If the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative ever needs a poster child, ceramic artist Laura Shaffalo would make a good candidate.

	Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Laura Shaffalo sits in her ceramic studio along Penn Avenue in Friendship. Click photo for larger image.

She's living exactly the kind of life envisioned by the initiative's mission -- to attract artists who can help assist the corridor's revitalization by buying buildings for use as homes and studios.

Shaffalo has a two-story building at 5013 Penn Ave. she purchased with the initiative's help and turned the front portion of it into a spacious studio and the rear into contemporary living quarters. She also has rented an apartment in the building to a tenant.

Shaffalo was encouraged by an architect friend who lived and worked in the neighborhood. When she went to the initiative to talk about her dream, "I told them I wanted to look at a building and they said, 'So does everybody and their brother.'

"But I said, 'No, I really want to do this and I think I can,' " Shaffalo said. "I saw this space, which I called my little red building because everything was red -- the storefront, everything. But it was as beautiful inside as the wonderful apartment I had in Friendship, with stained glass, French doors, cabinetry and everything."

So with the help of her boyfriend, lots of vision and some perfect items from Construction Junction, the surplus and recycled building products warehouse in Point Breeze, "I realized my dream," Shaffalo said, also crediting Friendship Development Associates and the initiative. What's more, she said, she was able to meet her goal of adding "another friendly facade to the neighborhood."