On one wall is a collection of pencils that have been run over by cars. In another nook, there's some Japanese toys humorously labeled with incorrect English.

Of course, the best part is "the gallery," which is all about the work.

His most recent batch of acrylic paintings includes "Aurora" and "Early Spring," the kind of expressionistic works that you spend the first few moments simply gazing at, until you realize you have to get inside of them.

"If you look at them long enough, they move," Hershey said of his repetitious swirls. "The more you look at them, the more you experience.

"Great paintings can do that forever," the artist, who has been active in Lancaster's art scene for about 30 years, said. "I guess that's why people are still trying to figure out the Mona Lisa's smile."

Last week, Hershey held a First Friday reception at his place so people could have a chance to see his recent work, but the show also marked the launch of his new Web site, www.jeromehershey.com, which has been two years in the making.

"I feel like I'm the last guy to do this," he said of his online presence. "Blogs aren't me, but I've been working with Mike Wilkinson, who has been great, and I think I got exactly what I wanted - something clean with no pretense. It's just about the work."

And while the Web site has only recently gone up, Hershey said he's amazed at the response.

"It's incredible," he said. "In the industry, you're lucky if you get feedback from 10 percent of your viewers. But showing work online gives you instant feedback from all over the place.

"Overall, the site's about information more than selling the work," Hershey said. "I wanted it to attract gallery interest, which it has already done."

Which brings us back to his recent work, which includes a series called "Hearts Repeated," which he's been working on between 2004 and 2008.

"They began as Valentines for my daughters, wife and friends," he said. "I came up with a heart stencil after I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrist after working on my 'Rose' series.

"My doctor said I'd either have to find another way to work or go for the surgery - which some of my friends have had and didn't like."

Using the stencil helped ease the pressure on his wrist and gave him a new method to play with - in a "semi-scientific way." In this case, he worked eight inches from the center and went eight times around with the stencil.

The process provided Hershey with a dizzying array of playful variations - all in a romantic shade of red.

The shapes resemble everything from atoms to blooming flowers, but what they evoke mostly depends on who happens to be looking at them.

"I was trying to create work with an overall energy field," Hershey said. "I like them now, but getting the process right was maddening in a way."

He also has examples of a project he worked on with Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stephen Gunzenhauser in 2005.

"They wanted me to create a series of paintings based on classical music. Stephen chose four of the Symphony's musical selections from the 2005-2006 season," Hershey said. "I took the Maestro's conducting stroke for the apex of each piece, and used repetition and specific color choices to create work that embodied the theme of each selection.

"There was some Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Dvorak used," he said.

It was around this time that Hershey's father died, and the artist wanted to create images dedicated to him - in much the same way his popular "Rose" series was dedicated to his late mother.

"I wanted to reference my father in the work, so I used Boy Scout symbols, like square knots and fleur de lis, since he was a scoutmaster for a long time and I was a scout. It's something we had in common.

"For me, it all has a personal meaning, but not necessarily for the viewer," he said. "I'm trying to make the personal universal.

"I set up a situation where I deal with an inspiration and try to make it pictorially interesting to me," Hershey said. "I don't want it to be easy."

When asked to explain what he means by "easy," Hershey shrugged.

"I mean cliché," he said. "Not so easy to interpret that the viewer gets bored of it really fast."

He said he's "horribly serious" about his art.

"But at the same time, I want the work to be about visual rejoicing," he said, walking over to some paintings he created for a Demuth Museum show.

For these pieces, he used his heart stencil, but also managed to create patterns that were hex-like in appearance.

But there was more.

After dimming some lights, Hershey revealed that the paintings also glowed in the dark, revealing a more complicated pattern that one cannot see in the light.

"Simple complexity," Hershey said, smiling.

One of his favorite things about his larger paintings, like "Mist" and "Early Spring," is a layering technique that creates a "compelling sense of thickness" with linear markings.

"There's a sense of being built up while still being flat," Hershey said, referring to the tantalizing swirls that seem to move across the canvas.

The emotive "Mist" goes from black-and-white to color, and was inspired by a bike trip that found Hershey in a bank of fog that obscured his vision.

"Early Spring" is conveyed in zesty colors one can almost taste - with lemony yellows and berry-like pinks and reds that have the power to uplift your mood.

"I wanted them to be meditative and energizing," Hershey said.

He then added that he's very committed to improving his technique every day.

"I just want to do my best each and every time," he said. "Then I want to make the next painting even better."