Awards given for downtown Altoona Gable’s building panel art
Three honorees recognized for downtown murals
Mayor’s Choice winner Melissa Mulligan stands before her panel, depicting a stairway to the sun. Mirror photo by William Kibler
Judges’ Choice winner Ava Ventura stands before her panel, “Horseshoe View.” Mirror photo by William Kibler
People’s Choice winner Elle Dalby stands beside her panel “Happy 250th!” Mirror photo by William Kibler
Mayor’s Choice winner Melissa Mulligan stands before her panel, depicting a stairway to the sun. Mirror photo by William Kibler
Judges’ Choice winner Ava Ventura stands before her panel, “Horseshoe View.” Mirror photo by William Kibler
People’s Choice winner Elle Dalby stands beside her panel “Happy 250th!” Mirror photo by William Kibler
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One day several months ago, as Melissa Mulligan was walking past the Gable's building on 11th Avenue, she noticed plywood panels on the window openings, placed there to protect the glass, pending the building's redevelopment, and expressed to herself the wish that she could paint pictures on those panels.
It was before Mulligan was aware that local officials were planning an art contest involving the panels.
On Friday, Mulligan was one of three honorees recognized for her work in that contest -- for an allegorical painting that relates to her own life and the ongoing renaissance of downtown.
Her work earned a certificate as "Mayor's Choice," while Elle Dalby's panel earned "People's Choice" and Ava Ventura's earned "Judges' Choice" recognition.
"It was my dream come true," Mulligan said of her initial imaginings about the potential for the blank plywood having turned into a recognition from Mayor Matt Pacifico, who helped Main Street Manager Jamie Foust with the recognitions in front of the winning panels.
Mulligan's depicts a wooden stairway ascending in an arc into a sunburst amid the branches of flowering trees.
It represents the effort needed to deal with and overcome struggles -- her own and the downtown's, during the decades it has taken for the city's original district to regain a portion of the relevance it lost after businesses fled to Pleasant Valley, starting in the late 1950s.
The title of Mulligan's painting is "The Work is Never Done."
Mulligan, 37, is a full-time welder for Champion Homes, she said, showing a picture of herself from Friday morning in her working gear at the shop.
She is also the mother of two children.
Pacifico chose Mulligan's painting because of the downtown reference, in hope that "it would inspire others," Pacifico said.
The work is never done downtown either, the mayor said.
Judges' Choice winner Ventura's "Horseshoe View" is a stylized depiction of the Horseshoe Curve in the manner of a stained glass church window, with the three reservoirs embraced by the necklace of the railroad tracks prominent in a blue echoed by the sky, just above a yellow sunset (or sunrise).
Ventura chose the Curve as her subject because it's an iconic element of the area's history and geography.
She chose the stained glass look because she is inspired by that artistic discipline, as seen in churches and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
She likes the idea of broken pieces coming together in intricate patterns to make something both beautiful and functional.
Ventura, 23, is a graduate of Penn State's World Campus and is looking for work.
Other than mandatory art classes in high school, she has no formal artistic training.
People's Choice winner Dalby, 19, chose a much more zoomed-in perspective for her "Happy 250th!" showing two young girls playing with chalk on a sidewalk in the way she and her little sister did when they were kids.
She wanted to catch the happy, innocent spirit of a summer day, specifically the Fourth of July, with everything in red, white and blue.
In keeping with the easy spirit of the painting, its production came easy, without stress, during the three or four weekends she spent on it, along with some evenings after work, she said.
The panel art project has drawn people downtown and it has drawn the attention of people who had come downtown for other reasons, said Main Street Manager Jamie Foust.
It has added life and vibrancy, and it has kickstarted conversations about the role of public art in the city, she said.
Given that there were 20 panels -- 18 completed so far -- the project has acquainted local officials with a sizeable number of artists who may be available for future projects, she said
"Art is something that we hope to lean into, as we continue to look at the future of downtown," Foust said.
The Judges' Choice and the People's Choice winners each received $1,000.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.