I have worked on the Downtown Plaza in Salisbury for nearly 18 of the 20 years I have lived on the Eastern Shore, and I have always loved it. It has been to me an odd outpost, forgotten by shoppers and reclaimed by lawyers, seeded with small businesses that struggle and succumb. A lot of the love I have held for the Plaza, however, has been in my head. It has rested in the vision of what I dreamed it could be. I imagined it as a meeting ground for artists, adorned with cafes and boutiques and galleries. I felt it could be the place where the "heart" of a town could beat freely.

That fantasy is slowly emerging. Renovations are under way, molding modernism with history, making room it appears for local artists to find a home.

For several months now, the Parallels Studio, which occupies the former Thomas Young building, has caught my eye as I rounded the corner near the end of East Main Street. Earlier this week, I ventured in for a good look.

The windows, crammed with color and fantasy, are only a prelude to what simmers inside.

Hardly a space remains that isn't filled with paintings or sculptures, odds and ends and works in progress. The art is bold and busy, outrageous and sensitive, ready to poke a little fun, and make you wonder; pretty much like its creator.

Deborah Russell has a vision and is a true crusader in her effort to make art a part of life for everyone she can expose her vision to. I think it's really wonderful that she has planted herself firmly and so vividly on the Downtown Plaza. She tells me her "selfish" goal is to have anywhere between five hundred to a thousand kids paint on a huge canvas or wall, all at once. She says, she would just stand back, orchestrate, and yell out encouragment.

Teaching art to kids, and working to make it a real part of their education has always been of primary concern to Russell. When I first saw her, she was sitting in the middle of the studio at an old round table crammed with papers and paintbrushes, coffee mugs and ashtrays, working on the next evolution of Parallels.

"Palmer Gillis gave me this building to start my studio" she says with a smile. "I envision Parallels first as a studio, secondly as a classroom, and thirdly, as a gallery. I'll be moving to the third floor of the new A.I.G. building and we're then hoping to turn this space into a Children's Theater." This theater, as I understand, would experiment in creative expression and entertainment. She wants to turn her studio space into a place where kids can do their art, and have a place to show it.

Russell says she wants to showcase Eastern Shore Artists, and let people know there's more to art happening here than oil paintings of ducks and carvings' of decoys. MESA (Mid Eastern Shore Artists), is her latest project. It is, what she hopes will facilitate that goal, of making art an intregal part of the Eastern Shore. MESA will ultimately create a huge traveling Arts Festival, which will yearly be hosted in one of the four mid Shore counties. She sees this Arts Festival as one day, being as big as the Delmarva Chicken Festival. "Why not?" I muse, getting caught up in her dream.

That's easy to do, being in Russell's studio. It's a space where dreams can happen. Her love for art is contagious, and she will readily tempt you with the idea of dipping your hand in paint, or taking a brush and splattering paint on a canvas in the wild abandon you thought you left behind in your childhood.

She's not stingy. Other artists share space on Parallels' walls, and work in corners of the room at tables heaped high with tools for creation. Shoppers stroll in, becoming part of the "happening", as it is. Russell's always happy to answer questions, and explain her "Kid's Art" philosophy.

It's just the type of place I've always imagined would be perfect for the Downtown Plaza. And Deborah Russell is just the type of person to help keep the heart of a town, and community, beating.