“Hair and Stained Glass.”

It’s not a sign you’d see every day, but for artists Bob Brown and Tana Cimino, it makes perfect sense.

The father-daughter team has spent the past four months converting Brown’s business, The Hair Station, 727 Mass., into a combination art gallery and hair salon, which will be featured as one of 12 venues on tonight’s Downtown Gallery Walk.

“It’s been wonderful,” Cimino said. “He came up with the idea, and we have run with it.”

Brown splits his time between doing hair and stained glass. Cimino recently quit her job and decided to focus on creating fused glass pieces. Brown started to display the artwork in the front window of the store, but as time went by, room ran out.

“We had to do something because we couldn’t stack any more stuff in the window,” Brown said.

Another disadvantage involved potential customers seeing the artwork in the window but not wanting to disturb Brown while he was giving a haircut.

“We’d lose probably 50 to 75 percent of the walk-ins that came in because they thought the window was cool,” Brown said. “They’d come in and then say ‘sorry’ and walk back out.”

Brown began to examine the store and came up with the idea to move all the hair salon equipment into an empty back room. That left the entire front of the store available to display his and Cimino’s art.

Passers-by can glimpse just a few of the works by local and regional artists that will be on exhibit at the Bob Brown Company Hair Station and Art Zone, 727 Mass. today for the first Downtown Gallery Walk of 2004. Twelve participating galleries will open their doors to the public for special exhibitions, demonstrations and festivities during the gallery walk. The stained-glass piece pictured is by artist Bob Brown.

As the two started telling their friends about the idea, more people approached them about displaying their own art.

“This thing has taken on a life of its own,” said Brown, who has been cutting hair in Lawrence since 1972.

When he began moving all the salon equipment to the back of the building, he wanted to let his customers know he wasn’t quitting his day job. As he explained the situation, clients became excited.

“If they didn’t do art, they had a friend or a relative that they knew that did some form of art,” Brown said. “There are more artists in this community than we could get in here who aren’t displaying their stuff at all.”

That’s why Brown and Cimino are limiting the artwork they will display only to locals or friends.

“I’ve talked to several different people who have said, ‘I’m so excited you’re doing this’ because we just need more places that will cater to local artists,” Cimino said.

Tana Cimino, left, of Kansas City, Mo., will display her fused glass pieces at her father's store, the Bob Brown Company Hair Station and Art Zone, 727 Mass., during the Downtown Gallery Walk. Brown, left, also will exhibit some of his own stained-glass pieces.

The gallery now features the work of about 10 artists, but Brown and Cimino said they hoped to have enough room to feature between 20 and 40 artists. The entire building is only 600 square feet, with the art gallery taking up 350 to 400 square feet. But Brown and Cimino said they’d pack the gallery from floor to ceiling.

Brown has been doing stained glass more than 20 years and cutting hair more than 30. He loves both and doesn’t see much difference between the two.

“Art’s art,” Brown said. “A good haircut is art.”

“He’s always been an artist,” Cimino added. “He’s sketched and drawn since I was tiny.”

Despite opening the fifth art gallery on the same Lawrence block, Brown and Cimino aren’t worried about competition. Plus, this is something they love.

“We’re playing,” Brown said. “Sure we’re serious about it, but this is fun. We get to do what we love every day. Think what the world would be if everybody enjoyed their work?”