By Dinah Alobeid
While walking toward her art display on Avery Street, Sophia Ainslie stopped to call attention to the ground where tiny flecks of material embedded in the concrete reflected in a shiny, almost jewel-like manner.
“I’m interested in seeing beauty in places you don’t generally find it,” Ainslie said. “See, beauty can be anywhere. This is art, we just have to open our minds and see things, the world, in a different way.”
Ainslie is one of many artists who believe art is everywhere; in concrete sidewalks, in condemned buildings, even in recyclable detergent bottles. The South African native and avid artist has taken her passion and made it happen in a storefront art display in the middle of the business district.
Her philosophy on art and life is the main reason she said she loves to work with recyclable materials.
Boston Art Windows is a project created by Cecile Lemley, a Boston resident, who wanted to expose art to people who work in business and do not get to view art often, said Ainslie. The idea of Boston Art Windows came when Lemley walked around her neighborhood near Downtown Crossing and saw numerous empty storefront windows, bland and depressing. According to a Boston Art Windows press release, the program is a part of Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Downtown Crossing Economic Initiative, which “aims to revitalize the area as one of the city’s premiere shopping destinations.”
“The concept of this program is to bring new audiences to these dynamic, creative artists because art is not something only to be accessed in a museum,” Lemley said in the press release. She continued to discuss how this art endeavor is now part of Boston’s landscape.
“Boston Art Windows shows that art is part of our streetscape, part of our communities,” she wrote.
The art exhibit will be officially “unveiled” by the Boston Redevelopment Authority Director Mark Maloney, Lemley, Mayor Menino and display curator Camilo Alvarez on Sept. 26, but it is up for viewing now.
According to Boston Art Windows, the latest display series, called $ome
