thrilled to be asked to help with the project.
“I’ve known Mr. Shorr a really long time and he’s been able to see what I can do, so he thought I’d be a good fit to help,” Miles said.
He helped with detailing of one face, assisted painting the building’s exterior and some of the signs.
“It was a lot of fun,” Miles said. “It was something new, since I don’t do historical-based art when I draw.
“It’s cool because people in years to come will see it and I will think ‘I worked on that.’”
Jo Fernandez-Jenkins, a junior, is an award-winning artist who also spends as much time as possible in Shorr’s art room.
“I’ve been wanting to do a mural for a long time, so this was perfect,” she said. “It was an incredible opportunity. I’ve always loved going into smaller towns and seeing the art and how it tells the story of that town.”
Adrianna Leoni, a freshman, was finished with a previous project and asked Shorr if he had anything she could work on.
Her work on the exterior mural included the store exterior, a man’s pants, the exterior brick wall and a banner at the top right.
Adrianna said she used a brush the size of the bricks to paint thick lines, then filled in the mortar with off-white paint.
“I think this was a great experience for me, and I feel really proud of myself that I’m able to give to the community and make Zelienople more beautiful,” she said.
Shorr said the students who worked on the project were very interested in it, and he knew they all are talented artists.
“These are some of the top notch kids I see every day at school,” Shorr said.
He said the students beat the challenges of the project, which were a limited color palette of gray, black and brown and making all lines in the interior mural point to the middle to create the correct depth and perspective.
“It’s called ‘one-point perspective,’” Shorr said.
He and the students looked up old pictures to get a sense of connection to the work, as well as old hairstyles, the names of shoe companies of yore, like the Red Goose Shoes and Berry Shoes on the exterior’s window.
“It also was a way to inject some color,” Shorr said.
“The students who worked on these panels will have a sense of direct engagement with where they live and will be able to revisit them with friends and families to recall their participation,” he said. “It was important to have young people in the community collaborate to create an image from the past for public display.
“This ties the past to the present and future of Zelienople as it continues to grow and evolve.”
Other students who worked on the murals were Julia Valasek and Keira Albenzie.
He’s got an Evans City name and graduated from Seneca Valley Senior High in 1972, so Barry Spithaler, a borough native, seemed like the perfect choice to add a sweeping mural to a round extension on the front of the Evans City Public Library.
Spithaler, who has completed other murals around Evans City, was asked by library board member Patty Flach to create a whimsical painting on the “silo,” as it is called by library personnel.
To decide on a theme, each child and their parent or guardian who attends the library’s Thursday night Story Hour was given a form to fill out with their ideas for the mural.
Each family who filled out a form received a free book, said Jackie Green, a clerk at the Evans City library.
Spithaler then perused the 40 or 50 forms and came up with the theme of fuzzy and feathered animals reading books in the mural’s trees, bushes and other natural features.
Spithaler said he started the mural on June 1 and works on it about four hours per day.
On June 5, he knelt on a lawn chair cushion to paint a pair of raccoons on the lower part of the huge mural, which also includes an owl, fox, sloths, a parrot, and other animals reading books.
A giant tree with bookshelves in its trunk is the mural’s centerpiece.
Spithaler said the idea for a mural was brought up at an art show he did last year at the library.
“The library asked the little kids what they would like to see in the mural, and one (idea) was animals reading books around a big tree,” he said.
The library building also houses the borough offices, police station and museum, where Spithaler’s art also can be seen.
“My claim to fame is painting the Evans City Railroad Station,” he said. “I was there when they tore it down in the ’70s, and I did a big painting of it and had prints made and sold them cheap to neighbors.”
Spithaler volunteered his time in painting the library mural.
“I’m not doing it for a profit, although I have made as much as $2,000 for a mural,” he said.
Spithaler, 70, has worked as a milkman and janitor and in a steel mill, and he has entertained many in the county as his alter ego, Waldo Young. He lives in Wexford.
“I have a connection to Evans City,” he said. “I always get drawn back here.”
He recalled his art classes at Evans City Elementary School.
“I always got ‘outstandings’ in them,” Spithaler said.
He said Ace Hardware in Evans City donated two quarts of acrylic paint, which he said should hold up without being sealed.
“If it goes bad, we’ll redo it,” said the laid-back Spithaler. “It’s only paint.”
He is creating a time-lapse video of his work on the library mural, which he will put on his YouTube channel.
“I really wanted to draw some attention to the library,” Spithaler said. “I hope the kids and their parents like it.”
