Public Art of the Week: Haylie Klusack

If you shop at Capital City Market in downtown Lansing, it’s likely you’ve seen the work of the artist and sign painter Haylie Klusack.

Klusack has been hand-painting “market” signs for the Meijer concept store for three years. She paints seasonal end caps (the shelving at the end of a row) with thematic art fitting of the season. For example, a marshmallow roast was the summer approach for outdoor bonfires.

The artist also participated in the downtown Lansing holiday window painting conducted by 11 artists who painted thematic Christmas-card like windows.

Klusack painted her window on the former Cooley Law Library after her workday, the first window painting she ever took on.

“It was interesting. It was getting colder, which created some technical problems in applying layers of paint. Dry time was longer, and I had to wait for the paint to dry,” she said.

Klusack had worked on murals at Dwight Rich School for the Arts and the Gier Community Center gymnasium.

Klusack said her job at the Market Place came about in a serendipitous way after her postings of her artwork became noticed on Facebook. She said all the Market Place stores have artists in residence who paint signs and artwork that grabs customers. In the history of retailing car dealers, butchers and grocery stores employed sign painters, sometimes itinerant, who created personalized signs.

The artist said she has had little formal training except for classes at East Lansing High School and some graphic design classes at Lansing Community College.

BILL CASTANIER

Public Art of the Week is a new feature that rotates with Eyesore of the Week. If you have an idea for either, please email eye@lansingcitypulse.com or call (517) 999-6704.