Sewickley area artists collaborate to spruce up an incoming borough pizza shop

A future Sewickley pizza shop received an uplifting remodeling of its storefront as part of a collaboration with another borough business.

Exposure artists painted a mural featuring a blue sky, clouds and multi-colored balloons to beautify Badamo’s Pizza along Beaver Street.

The shop is located next to Exposure, which showcases paintings, photography, woodworking and other media created by local artists. The theme of the project was “Get Carried Away.”

Or as Exposure owner Ann Fernandez of Edgeworth put it, “From blah to ahh.”

“It had a board up for almost two years and we wanted to make it pretty and something good for the kids,” Fernandez said. “I think it’s fun. I love it. It’s nice to look at. We made an ugly storefront look beautiful.”

Paint primer was applied at the site Aug. 23 and all artistic touches were finished during the Sewickley Chamber of Commerce’s Night Mart on Aug. 27.

“We thought we could beautify Sewickley and make a ‘selfie wall’ so people could come and take a photo,” said artist Claire Hardy of Sewickley. “We wanted something uplifting.”

Other artists who contributed to the effort on the near 10-foot storefront included Michael Birge, Dorit Brauer, Dave Volk, Kathy Merriman and Emily J. Rago.

“It feels really cool,” said Rago, of Pittsburgh. “I’ve never done a mural before, so this was a really fun one to partake in because there was a small group of us. It’s really nice to be collaborative with the other artists in the shop.

“I’m not from Sewickley, but it’s nice to kind of see how they utilize the space really well. I think something like a selfie wall will be really something fun for the folks here.”

Hopewell residents Annie Marmaras and Nick Volk were among the first Night Mart participants to see the finished mural.

“It now doesn’t look abandoned and empty,” Marmaras said. “It’s happy and nice and it’s right by the art shop. … It’s fun after the pandemic to see people out and doing stuff like that out in this environment.”

Nick Volk is a former Sewickley firefighter and son of artist Dave Volk. He doesn’t recall seeing any murals like this when he was in town.

“It’s kind of a nice centerpiece between two buildings,” he said. “There’s some murals in stores, but I don’t remember anything quite like this right on Beaver Street with exposure on the street.”

Pizza shop owner Anthony Badamo was working at his Mt. Lebanon shop as the artists were painting. He was able to see a photo of the finished product.

“I’m excited about it,” he said.

The Sewickley shop would be Badamo’s Pizza’s third location. It has stores in Pittsburgh’s North Side and along Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon. It primarily offers pizza-by-the-slice, salads, sandwiches along with whole pies.

Badamo said he’s still working with Sewickley officials to obtain a building permit, and he hopes to have the building fixed up and ready to open between Halloween and Thanksgiving.