Retired sign painter creates 'Alien Apples'
A cluster of new extraterrestrial visitors look out from the windows of local Mars businesses to promote the upcoming Mars Applefest this week.
They hail from Jill Welsh's Alien Apple project, a self-started effort to offer free, themed mini paintings of aliens holding apples to local shops and storefronts in downtown Mars.
Welsh, a retired sign painter, started the Alien Apple project five months ago. She stopped painting signs for a living in 2018, but continues to create art for charity.
“With the pandemic and everything last year, Applefest was canceled. When I heard in May that they were going to bring it back, I thought I would like to get the interest going for it,” Welsh said.
“Local businesses were hurting, and I figured if I could do a window splash for their windows, it could help put people in a good mood.”
Welsh reached out in Mars social media groups to ask whether any local businesses would like a free window decoration, and ended up painting more than 30 aliens across downtown Mars.“I put a post on Facebook, and everyone seemed to be interested,” she said. “The people who had Facebook knew people who didn't have Facebook, and it got around by word of mouth.”The aliens are painted with exterior latex paint, and are easily removed.Eleven of the aliens needed to be temporarily taken down during recent TV filming for “Sprung” in downtown Mars, but were later repainted. Welsh said the filming crew gave her a box of paints in return for having to take the aliens down for a few days.“I was really excited,” she said. “Now I can paint in the community for at least another year.”Each alien design is unique, and features a nod to the products and services of local businesses. Big Shot Bob's House of Wings' alien holds a plate of Buffalo wings, the U.S. Post Office's alien sports a postal worker's hat and stamp and Mars Candy Land's alien balances a bubble tea cup and ice cream.
Welsh joked that painting signs “keeps her out of trouble,” and gets her up and walking around downtown Mars, where she moved a year ago after living in Middlesex Township for 30 years.“Everybody loves them,” she said. “It created a lot of good will in the community and made me feel good too because it was a lot of fun.”The aliens are outlined with a stencil to keep them uniform, but the decorations are done freehand. Welsh said that she kept the alien stencil to potentially use for future projects like this one.
“I still paint, I just do what I want to do when I want to do it,” she said. “It would not be fun anymore if I had to do it for a living. I always am interested in doing stuff to help the community.”She said the process of painting the Alien Apples was — no pun intended — “a blast.”“I enjoyed every minute of it,” she said. “It was so much fun!”
