Date: Fri 07-Nov-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

Booth-signs-Maurath-Zang

Full Text:

Finishing Touches: Telling Library Patrons Where To Go, Very Nicely

(with cut)

BY DOROTHY EVANS

Imagine taking on the assignment of making directional signs for the new

Cyrenius H. Booth Library, so people can easily find periodicals or the

audio-visual section.

To most people, this task would suggest certain other words, such as mundane,

functional and boring.

But to a fine artist, even sign-making is a creative challenge. Longtime

Newtown resident Daryl Zang Maurath has decided she would make the utmost of

this opportunity to enhance the new library's appearance as well as instruct

its patrons.

Though she is 26 years old and a self-supporting artist living in Trumbull, Ms

Maurath has longtime connections with the library.

She remembers going there with her mother, Joanne Zang, and "helping out"

during the annual fund-raiser by donating some of her own children's books to

be sold at the children's tables.

"I would go back years later and find my own books with my name written inside

being sold and resold," Ms Maurath said.

She did not recall, however, being a part of the first-ever Labor Day Book

Sale that was held 22 years ago. It was her mother's idea to set up a card

table on the library's front lawn.

Growing up in Newtown, Daryl always used the library, especially for writing

reports while she was in school and even up to the year she graduated from

Newtown High in 1989.

She went on to Syracuse University to concentrate in art.

Fun With Faux Marble

Now that the Booth Library renovation and expansion project is just about

completed, Ms Maurath said lending a hand was something she wanted to do.

"I walked around with Janet [Woycik, library director] and Kathy [Geckle,

library board trustee] and saw all those blank walls," she said, and she

decided a decorative touch was needed.

But painting signs in block letters was "no fun at all."

"I suggested we go for script and the faux marble effect and they thought that

was a great idea," said Ms Maurath.

The result was that for the past two weeks, she has taken Fridays and Mondays

off from her regular working hours to spend time at 25 Main Street painting

the signs.

"It's OK, since I work at home and can make up the time in the evenings," she

said.

Ms Maurath is self-employed, painting decorative motifs on furniture and

creating murals or creating wall decorations on commission. Her specialty is

hand lettering and trompe l'oeil , the art of illusion in which the artist is

able to suggest a three-dimensional effect on a flat surface.

She also has a part-time position working in Stamford as a conservator of fine

paintings, doing repair and restoration of early works, "some dating before

the 1800s."

"It's a big challenge. The scariest was a recent assignment I had working on a

damaged painting of the Madonna and Child, from Eastern Europe in Russia,

where there was a big rip across the faces. I had to repair the canvas and

fill in the area so you couldn't see the cracks," she said.

Ms Maurath will be doing one more project for the library, she added, which is

the repainting of the library sign out front.

Her husband, Tom Maurath, "did all the woodworking for the project," she said.

The new sign would be one of the last library improvements to go in, she said,

as "they are moving it out closer to the road."

If you are interested in contacting Daryl Zang Maurath, she may be reached at

203/261-0373.