GREENWOOD LAKE, N.Y.

One day perhaps four years ago while driving through nearby Warwick, N.Y., Melanie Gold had an idea.

She was familiar with a white barn that had been painted with the faces of Elvis, Marlon Brando and James Dean. And she thought, hey, why not do an art project in Greenwood Lake, where she recently bought a home.

She was a drama teacher, not someone with a background in visual art, but some local artists she got to know encouraged her to apply for grants as a way to pay tribute to and spruce up the amiably unpretentious village, which is defined by the seven-mile-long lake that straddles New York and New Jersey.

The idea meant a lot, because her father, who had brought her to the United States from Ukraine when she was 11, had imbibed the American dream of a country hideaway, and it was only a modest inheritance after his death in 2006 that allowed her to achieve it. And, for someone with roots in a country where participation was a job, a duty or a punishment, it seemed a quintessentially American thing to come up with your own way to make your community a better place.