a charming neighbor

After the BBQ festival last week we drove out to Walhalla, SC for my friend's gallery opening. Stan DuBose is an elementary school teacher, an excellent ceramic artist and he was one of my college roommates. He built a cool house a few years ago up on a hill and had this really great studio with a view. Last spring he married an artist and they soon found out that the cool studio was only big enough for one artist.

The solution? Build a whole new building to house two perfect studios joined in the middle by a gallery for display. And throw in a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen while you're at it.

They call it End of the Road Studios and I don't even want to waste your time by trying to explain it in words. When we go back I'll take photos. To get the idea of antique doors for a ceiling, license plates for siding, a horse trough for a bath tub or pennies for kitchen floor tiles....you really just have to see it. It's really great and if you're interested in seeing it and perhaps buying some art at the same time, you can make an appointment or find out the next open studio time by emailing: artist@endoftheroadstudios.com

There's going to be a website but it doesn't seem to be working at the moment.

While we were there getting the tour I was watching people and apparently some of the people were watching me. I was wearing a Nirvana t-shirt because I have no fashion sense and because I tend to feel that t-shirts can be appropriate for just about any occasion. A very small, very white-haired lady ambled over to me and told me she liked my shirt. That's right, a lady pushing 70 was envying the Nirvana shirt. This particular shirt shows a concert poster for a Sacramento show back when I was in college. The lady asks if I'm from Sacramento. I say no. She says that she thought that I might have known "Dave". She's talking about Dave Grohl the drummer for Nirvana. I stood silent not really being able to process why she thought I would have personally known a famous guy. After a brief pause she continued...."Well you know, before we moved here we lived in Alexandria, VA and Dave used to live next door to us. Oh, he was such a nice guy! What a charming neighbor! We're so proud of him."

These are the kinds of things that happen in Walhalla, the garden of the gods.

Robin Cooper and Stan DuBose. Look them up.