Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 6, 1994                   TAG: 9410070001
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETH MACY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FOR RENT: ART WITH A POSITIVE THEME

A mother's embrace, a stork, a swan, a shooting star at the end of a rainbow. Branch, 29, carved and painted the four plywood sculptures to celebrate women and children, and her desire for "positive changes in the world."

Pamela Corcoran, who owns Crystal Spring Linen Service, commissioned Branch to do the art with the idea of renting them out as birth announcements. Instead of hanging a plastic "IT'S A GIRL!" banner across the front door, new parents can announce their new bundles in a more creative way.

"I think it's neat how Polly balances her social-justice causes with her art and her need to earn money," Corcoran said. "We as new parents want community recognition and celebration of birth. This is a way to celebrate the big event."

Branch, who formerly directed the Plowshare Peace Center in downtown Roanoke, now drives the Crystal Spring van for Corcoran, delivering clean diapers to customers and taking the dirties away.

It's a smelly job, she concedes, but it fits in with her goal of connecting with a community of women as well as promoting the environmental benefits of cloth diapers.

"I'm interested in all aspects of family and neighborhood," said Branch, who is doing her fine-arts master's thesis at Hollins on artistic expressions of peace.

"This is about celebrating children and getting at a sense of community recognition," she said of the announcements, which rent for $25 a week, $20 for diaper-service customers.

"My work focuses on the positive changes people are making and recognizing that we can search for alternatives in nurturing ourselves and our children."