The Art Space

Well, it’s a rare sunny day in the East End of Pittsburgh. Suzann and I have opened up our small Edgewood shop called Verde Art Space that pretty much glitters with beautiful and unique artwork by fellow artisans; and, as the hours pass, with nary a visitor or customer, we realize that something has to be done to draw in the local community, to pull people away from the urban shopping malls with their quick fix, and mass produced items. We need to bring folks back to their community to check out and patronize their neighborhood shops.  

Now, you can’t buy a mattress here at Verde Art Space or light bulbs or that certain type of cookie cutter jewelry found in the chain stores.  But I think if you want to surprise a loved one, a graduate or a newly married couple with something uniquely crafted by a local artist who has worked long and hard to make an object of beauty then you will have to veer away from the bland stores stuck close to each other that cry: be the same, dress and look like us. I think people need to find their old spirit of adventure and come down to our small store located off the beaten path in Edgewood. Beside an old fashioned barbershop, isolated, yes, but brimming with great ideas and gifts to delight. Once you come in, you will be so pleased that you took the trouble. But, how to communicate this to the community…..Hmmm…

I think you could tell yourself a story like this one….

You wake up one morning and suddenly realize that you must find the perfect present for a friend, something really unusual for an important birthday or graduation; something out of the ordinary that must be bought by the end of the day. Now, you could trundle off to the usual big name stores that carry the same old stuff and crowd the streets of every strip mall or purported upscale shopping zone across America….

But, this time you need something different, not necessarily expensive, but a unique gift :one of a kind. What type of store or shop would have a beautiful hand crafted fishing lure that is so bright and smooth it could be a cool decoration, a shining glass plate with a design all its own, full of brilliant color, necklaces made with care by an experienced artisan using hand worked  lampwork beads; a necklace with matching earrings that will not swing from every bland page in every flat magazine; or maybe if you feel like it a small oil painting that glows with an undersea scene, perhaps a meticulous pensive Japanese silk painting or colorful ceramic sculptures; maybe instead a surreal landscape in a gold frame that looks out into a world of the bizarre. Or just a quiet icon to show love, a bright hand dyed silk scarf, a small card or a bright bracelet …maybe a wild steam punk lamp or a charm bracelet made with intricate silver figures. Now, how to find such a treasure trove in one single store. Where to begin the hunt….

Well. You head for Verde Art Space, but you must be adventurous, no large department stores or glitzy arcade storefronts. You will need to find Edgewood Avenue running beside the busway, across from the CC Mellor Library then look for the neighborhood barbershop’s striped pole. Next door is a small shop full of wares that defy convention and that is our Verde Art Space. The answer to your gift dilemma or simply an antidote to your craving to see items made by real artists using their own pieces…not trendy plastic fare that is stamped with the cookie cutter of boredom.

Verde Art Space is located at 115 Edgewood Avenue and is run by Suzann Miriello and Rosemary Steiner. We invite you to be daring and travel off the beaten highway to find a beautiful store of magnificent, different objects that can be wild, calm or comforting, but will also delight and thrill someone you care about on a special day; even if that someone is just your own sweet self who needs a break and a lift from the humdrum.

Come and visit us, see the our gallery of interesting objects and enjoy spring and feel new energy and satisfaction. Abandon the frenetic muzak of the big chains for a quiet cool space where you can have a glass of wine, chat about art and be yourself!

As the owners of Verde Art Space, we ask that you support your local shops just as you buy green locally grown produce.  Experience the genuine, the artisans, the crafts people.  Seek out and patronize the small shops and businesses of the East End like Verde which give color to the fabric of your community.

While we wait for our customers, we polish, rearrange and think and puzzle how to make the sunlight hit our necklaces so they sparkle, how our paintings and their colors will compliment a nearby glass plate. We will not sell you something and then immediately put it in the sale rack. You will not find our work anywhere else.

We hope our neighbors and friends will drop in and take a trip to the wild side of Edgewood and the East End.