Artist adding splash to Fifth Street building

On a busy corner of Fifth Street, a cold black expanse of glass has suddenly sprouted a plump, cheerful flower.

The blossom, pasted to the tinted window of a vacant gas station, is made up of strips of white vinyl sculpted into shape by local artist Barbara Bernstein with a razor.

Bernstein, known for her complicated black-and-white drawings, is partnering with the Lynchburg Neighborhood Development Foundation to bring a bit of life back to this dormant property on the corner of Fifth and Federal streets, next to the new roundabout.

“I want it to be beautiful,” Bernstein, an artist-in-residence with the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, said of the installation. “That’s the most important criteria. And I want it to be fun.”

LNDF, a nonprofit that works to revitalize neighborhoods by refurbishing rundown properties, approached Bernstein about working together after director Laura Dupuy saw a recent exhibit the artist did at Riverviews Artspace.

LNDF had acquired the old gas station about a year and a half ago, primarily to protect the interests of the adjacent Pyramid Health Center, which it helped develop.

Dupuy recently had the building’s formerly red-white-and-blue exterior repainted in a cleaner black-and-white motif. When she saw Bernstein’s work — free-hand black-and-white drawings of plants scrawled across nearly every surface in the exhibit room — a light went on in her head.

“It was just perfect,” she said. “We knew the roundabout was coming. We wanted to do something to make the building more attractive while we figure out a use for it. And Barbara’s work is so intricate and very lovely.”

The opening of the roundabout in September was considered a major milestone in the ongoing efforts to revitalize Fifth Street and was greeted with much fanfare by supporters.

The structure, a 120-foot-wide circular intersection, has also given a higher profile to the vacant gas station. Its shape forces traffic to swing out and draw closer to the little building. Pedestrian plazas built into each of the intersection’s corners also offer added opportunities for attention from passersby.

“Before, this was just a dilapidated building,” said Anja Falcone, an LNDF employee who helped coordinate the art project. “We wanted to do something to make it fun and interesting … This is sort of a healing thing almost.”

Bernstein, who said she was “thrilled with the opportunity” to contribute to the Fifth Street beautification efforts, is doing the project free of charge. She plans to finish the installation in segments as time and the weather allow.

“People driving by will see this garden growing consistently,” she promised.

Her work will focus on three large windows that face the roundabout. The center pane — which was broken and held to-gether with wood and tape — was replaced Thursday with a clean white board covered with a complex mass of hand-drawn leaves and flowers.

The other two windows will be covered with what Bernstein creates from the adhesive vinyl, a painstaking undertaking since the sturdy industrial-grade material chosen in deference to the outdoor location must be applied with a delicate touch to ensure it lays just right.

Bernstein, who has never done a public art project before, appeared undaunted, though, and in fact expressed a boundless sense of enthusiasm and aspiration.

“I was thinking maybe we could cover the whole building,” she said to Dupuy, only half joking.

“Could you do the parking lot, too?” Dupuy asked with a smile.

“Brilliant.” Bernstein said. “I love it.”