Pintura en el supermercado...residencia no tradicional

Published: September 18, 2007 12:00 am print this story email this story

'Attention Shoppers,' artist in aisle four
By Gail McCarthy , Staff writer
Gloucester Daily Times

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Many artists look for inspiration from natural beauty, objects or an abstract source.

But Gloucester's Lara Lepionka sought inspiration from the worker whose job often goes unnoticed in a project titled "Attention Shoppers."

She spent a week observing and photographing the workers at Shaw's Eastern Avenue store as they worked at everything from cutting meat to operating a cash register.

When she approached the manager, David Kenney, he paused a moment to think about her request to be an artist-in-residence because it was so unusual. But he supported her idea and received corporate approval for the weeklong residency.

Kenney presented Lepionka, who calls herself a community artist, with her own Shaw's name tag with the title "artist." She set out to be as unobtrusive as possible while capturing images of the employees last May.

Those images would ultimately be carved into small Styrofoam trays, in a filigree-type work. But the final work could not be easily displayed because of its fragile nature.

So the artist transferred the images onto banners, which now hang at the supermarket checkouts. They will remain through the end of the month.

"My work centers around acknowledging everyday work that we don't pay attention to or consider," Lepionka said. "I went behind the scenes and photographed the people who package meat, chop up fruit in the back room, slice bread, the cashiers and people who work in the office. It was informal and fast because people are working and you can't get into an enormous discussion about what you are doing."

The work she sought to highlight is usually repetitive or labor intensive.

"My work is about communication and being open and sharing," said Lepionka, who has a master's degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

When approached by Lepionka, Kenney said he was intrigued by the idea and impressed with the artist's sincerity.

"She wanted to photograph ordinary people at work and carve the images into Styrofoam. She showed me other pieces of her work," he said. "Not being an artist, I was fascinated by the whole process. What we liked about this project was that it was just art for art's sake. There was no political message, just art. With her artist's eye, she looked around, and I'm sure she found enough suitable subjects doing their common everyday jobs. She was discreet and didn't interrupt anything."



He called her completed work "amazing."

"Art is one of those things that is in an entirely different category than what I do. But it was interesting to see an artist working," Kenney said. "Artists have a different way of looking at the world, and it was great to see the finished project of people I know doing their jobs, looking like themselves. It's seeing the art in everyday life."

Lepionka's work sparked discussion among some of the staff.

Jim Johnson, the meat cutter on one of the banners, said he enjoyed seeing the artist at work.

"She wanted to see people in motion," said Johnson, who chose to slice rib-eye by hand so the artist could see the full picture of his work. Johnson, who ran Ernie's Market on Broadway in Rockport for 15 years, has worked at Shaw's for the past 20 years, since he closed his store.

"In the break room, we all talked about it," he said. "The project was interesting, and the thing we talked about was recognizing the motions that we make. It sparked conversation about what we do every day, which we don't usually talk about."

Lepionka, who was accepted into a two-week art residency in the Czech Republic, did the carving overseas in the town of Tabor. She carved the images of five workers on five Styrofoam plates that measure about 7 by 9 inches and on which meat, fruit and other foods are packaged.

"I used the photograph as a template to carve the images of the workers into the plate," she said. "I went half deep into the Styrofoam. I first carved the image and then created a delicate filigree around the image."

Both the artist and workers at the store said the customers have enjoyed seeing the unusual display of art in what is described as a unique community art project.