A Clever Cover-Up
A Clever Cover-Up at Our Local Library
Volunteers Joined Artist Barbara Fox in Painting the Fence Around the Library’s Rubbish Bin
Photos / Ellicottville Memorial Library and Jessica Schultz, ellicottvilleNOW
Serendipity! Ahhh! Laura Flanagan, librarian of 17 years at our beautiful Ellicottville Memorial Library, received a call from the Springville Library a year+ ago, asking her to pick up some books that belonged to our library. Off she went, and as she drove around the back of the library to park, she had a WOW! moment when she spotted beautiful paintings on the library fence. She took photos and came back to the Ellicottville Library Board, pitching the idea to do something similar here on our library campus.
And that’s how wonderful things started to happen, folks: an inspiration, a consensus, a plan, a goal. Enter local artists Barbara Fox and Cathy Lacy who, like a book spine, serve with others as the backbone of the library. They put their heads together and came up with a gorgeous representation of the life-changing, fun, and powerful stories housed inside the walls of our library building by painting the fence around the recycling bin outside with the spines of said amazing works of literature.
Fox created the design, the outline, the templates and painted the first layers on the structure on the entire four sides, taped pages and pages of transfer paper together and then stenciled the designs on the walls. Fox and Lacy brought in 20-year-old Sydney Feldbauer, her sister, 13-year-old Kelsey Feldbauer, and Kelsey’s 14-year-old friend, Collin Weber, to do the actual painting of the book spines. I tell you their ages because it is impressionable that these young people would be interested in helping in this project and that they would have the patience and diligence to work with the others toward completing it. We have this image of kids buried with their noses into their iPads and forget that there are kids out there equally willing to be contributing to the good of the community. Kudos!
Who doesn’t love Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon with those bright, happy illustrations by Clement Hurd? It’s on the wall along with forty or more book titles chosen by the community prior to the beginning of the development of the project. A call was put out by Flanagan for readers to submit their votes for their favorite books. Those that received the most votes will be found on the wall. Yes, Harry Potter will be there. A special spot was reserved for Ellicottville’s beloved Edna Northrup’s book, For the Love of Skiing, and another for Little Valley educator, Amy Bedell’s book, She Will. This wonderful children’s book about compassion and kindness is dedicated to her cousin, Julie Mendell, who was her inspiration. Bedell said her cousin was born with a major disability and passed away at age 48 about two years ago.
Brenda Hughey (originally from Springville), who oversees the foundation named for her sister, the Elisa B. Hughey Foundation for the Arts, stepped to the plate, ready to paint and to pay for the expenses for this project. (Elisa, who died in 2016, was married to Inigo DeOrbe and mom to two sons, Adrian and Ignacio, graduates of ECS, where she taught Art before starting her business of Interior Design in Ellicottville.)
Painting the six-foot-tall wall is a bit of a challenge. An artist is either standing on tippy toe, sitting, or kneeling/hunched down to do the bottom. Approximately two-thirds done, the wall thus far has taken Fox about 50-60 hours for planning and layout, and about a combined volunteer effort of 35 hours of painting. Stay tuned and watch the entire artwork unfold. It’s going to be inspiring!
The Ellicottville Memorial Library is located at 6499 Maple Road and is open Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday. On display until the end of September are fourteen original photographs taken by Barbara Arnstein from Springville, NY. Arnstein specializes in landscapes, flowers, water, nature and seems especially fond of clouds. Find her work on Facebook at Barbara Jones (Barbara Arnstein) and her note cards for sale at Chautauquaartgallery.com (Search Barbara Arnstein notecards).
It's time to think about taking inventory of your fuzzy, warm knit goods before the fall weather hits. Or you can make some by joining the knitters every other Monday at the Library from 6:00-8:00pm. All abilities are welcome - just bring some yarn and your needles. On September 3rd from 2:00-3:00pm, take a relaxing, stress free, creative break in your day and try wool felting with Cathy Lacy. All supplies are provided. Enjoy your library!
