A resident or frequent visitor of Turners Falls might easily give directions to Mystic Pinball, or describe what the Shady Glen looks like, with its red sign that wraps around the light yellow building.
But get ready to reimagine downtown Turners Falls with artist Nina Rossi’s new “Psychedelic Turners Falls” coloring book.
Rossi, a Turners Falls native, created the eight-page coloring book inspired by places in the village. The drawings include Mystic Pinball, the Shady Glen, the Rock Dam Jam Band, Spinner Park, Williams Garage, Country Creemee, LOOT and La Mariposa mural.
Rossi said the idea for the coloring book came as a suggestion from friends, since she does illustrations of local people in town through her job for the Montague Reporter.
“It was a natural transition,” Rossi said. “I like to draw people, too, and do buildings in Turners Falls. … It was fun to make art that’s participatory. It’s sharing and honoring place.”
Rossi said her drawings for the Reporter involve a lot of cross-hatching, which is a type of shading using overlapping lines. Between the cross-hatching and the tiny features she makes sure to include — such as adding a garden slug to each of her newspaper drawings — Rossi said her drawings usually involve extreme attention to detail, something that proved to be different when she crafted the coloring book.
“The difference between the two types of drawing is that one is the attention to the mundane and the coloring book is more applying fantasy to a scene and opening it an imaginary way,” Rossi said. “Rather than the details of ordinary life or, in my figure drawing, using geometric shapes and angles.”
The coloring book also presented its own set of challenges. Rossi said it took some time for her to learn to leave spaces for people to be creative and make color choices.
One of the reasons Rossi went with a psychedelic theme was to create visually interesting images.
“Not to say that buildings in Turners Falls are boring,” Rossi said. “But the theme gave more opportunities to add color and make it more interesting than just bricks, for example.”
She also tried to personalize some of the drawings, such as the image of LOOT — which features the cat owned by the store’s owners, John McNamara and Erin MacLean. Likewise, Corina and Mark Hankowski, who own Mystic Pinball, are inside their own Wizard! pinball machine in another drawing.
“In a way, I am honored that Nina took the time and effort to create the book and decided to include me in it,” said Mark Hankowski. “I am happy to be part of the Turners Falls commercial community she has presented in her book.
“I also like the modified image of the Wizard! pinball machine she created,” Hankowski added. “I love the art on pinball machines, and being depicted in this way gives me a smile every time I see it.”
Other pages are purely from Rossi’s imagination — such as author Franz Kafka at the Country Creemee, or a tropical take on the Shady Glenn.
“The psychedelic theme is colorful, off the wall and bizarre,” Rossi said. “It’s a personal twist on life.”
The process started with getting photos of the desired locations and then drawing them. It takes about a day to do each drawing, Rossi said, then another day to convert the drawing to a digital image on the computer.
“I like to see and embellish these places, trying to leave spaces blank or things out of the drawing. Then I convert the drawing to a vector and clean it up,” she said. “I can’t always do it at once though.”
The book is made of 11-inch by 11-inch pages, printed by Swamp Press of Northfield, which Rossi said helped her create the letterpress cover.
“I really wanted to keep it local, local, local,” she said.
Rossi said while she wanted to draw more places, she also wanted to get the pages printed in time for the coloring book to be purchased for the holidays. Next year, she hopes to draw eight more places for a second edition, and said she may make a bound book in the future.
“It would be fun to do other projects, whether it’s single pages or with another town or theme,” she said. “I’d love to draw other communities or groups.”
She said she took the coloring pages to an event with friends, and found many people, despite their age level or artistic experience, enjoy coloring the images of Turners Falls. She encourages people to post their finished products online.
“It’s nice because you can tune out, but still be together,” Rossi said. “This book allows people to identify with this community and reflect visions back on it, and the coloring book is a celebration.”
Rossi said she printed about 100 copies of the coloring book and has about 50 left. Copies can be found at LOOT and Nina’s Nook in Turners Falls, the Shelburne Arts Co-op in Shelburne Falls, and Looky Here and the Solar Store of Greenfield for $20 each. They can also be ordered from Rossi by phone at 413-863-8800 or by email at nalerossi@gmail.com. She will mail copies for an extra $5.
The coloring book is also a prize for two winners of the Holiday Open Door Promo in Turners Falls, in addition to $150 in gift certificates to local businesses.
Staff reporter Melina Bourdeau started working at the Greenfield Recorder this year. Her beat includes Montague, Erving and Gill. She can be reached at: mbourdeau@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 263.