Loose Leaf Notes

It’s an Urban Hermitage in the middle of a city, where a Thoreau-like character named Greg lives simply and intentionally.

It’s an art installation that fills up a house. The artist calls it “The Abandoned House Museum.”

His life revolves around walks, sometimes with his wife who lives in a different house.  He practices Zen and works in his community garden plot, always on the look-out for found objects.

A walk and a found object led Greg to my Asheville Potter Son Josh’s Mobile Brick Factory in Baltimore.  Josh got the tour and tried to explain it. You have to see it to believe it.  That was true.

It all started with a found can of cobalt blue paint and a first found shape.  “I saw my first shapely object and it just struck me. I thought, an artist could paint this blue and call it art,” Greg said. He became that artist and the can of paint sits on a shelf in a closet, part of the exhibit now.

About five years ago, Greg held an open-house neighborhood opening called Shapes in Blue.

He fixed the roof and washed the place in a white primer of paint.  He left the plaster and part of the ceiling open, giving an xray-like look into the guts of the house.  Even the toilet was painted blue and arranged for its shape.

Before we left, Greg led us in a Zen tea ceremony.  We sipped for what is sweet and kind, and then for what is hard and hurts.

What’s next? Greg doesn’t know because he hasn’t had any new ideas and that’s okay.   “I like it this way,” he says.

_____Our World Tuesday