Painting of thrift shop is sure to be a big draw

People passing Second Hand Rose may wonder what's going on as volunteers paint the spaceship-shaped structure with swirling designs and splashy colors.

But the outcome of the Mary and Martha House thrift shop's facelift is somewhat of a mystery because the painting project is a huge "organic" mural being created for the South Shore Arts Council's second annual Big Draw.

The project is being orchestrated by Josette Urso, a New York artist commissioned by the council to coordinate the work of 60 volunteers.

Originally from Tampa, Urso graduated from King High School and the University of South Florida, where she earned a bachelor's in drawing and a master's in painting. She works with oil on panel en plein air, that is, in nature, where her paintings are all "informed by the landscape," she said. "It's all about a sense of place rather than appearance," she said.

Urso also does collage.

"I've worked with these two mediums all of my adult life," she said.

Urso learned about the Big Draw mural opportunity earlier this year and responded to the council's call for artists.

"What really struck me was this amazing building, its flow and unique architecture," Urso said. "It was also an opportunity to do public art and to come back to the community."

Hired as artist-in-residence, Urso said she conducted a series of workshops to generate imagery and jump-start the creative process by having participants bring in objects from nature and "other bits of this and that."

First, cutouts were made and organized into simple compositions, which were photographed and placed in sequences of images. The next step was to trace the images onto transparent plastic and put them through an opaque projector to show on the walls of the building after dark. Using ladders and scaffolds, volunteers drew lines following the projected images, which will be painted.

The mural is being funded by a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Sun City Center.

"Josette is an artist of national reputation who's known for inventive works that build on both abstract and realistic imagery," said Dolores Coe, a renowned artist and co-coordinator of the Big Draw. "She has an imaginative approach to projects of all kinds, and she's definitely bringing it to this one."

Depending on weather conditions, the project is expected to be finished by Oct. 30. For information on the mural or the Big Draw, visit www.bigdraw ruskin.org.