2010/05/30 Day 42

Oddasee Vicarians,

    Day 40 contained a first for our journey...... I did not take a single photograph. We spent the day just being tourists and blending in the Memorial Day arts fair and BBQ competition in Seneca, South Carolina. This little burg was nothing extraordinary but served well to give us a bit of a rest. We ambled along looking at the arts and crafts within the booths and were struck by how we could have been in Anywhere, USA. Funny how similar this holiday event could have just as easily been in Colorado or California. There was music and dancing kids from the local dance studio. We also wandered around in a few antique shops and the quintessential arts co-op/studios. We thoroughly enjoyed the eats and the ever-consistent southern hospitality.

   Day 41 - After having spent two nights in Seneca, our Oddasee feet were getting itchy and we were anxious to hit the road. Our main goals looked very promising and we were genuinely excited. We decided to make a bit of a beeline to the target town of Bishopville, SC in one our few Interstate dominated days.

The highlights:
1. We stopped off in Columbia for a bit of diversion and leg stretching. First we found the "Big Hydrant". Cool and big.
  
2. "Tunnelvision" - hyper-real mural on the side of a 3-story building. Impressive.
  
3. Accidentally we came upon another of the old and out of use state mental institutions, The Mills Building of the South Carolina Asylum and School for the Deaf and Blind.
    We were confined to looking from afar and forced to stay behind a fence. There were photos to be taken but the lust for interior views was undeniable. Mid-photo journalism, I was confronted by the first "B" of the day...... a badge! "Okay hold it right there. Slowly step away from the structure and lay the camera down." Yep we had committed the crime of the century. Apparently the local gendarme did not like our choice of artistic exploration. Susan was off around the side (on the proper side of the fence) and I had just emerged from behind a tree (on the proper side of the fence). Well Barney had some important questions to ask and rules to enforce. After running our plates (insert soundtrack - "Bad boys, bad boys. What ya gonna do?") and a quick scan of our obviously getaway truck, Mr. Fife decided we were okay but I was going to have to erase my photos. Why? Unclear. Some nonsense about past patients and blah blah hooey about that being the law. Keep in mind we just drove into an open parking lot off a main street and stopped to take a few photos. Not wanting to have a visit with a supervisor named Major Prophet (didn't make that up, that was the name of the threatened big man/sheriff on campus), it was requested/demanded that I erase all my photos of the old abandoned asylum. In a slight of hand move my magician friends Joe and Carol would be proud of, I kept a few
photos to share with you all. See a sad few pics from the many but at least I didn't have to surrender my camera or have to experience the joy of a full cavity search. So Oddasee watchers be very grateful for this series.

4. After our new life of crime we headed to Bishopville to see the topiary wonders of Pearl Fryar. "B" number two; bushes. This artist is somewhat famous due to the documentary "A Man Named Pearl". In what now seems madness, part of the story is that when he and his wife were first moving to the house, his new neighbors did not want them to move in because they feared he would not take care of his yard. This was yet another sad example of prejudice. Pearl proved them wrong. He has even now trained those doubting neighbors to embellish their yards with their own living sculptures. Alas, we did not get to meet the man but his work speaks volumes; we were "green" with envy and awe.

5. Button button, who's got the button? We know now the answer to that Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder version) query..... the answer is Mr. Dalton Stevens; the third "B" of the day. After losing his job to chronic insomnia in his late forties, he needed something to keep himself busy. Well he had some buttons and an old jacket. Hmmm? A few thousand buttons, some thread, a lot of time and the rest is history. With decent directions and the far too rare existence of good signage, we found this off the beaten track museum in a mostly farm focused area. Uh oh! There seemed to be no one around but there was an open sign. We tried the door and turned on the lights for an instant smile-o-thon. Wow! A hearse covered with 600,000 buttons and a casket with 60,000 more. There was a button enhanced Chevette, another casket, an outhouse, a toilet, a bathtub and various other objects d'buttons. We took many photos and never lost the smiles on our faces. We signed our names in the book, turned off the lights and left just ahead of another couple of intrepid curiosity seekers.

Yes another grand day of sights and color.

Love and Mugshots,

Rodney and Susan 

2010/05/29 Day 41

Oddasee Friends,

As I mentioned in the last message, there was more to this day than could fit into one email. Sometimes at the end of the day it's actually hard to process all that we have seen in the span of 24 hours. Our stop into Pennville, GA was so much more than we will ever be able to describe. I know, I know, these words have been written before but once again this is the reality we must somehow communicate and accept.

Day 40's afternoon:

For the second time in the day, we did not have the correct information and there were few hints to finding our intended art site. Apparently there was some transcription issue because the street did not compute on the GPS and left us flying blind. After a few runs through town and my new hobby, u-turning, it seemed we were going to come up empty on this one. This was baffling as the site we sought is fairly well known. On the side of the road there was a used appliance store with an older gentleman working in the open shop in back. Looked like a local and surely he would know what we were talking about. He thought a bit and eventually told us to head west and turn right at the Church of Christ -- "Seems like I seed something like that thar a few years back." After a bit of haphazard divining rod-like meandering, we found Howard Finster's "Paradise Garden". Note: there is absolutely no signage until you pull into the parking area and they are usually are open only on weekends. Once again we just lucked out that someone was there to let us in. Truth is, we would have climbed the fence if no had been there. 

This is the point where it just stupid to try and tell you about what we saw. Keep in mind I took close to 200 photos of this place in the few hours we were there. That is no where near enough to even begin to capture all the incredible things that make up this vast art landscape. As an email recipient, you get to have only 20 images to feed your vicarious curiosity. The photos I took occurred with Rodney the artist/photographer on hold. These are not artsy photos but rather just some sort of documentation. If I were to try to take art photos, I would have to move to Pennville for months. It is art eye/mind/heart/soul boggling. OMG!

"Paradise Garden" is something of a Outsider Art Mecca and has been for years. Some of you may know of Howard Finster by name or through the notoriety he received by designing album covers for both R.E.M. (he became friends with Michael Stipe) and the Talking Heads -- both in the mid-eighties. Those must have been the "heyday" for Howard and his phenomenal creation (has sold 48,000+ pieces of art). Apparently artists and interested alternative life-stylers were drawn to this unique world as many came, stayed and helped around the garden. Many pieces of art were created by artists other than Howard and they added pieces to the ever growing gallery and gardens. There are many structures of varying scale and function. Houses, workshops, galleries, meeting/performance rooms, sleeping rooms and many others are all part of the multi-acre site.

Now the sad news, this place is disappearing fast. It is falling apart and there is no preservation or restoration happening nor in the works. The main tower/gallery is closed (it made us crazy/crazier to not get to see inside the building that was obviously the main event.... ack). We are guessing this is due to safety issues. Most of the rooms are open to the elements and virtually all the sculptures are rotting and succumbing to the elements. Howard died in 2001 and the family has done little to save the work. They have the best intentions but possess few skills and no funding. There is talk of seeking assistance but frankly, it is hard to imagine that any of the people involved have the knowledge or experience in seeking funding for such a daunting undertaking. It would be hard to even know where to begin; surely it would cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a dent in saving this fading treasure.

Honestly, our enthusiasm was deeply diminished by the sadness we felt for seeing this man's lifework decaying with every tick of the clock. We were both in awe of what remains and sickened by the loss. It was impossible to not imagine how astounding this place must have been 20 or 30 years ago; it must have been magical.

So it with a sense of privilege and gratitude, we share a few photos of our deeply moving experience on May 28, 2010. Sorry if this takes awhile to download all the pics but believe me, it's worth it. If it causes problems, wait a few days and go to the blog:

http://oddasee.blogspot.com

Love and under-achieving cameras,

Rodney and Susan

ps. I recommend you take the time to read image #2   

 

2010/05/28 Day 40

Yo Odders,

Starting at the end, late afternoon brought us to the site of a very large WTF. On the side of a hill there were thousands of little cut-out pig silhouettes with names and places on them. From our vantage point we could not see the purpose for such a herd of silliness. Below lay Poole's BBQ and the swine placards serve as an irresistible and enormous roadside attraction/sign. It worked. We saw, we stopped, we photographed and we swilled. The food was yummy but not nearly as memorable as "Pig Hill."

This particular Friday presented a couple of moments where perseverance were requirements along our quest to find the locales of our desire. To start the day we had an antagonistic interaction with the Garmin. Wrong streets, misnamed streets and disappearing streets seemed to be all the rage. Add to that the apparent local trend of hiding the street numbers of homes and businesses and you have a frustrating mix. 

Though foaming at the mouth and after like 10 (okay maybe only 5) u-turns, Rodney would not be denied and Susan, the trouper, endured his vehicular tantrum. When all seemed an exercise in futility, out of the corner of his eye, the intrepid coachman saw something oddly misplaced..... at last we had found the target of our morning quest; "Sam's Treehouse" in Calhoun, Georgia.

     In a lot behind a soon to be packed parking lot for an apparently very popular Mexican food restaurant loomed a submarine hull jutting from the side of a building. Before us stood a quite remarkable homage to not only the concept of "adding rooms" but to various modes of transportation. There's an airplane, fuselage, part of a submarine, a helicopter, a boat and other curious appendages. Safe to say this place is unique in every sense of the word.

    We were duly impressed by the creative spirit and adaptability skills of this mysterious Tom person. Once again we were reminded of how certain special artisans can make something from virtually what others would see as junk. These visionaries don't seem to concerned in the least by limitations of any kind. From the ashes....... comes architecture.     The IM Pei of detritus came a home of astounding spaces. Get back Frank Lloyd, this human truly knows how to make the best of natural resources. We did not get to meet the creator but imagined him to be a character worthy of exploration. Oh the Outsider ideal thrives on and we were impressed.

    Then in what can only be called very unexpected and a severe departure from our imaginings came a sight very unexpected. I peeked into the all but crumbling garage area to find...... drum roll please........ a very shiny and new red Porsche Boxster. SAY WHAT? Yes our visions of a wild haired hunchbacked hermit architect were dashed. Hmmm? That would qualify as another version of surprise. Come to think of it, if the man of our fantasies were to appear as imagined and drove that pretty red rocket, that would make it all even more amazing. 

   Upon further research, this is what we found: This tree house is very unusual. It is 

multi-level and features a submarine prop from an 1960's Elvis movie, helicopter and more! Owned, built and lived in by Sam Edwards, author and adventurer, former aid to President Jimmy Carter. The airplane is a bedroom. There is also a den, library, kitchen. He has to duck under the branches to get around in his home. It was also featured on a network TV program on unusual homes. 

    Curiouser and curiouser indeed. 

And there is a lot more about remarkable day number forty; watch for "Day 40.5" to appear tomorrow morning. There are just too many photos of this part of the saga to include in one email message... oh my oh my. 

Love and vehicles,

Rodney and Susan