Artist Taylor Bash mixes paint for the city of Lorain’s new asphalt art mural at the intersection of East 31st Street and Pearl Avenue. (Martin McConnell — The Morning Journal)
The intersection at East 31st Street and Pearl Avenue in South Lorain will look a lot different for the next few months.
The city of Lorain and a team at FireFish Arts gave the area a splash of color May 13.
The art piece stemmed from a student project to design an art mural at the intersection.
Joan Perch, FireFish Arts artistic and funding director, said the city of Lorain started the project, and reached out to her team for help bringing it to life.
“The asphalt art project is a project that was a competition for students mostly from Horizon (Science Academy of Lorain) and El Centro (De Servicios Soc) to help us initiate some community asphalt art in South Lorain,” Perch said. “The city of Lorain is very excited about this opportunity, and FireFish became involved to help translate the art (to the asphalt).”
After the FireFish team was unable to pick just one, they decided on a collage of pieces from a number of students, Perch said.
“What happened was workshops were held with artists and art teachers, and submissions were submitted to a committee,” she said. “We couldn’t just pick one; we ended up creating a kind of a collage of art by four of the young artists.”
The larger collage also includes a few smaller details with nods to even more student pieces, Perch said.
To get the project out of the drawing stage and onto the street, Perch and the FireFish team brought out local artist Camara Goodrich to help direct the project.
“Cam is a FireFish artist, and we team up a lot,” Perch said. “The theme (for the artwork) was ‘We Walk Together,’ and so what we were really looking to do, was to emphasize community, and the fact that South Lorain is a beautifully diverse community.
“It really has so much of an international flavor, and the history that really brought that (flavor) with the steel mills and manufacturers.”
Perch said that translating the art from a piece of paper to a canvas the size of an intersection can present some unique challenges.
To help literally keep things in perspective, the team broke the art into chunks on a grid before painting began.
The FireFish team also brought along artist and social media influencer Taylor Bash to help make the project run smoothly.
Bash is a full-time art teacher and said she hosts art-related events around Northeast Ohio.
“I’m (one of) the artists in charge of painting the mural,” she said. “(Goodrich) invited me, and I’m kind of a ‘yes’ type of girl.
“I’m an art teacher for kids. I teach at the Lodi Family Center, a home school in Medina, and then I teach individual students. I have about five a week.”
The temporary art mural likely will fade away within the next year or so, according to Perch.
Still, she said she hopes that the mural fosters pride in South Lorain and keeps the community looking vibrant throughout the summer.
“It’s going to be a lot of art on the (street), so we’re really excited about it,” Perch said. “We’ve never painted something this large before.
“We hope that it provides an opportunity for people to see the power of art to help transform and communicate about a neighborhood, and give people pride in their neighborhood.”
